Microsoft has shut down Mixer

A YEAR AFTER SPENDING BIG ON TALENT, THE TWITCH COMPETITOR IS NO MORE.

Microsoft’s answer to Twitch is an answer no more: as of July 23 the service will be closed. The news comes less than a year after Microsoft paid millions of dollars to popular Twitch streamers in order to secure their exclusivity. Ninja, a popular Fortnite streamer, is reported to have been paid up to $30 million dollars to switch to Mixer. These streamers are now free to return to Twitch, or else to Facebook Gaming, which will honour existing partnership agreements, though it appears the streamers themselves will be under no obligation to accept.

“Ultimately, the success of Partners and streamers on Mixer is dependent on our ability to scale the platform for them as quickly and broadly as possible,” Microsoft said in a statement. “It became clear that the time needed to grow our own livestreaming community to scale was out of measure with the vision and experiences that Microsoft and Xbox want to deliver for gamers now, so we’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform.”