The streaming service Mixer reportedly spent millions of US dollars to poach 2 of the biggest streamers from Twitch, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins (Fortnite) and Michael “shroud” Grzesiek (Apex Legends, Escape from Tarkov). However, despite the new hires, Mixer grew little in January 2020 compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, Facebook is ramping up.
This was Mixer’s strategy: To establish its own streaming service Mixer and gain significance, Microsoft lured high-profile streamers from market leader Twitch in 2019. Mixer only picked from the top shelf:
- The Fortnite streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins switched to Mixer on August 1 – he was the number 1 on Twitch at the time in terms of followers.
- The shooter streamer Michael “shroud” Grzesiek switched to Mixer on October 24 – he was for a time after Ninja’s departure the number 1 on Twitch, at the time of the switch still the streamer with the second most followers.
Additionally, Mixer signed some other top streamers from Twitch like KingGothalion (Destiny 2).
In the hiring process, it was noticeable that Mixer primarily hired “nice” streamers who are considered “Brand Safe,” and from whom no controversies or scandals are expected.
How much did the streamers cost? Officially, no figures are known. However, some amounts circulated on Bloomberg’s site: Streamers like Ninja or shroud are said to earn up to 40 million US dollars for 3 to 5 years.
This would place the revenues between 8 and 13.3 million US dollars.
Behind the mega-deals is the agency “Loaded”:
Mixer grows by a meager 2% from January 2019 to January 2020
Here are the results: Compared to January 2019, the entire streaming market grew by 17%, as reported by StreamingElements. Humanity watched approximately 196.7 million more hours of streaming in January 2020 than in the previous year.
The problem for Mixer is:
- Most of these 196.7 million additional hours are attributed to Facebook Gaming, which grew by 85 million hours.
- YouTube Gaming can report an increase of nearly 71 million hours.
- Twitch grows by 40 million hours.
- Mixer only increases by 0.56 million hours.
As a result, Mixer, despite being small, only grew by 2% compared to last January, while Facebook Gaming grew by 340%. Facebook also imported streamers like Disguised Toast or Corinna Kopf from Twitch in 2019.
The giant Twitch is only growing by 5%, but on a huge scale.
Mixer currently looks like the clear loser of the ongoing “streaming war,” despite the significant investments.
No Ninja Effect
What is the problem? The two “acquired” Twitch stars, Ninja and shroud, only reach a fraction of the viewer numbers on the new platform that they had on Twitch.
Additionally, some of the already established Mixer streamers have complained that they no longer feel valued on the platform, as everything revolves around the new stars.
A “Ninja” effect cannot really be credited to Mixer. Apparently, other criteria are important for an increase in hours.
Platforms like YouTube or Facebook have the advantage of being established platforms, just not for live streaming of games. They only need to convince existing customers to watch streams.
