Mixer has a viewership problem

After efforts from Microsoft to entice people to come to their streaming platform, we could say that plan has failed. Partially. To demonstrate that Mixer has a viewership problem, one only has to look at the two graphs below.

In a report by StreamLabs and Stream Hatchet, we can clearly see that Microsoft’s streaming platform has a problem. Mixer has seen a decrease in the amount of hours watched by more than 7 percent from the previous quarter. And this is about Q1 in 2020, which should be one of the best quarters for streaming ever. All the other platforms saw an increase in watchtime over the previous quarter, with the stay at home orders and the additional need for entertainment having a great effect on these growth numbers.

The past quarter Mixer has only been able to obtain a 2 percent marketshare in the streaming market, while having a, surprisingly large, 17 percent of the market share in the amount of hours streamed. People are streaming on Mixer, but nobody is watching the content.

With all of the efforts by Microsoft to contract big name streamers like Ninja and Shroud, it seems the effect of these actions have been close to zero. Meanwhile, the platform isn’t evolving as fast as it was before. With features as Faster Than Light streaming, Clips and the HypeZone not being properly deployed, if at all. Mixer is not keeping up with its competitors, with missing applications for TV’s and other devices, missing features (why is clips still in beta?) and the incomprehensible decision to remove the Mixer streaming features from the new, and decent, Xbox Game Bar on PC. Which means the service isn’t utilizing one of its core advantages over Twitch, Windows.

We’ve written before about the state of Mixer and what it has to do to gain marketshare, but it seems like Microsoft is showing a very passive attitude regarding the streaming platform at the moment. And the longer they wait with overhauling their strategy, the earlier Mixer could slide into irrelevancy.

And at this point, Microsoft should be questioning if it’s worth the trouble to fight a seemingly unbeatable enemy. Or maybe Microsoft is happy with having thousands of people streaming to nobody.