Video game streaming is absolutely massive these days. Millions of people tune in to watch their favourite streamers play games live on their channels. While mainstream media platforms like YouTube and Facebook also have big audiences, dedicated streaming platforms like Twitch and Mixer have the biggest communities around video game streaming.
Twitch is still the undisputed number one streaming platform though. The website gets millions of live viewers across different channels. However, recently, the streaming website from Microsoft has started to alter the landscape.
Shroud leaves Twitch for Mixer
Microsoft has been slowly investing more resources into making Mixer a decent platform. While it still is not really as universal or feature-heavy as Twitch, the strides that Mixer is making cannot be ignored. When Ninja, the biggest Twitch streamer, announced that he’d be leaving Twitch for Mixer, many thought that this could be the beginning of the end for Twitch.
Same shroud. New home.https://t.co/eZV2GBBSsY pic.twitter.com/AHaajkjees
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— Michael Grzesiek (@shroud) October 24, 2019
However, Twitch continued to retain its massive viewer numbers and audience despite the absence of Ninja. It looks like Microsoft isn’t going to give up anytime soon either though as Shroud just announced via a Twitter video that he will be leaving Twitch and joining Ninja on Mixer.
Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek currently has the third highest subscribed channel on Twitch. He is a former Counter Strike pro and much like Ninja, mostly plays Battle Royale and Multiplayer games like Apex Legends and PUBG. He is the second big name to leave Twitch after Ninja and it might be a pointer towards where the platform is heading in the future.
Is this the beginning of the end for Twitch?
Twitch has lost two of its biggest streamers to Mixer in the span of a couple of months. This has raised the question in many people’s minds that maybe Twitch isn’t so great after all. The platform has been through a number of controversies in the past, most of which have been dealt with in a pretty professional manner. Recently though, when a streamer abused her pet live on stream repeatedly, many people demanded action against her. However, Twitch decided to not ban her which, for obvious reasons, was not a very popular decision.
In addition to that, Microsoft has also been handing out some very tasty incentives to people to switch over to its platform. When you fire up an Xbox, Mixer is right there on one of the front pages on the home screen. Streaming to Mixer via an Xbox One is also very streamlined making it easier for anyone with an Xbox to do so. For Twitch, however, you need a PC and a relatively pricier setup which not everyone can afford.
Twitch is still king
Despite all of this, Twitch is still the number one streaming platform out there. There is no doubt that the entire UI and the website experience of Twitch is better. Furthermore, the variety of content on Twitch along with a ton of useful streamer and audience friendly features just makes it a much more superior platform at this point. For how long it can sustain this superiority is another question as Microsoft is constantly making improvements to Mixer.
In any case, healthy competition is always good for the consumer. If it weren’t for Mixer, Twitch would probably not be as active with rolling out new features. It is the competition that pushes these platforms for improvement. So, whether people are streaming on Twitch or Mixer, the viewers always win.
