shroud predicts that Mixer will surpass Twitch in the future

Olivia Richman Published 25/05/2020

When former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Michael “shroud” Grzesiek left Twitch for Mixer, a lot of big-name streamers questioned his decision.

“Who is going to follow shroud now, huh Mixer? Nobody! Nobody’s following!” Herschel “Dr Disrespect” Beahm ranted soon after shroud left Twitch.

At the time, DrDisrespect claimed that Mixer was just trying to be relevent; something they never would be. But now shroud is arguing that Mixer may not only become relevent, but that it could actually become more popular than Twitch in the long term.

In a recent stream, shroud told his fans to be more patient with Mixer.

“Twitch has been around for longer, therefore there’s more people there. So a lot of people don’t think of the long-con. They don’t think of the long play. They just think of the short-term play,” shroud explained.

shroud admitted that Twitch is currently the top dog, even saying they will continue to do well. He explained that they have long-time streamers who have a good foundation on the platform, and those people have no reason to go anywhere else.

“But fast forward three, four, five years and the new guys, the up-and-comers, those are the people who will be on Mixer in the future,” shroud continued.

He explained that Twitch is “oversaturated” and people new to streaming would have more success on a platform like Mixer.

“Mixer is trying to be a haven for those new people,” shroud said.

When it comes to viewers, shroud said that loyal Twitch users may not switch over to Mixer. But that’s not Mixer’s plan. Instead, Mixer’s goal from the beginning was to get attention and then wait to grow a new audience.

“You really just have to sit there and fucking wait,” shroud said. “Microsoft is perfect. They’re fucking huge. They have the resources to just sit there and wait. They can sit there and wait forever. That’s how I know Mixer has a very, very good chance to succeed.”

Will Mixer overtake Twitch in the future?

While it’s yet to be seen if shroud’s theory on Mixer’s long-con strategy will play out, it’s currently quite clear that streamers are growing increasingly frustrated with Twitch.

Inconsistent punishments have left content creators feeling that Twitch may favor larger streamers, allowing them to make more severe mistakes that would get smaller streamers permanently banned, like the time Turner “Tfue” Tenney said racially charged language for the third, and what would usually be final, time. Of course, Tfue wasn’t banned and is still streaming on Twitch to this day.

A lot of focus has also been given to the female streamers on Twitch, who seem to get away with things Twitch deems innapropriate on their community guidelines, including suggestive clothing and accidental nudity. Recently, Natalia “Alinity” Mogollon had to basically beg Twitch to ban her after she exposed an entire breast on a live broadcast. Even then, she only received a 24-hour ban. She also notably received no punishment for her mistreatment of animals on stream throughout the past few years, including throwing her cat.

Twitch recently formed the Twitch Safety Advisory Council, which states that one of its goals is to “improve moderation.” It’s still unclear if the council will steer Twitch into the right direction when it comes to their unbalanced ban system. But for now, the council has only led to more disdain for the streaming platform as Twitch continues to defend council member Steph “FerociouslySteph” Loehr, even after she suggested that the majority of gamers could be “white supremacists.”

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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