“Mixer’s Ninja signing hasn’t helped close the viewership gap with Twitch” report says

When Tyler “Ninja” Blevins signed an exclusive streaming deal with mixer in August, some wondered if such a signing could shrink the gap between Twitch and the rest of the streaming platforms. It turns out, however, that even with an extremely popular personality like Ninja, the gap between Twitch and Mixer has only grown.

Of the four major video game streaming platforms, Mixer actually sits in last in hours watched during Q3 of 2019, according to information compiled by Arsenal.gg and StreamElements. That puts Mixer behind not only Twitch, but also YouTube and Facebook Gaming in hourly watch time. 

After his first full month on the platform, Ninja has maintained his typical numbers, usually riding with upwards of 70,000 viewers. But those numbers basically only apply to him and have not driven noticeable viewership to other streamers on the platform. 

Mixer sits at 3.2 percent of the major streaming market based on the hourly watch time with 29 million hours watched during September. That is a substantial drop off from 40 million in August, but YouTube Gaming and Twitch also had significant declines. 

September is typically a slower period for viewership on live streaming platforms because viewers in the 13 to 18 age range demographic are all going back to school. Much like how January is the “dead month” for YouTube based on ad revenue, the watch time on Twitch usually dips around this time every year, too. 

“While we regularly see a drop in hours watched from August to September, there are some interesting Q3 developments worth noting in the live streaming space,” StreamElements CEO Doron Nir said. “For starters, Ninja’s move to Mixer turned out to not be the game-changer they probably hoped when comparing their market share with Twitch’s.”

The only service to actually increase in viewership during this period was Facebook, as ad campaigns and reworked infrastructure have heavily pushed people toward the social media giant’s gaming section. That increase was 53.4 million hours watched compared to last month’s 37 million, continuing a three-month growth period

Facebook Gaming now holds 3.7 percent of the pie while YouTube dropped down to 17.6 percent. Twitch continues to dominate the competition, holding 75.6 percent of the overall hourly viewership, which translates to 777.5 million hours watched in September alone.

Despite the decline, it is still much higher than the Q3 numbers from this time last year. Compared to September 2018’s 14 million hours watched, it has more than doubled to 29 million in just 12 months.