Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek tweeted on Thursday that he’s the latest esports star ditching Twitch for Mixer, Microsoft’s live streaming platform. Shroud’s departure comes only months after Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, the biggest name on Twitch, left to exclusively stream on Mixer.
Details are sparse. The tweet announcing the move included the simple caption” “Same shroud. New home,” followed by a link to his new account on Mixer.
Same shroud. New home.https://t.co/eZV2GBBSsY pic.twitter.com/AHaajkjees
— Michael Grzesiek (@shroud) October 24, 2019
Shroud, known for streaming several games, including Apex Legends and Minecraft, is one of the biggest stars on Twitch. His 6.5 million followers on the platform is second only to Turner “Tfue” Tenney, according to a recent Business Insider report. His Mixer account had nearly 20,000 followers by 1:00 p.m. PST on Thursday.
Launched in 2016 and with over 10 million monthly users, Mixer is far from being as popular as Twitch, which attracts 15 million users daily. While the two platforms are fairly similar, Mixer has been credited for having a smoother interface, better management of toxic players, and a greater array of interactive chat features. For example, streamers can share their controllers with select fans watching the stream, giving them the opportunity to play.
Mixer is one of many gaming-centric live streaming platforms that have emerged on the scene over the past several years with the aim to take on Twitch. Facebook, YouTube, and Fox have also invested in platforms of their own. Despite healthy channel growth for Ninja in his early days at Mixer, the company overall hasn’t started to make up ground against Twitch since he switched over.
Mixer lost both of its co-founders earlier this month.