Olivia R. December 8, 2019
Stream Metrics has just revealed that popular streamer Michael "shroud" Grzesiek has seen a drastic decline in viewership since he moved to Mixer at the end of October.
The tweet declared that their own data shows shroud's livestream audience in November was one third the size of his Twitch reach in October when it came to US viewership. In fact, shroud's viewership on Twitch before moving platforms was 1.62 times larger than "all of Mixer." In the US, shroud had over 718,000 unique viewers on Twitch the month before moving. That turned to just 231,000 on Mixer.
According to Stream Metrics, only 15% of US viewers who watched shroud on Twitch followed him to Mixer. But shroud still managed to bring a new community to Mixer. The statistics show that half of shroud's viewers on Mixer in his first month were new to the platform.
Should streamers stop moving to Mixer?
When shroud first joined Mixer, over 78,000 viewers watched him play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare at the broadcast's peak. The average amount of views during his debut stream was 67,000, more than double of what he saw playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Twitch.
This was similar to Tyler "Ninja" Blevin's experience switching to Microsoft's competing streaming platform. When he moved to Mixer in August, the Fortnite superstar saw his follower and viewer count surge. His first Mixer stream was seen by over 95,000 viewers.
Of course, the novelty of the move wears off after a bit. But do the shrinking viewership numbers mean that moving to Mixer was a bad idea?
It's safe to assume that big name streamers like Ninja and shroud understand that their follower and viewer count would be larger on Twitch, where there are more users in general. They most likely know their viewership will decline when they moved to a new platform, although they probably hope a healthy percentage of fans would follow.
At the end of October, when shroud had already seen his viewer counts and statistics for the month, he released a statement where he said switching to Mixer was "the best move" for his career.
"This is my decision, this is the best decision, and I am doing it, you know what I’m saying?” he told fans.
So it seems the numbers didn't affect his opinion on moving to Mixer. This most likely means he was offered a good chunk of change to exclusively stream there, with rumored deals ranging from millions to tens of millions. For many streamers, a guaranteed income each year is more ideal than grinding out 16 hour streams each day to make money on Twitch.
But money may not be the only motivation. Ninja has made it pretty clear that his decision was based on disagreements with Twitch's contract details. Other streamers have also made comments about the platform's restrictive contracts, which have led to them losing out on deals, sponsorships, and money.
And while viewership on Mixer is significantly lower than on Twitch, the numbers do show that the additions of Ninja and shroud have brought dramatically increased exposure to Microsoft's streaming platform.
Despite seeing the decline in views and followers, other popular personalities continue to leave Twitch for Mixer, as well as for Facebook Gaming and YouTube exclusivity.