Microsoft’s Mixer Streamers Flock to Twitch Instead of Facebook
When Microsoft shut down Mixer in July, it encouraged the stars to move to Facebook. Instead, a majority have migrated to Twitch.
(Bloomberg) -- When Microsoft Corp. shut down Mixer in July, the company encouraged the livestreaming service’s stars to move to Facebook Inc. Instead, the majority have migrated to Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch, including Tyler Blevins, the gamer known as Ninja.
Twitch’s market share of hours streamed jumped to 91% in the third quarter, up 15% from the second quarter, according to a report from streaming-software provider Streamlabs, which used data from Stream Hatchet. Before its shutdown, Mixer held a 14% share of livestreaming content.
Meanwhile, Facebook Gaming’s market share for hours streamed increased by only 1%, and YouTube Gaming’s actually fell by 1.2% in the third quarter. In recent months, star players such as Shroud and FaZe Ewok moved back to Twitch. Blevins, who has 16 million followers on the site, returned to the service in September.
Streamers like Ninja were on Twitch for years before being lured to Mixer with fat contracts, so the return feels like coming home -- both in terms of the audiences and the way the technology works.
“While YouTube and Facebook both provide excellent platforms for livestreamers, it’s just one part of what they offer their audience,” said Ashray Urs, head of product at Streamlabs. “With Twitch, streaming is at the core, like it was for Mixer. As a result, the audiences are similar, and there is a level of familiarity between these platforms.”
The number of unique channels streaming on Twitch reached 10.6 million in the third quarter, up 2.8% from 10.3 million channels in the prior period, according to the report.
Microsoft had hoped to send Mixer players to Facebook, bolstering a gaming partnership between the two tech giants. But Mixer’s stars weren’t under any obligation to go along with the plan.
Still, Facebook Gaming has seen a jump in hours watched and streamed, and in unique channels. In the third quarter, the service surpassed 1 billion hours watched for the first time, the report found.
“While it appears Twitch captured the majority of Mixer’s streamers, Facebook Gaming still appears to have benefited,” the report said.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.