Mixer's Legacy Was Triggering Free Agency War For Streamers

As Microsoft bids goodbye to its streaming platform Mixer in favor of Facebook Gaming, perhaps it would be prudent to look at some of the good results of this temporary experiment.

There is little doubt that even when Microsoft acquired the streaming platform Beam in 2016 and renamed it as Mixer a year later that they knew it had a tough road ahead of it. After all, the market was dominated by Amazon’s Twitch and YouTube, and trying to challenge that duopoly was going to be tough.

However, when Microsoft gave Mixer a big-money push to make it relevant, they did so by targeting free agent streamers notes The Verge. The first (and perhaps biggest) of these was Tyler Blevins a.k.a. Ninja. In August 2019, arguably the most famous video game streamer and a public face for both Twitch and “ Fortnite, ” Ninja announced that he was leaving Twitch for Microsoft’s platform.

“I feel like I’m going to get back to the streaming roots,” Blevins said at the time. While initial numbers were strong, Blevins was never able to overcome Mixer’s significantly smaller user base, and he struggled to pull in viewership comparable to Twitch.

Still, the fact that someone as big as Ninja could even leave Twitch showed that there was indeed a demand for the actual talent that drives the platforms. Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek and Soleil “Ewok” Wheeler followed Ninja to Mixer. YouTube signed 100 Thieves stars Jack “CouRage” Dunlop and Rachel “Valkyrae” Hofstetter, while also signing an exclusive streaming deal with the controversial figure Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg. Jeremy “DisguisedToast” Wang jumped to Facebook.

Soon enough, Twitch held on to some of its most important names including Imane “Pokimane” Anys and Guy “Dr DisRespect” Beahm with new, likely lucrative, contracts. It was a veritable free agency frenzy for streamers. Like athletes in the NBA, NFL, or MLB, the biggest names were being recruited and signed to exclusive deals with the different streaming platforms.

There had been exclusivity deals prior to Ninja’s move, but most people weren’t aware of them. And although details such as length and value of these exclusive contracts are still largely kept secret, Mixer triggered a bidding war that gave the actual streaming talents choice and power, effectively changing the way these deals would be done.

Now that Mixer is set to shut down, an even bigger free agency extravaganza awaits. In 2019, fans of the NBA were amazed by the number of free agency moves that happened following the NBA Finals. With so much money on the table and squads consolidating their respective bids for a championship, deals were being struck left and right at a rapid pace.

Today, all of those big names that Microsoft spent big money to lure find themselves without home “teams” and free to be wooed. The easy choice is to just join Twitch, but YouTube has become a strong competitor. Cory “King Gothalion” Michael, who joined Mixer last October, has already announced that he’s moving to Facebook The Verge reports.

As for Ninja himself, everything seems to be up in the air about where he will land. “I love my community and what we built together on Mixer,” he tweeted after the Mixer news broke. “I have some decisions to make and will be thinking about you all as I make them.”

In the end, Mixer was not a success. Yet by shining a light on the talents who were actually streaming and giving them options, they gave these talents opportunities that might have otherwise not been there for them. That may be good for the entire gaming industry as well.