Shroud is moving to Mixer. Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek, a popular Twitch livestreamer, has made a deal to broadcast exclusively on Microsoft’s livestreaming platform. Shroud is a former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro who switched to content creation in 2017 alongside games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. His first Mixer broadcast kicks off today at 5 p.m. Pacific time on mixer.com/shroud.
Mixer now has two of the most popular livestreamers in Shroud and Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. Ninja shifted to Mixer in a similar exclusive arrangement in August. The Fortnite broadcaster didn’t miss a beat as his audience has seemingly followed him from Twitch. But, at the same time, the data suggests that Ninja’s presence hasn’t helped Mixer close the gap with Twitch.
But that may change now that Mixer has Shroud as well.
“Streaming is my passion, and I owe my success to my fans who have helped me get to where I am now,” said Shroud. “Mixer provides the flexibility to center my attention around them. I am excited to join the Mixer community, as well as continue to build relationships with both players and fans … The move to Mixer allows me to focus on what I love: gaming. I hope you all continue to be a part of my community in this transition, I can’t wait to show you all the things we have in store.”
Shroud and Ninja provide built-in marketing for Mixer and Xbox
Mixer is not catching up to Twitch on the back of Ninja, and Shroud may not actually help with that either. But Microsoft’s platform is still growing. Twitch is simply growing faster still. But by bringing in another top-tier name, Microsoft is indicating that it is serious about this strategy. And more high-profile livestreamers could begin to have a rub-off effect on the rest of Mixer.
At least, Microsoft is hoping that’s the case. But even if Mixer never ends up on par with Twitch or even YouTube Live, Ninja and Shroud serve another purpose. They can help promote major new Xbox releases.
Microsoft has already integrated Mixer into the Xbox One dashboard, and now consumers could potentially see Shroud hyping up Halo Infinite or Gears 5. That is a valuable use of these popular influencers, and it could help Microsoft get its money’s worth out of its exclusivity deals.
