While the Microsoft-owned Mixer hasn’t reached Twitch-level viewership numbers following Ninja’s exit from Twitch, Mixer has recently seen a huge increase in its number of hours streamed and unique channels. In Q3 2019, Mixer surpassed YouTube Gaming Live for the first time in hours streamed. But with Mixer viewership down, even Ninja’s support hasn’t brought Microsoft’s platform anywhere close to Twitch’s dominant stats.
A new Streamlabs report, compiled from esports and gaming analytic company Newzoo’s Twitch, Mixer, and YouTube Gaming Live data, detailed the latest on each platform’s hours streamed and watched in Q3 2019. Twitch still dominated live gaming content hours watched, with more than 2.55 billion hours watched in Q3 2019 (up from Q2’s 2.44 billion, which marked a decline from Q1’s 2.48 billion). Mixer sat at just 90.2 million hours watched in Q3 2019, the fewest of the three platforms, with YouTube Gaming Live coming in at 675.9 million hours. Mixer’s hours watched had previously increased every quarter since Q1 2018, peaking at 100.9 million hours in Q2 2018.
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Mixer, however, was the only of the three platforms to see an increase in both its hours streamed and its number of unique channels. Mixer’s hours streamed in Q3 2019 nearly tripled that of Q2, increasing from 11.3 million to 32.6 million. The platform’s number of unique channels doubled, increasing from 1.95 million in Q2 to 3.9 million in Q3. Twitch hours streamed saw a slight decrease from 89.6 million to 87.3 million, plateauing after the platform’s drastic Q1 2019 peak of 100.2 million hours. Unique Twitch channels continued to decrease following the Q1 2019 peak of 5.6 million, dropping to 3.8 million in Q3 2019. YouTube’s hours streamed and unique channels stats also decreased, landing at about 11.1 million and 885,000 respectively in Q3.
While the correlations between these platforms’ stat changes shouldn’t be taken as causational, it’s possible that Ninja’s move from Twitch to Mixer was seen as a vote of confidence among streamers, encouraging more of them to try out Microsoft’s platform. The decline in total hours watched on Mixer for the first time in more than a year, however, doesn’t necessarily bode well for those that joined. Still, while the 10% decrease isn’t small enough to overlook, it could end up being only a momentary decline.
[Image Credit: Ninja/YouTube]
