History
Beam launched on January 5, 2016.[9] In May 2016, Beam won the Startup Battlefield competition at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, receiving $50,000 in equity-free funding.[10][11]
On August 11, 2016, Beam was acquired by Microsoft for an undisclosed amount. The service's team was integrated into the Xbox division.[12][13][9] On October 26, 2016, Microsoft announced that Beam would be integrated into Windows 10.[14] Beam broadcasting was also integrated into Xbox One on the March 2017 software update.[15]
On May 25, 2017, Microsoft announced that Beam had been renamed Mixer, as the previous name could not be used globally.[16] The re-branding came alongside the introduction of several new features, such as the ability for a user to co-host up to three other streams on their channel at once, as well as the companion mobile app Mixer Create. It was also announced that Mixer would receive top-level integration within the Xbox One dashboard, with a new tab curating Mixer streams.[17]
On July 31, 2019, video game streamer Ninja announced that he would move exclusively from Twitch to Mixer beginning August 1. The deal was considered to be a major coup for Mixer, as Ninja had been among Twitch's top personalities, with over 14 million followers.[18][19][20] His wife and manager Jessica Blevins stated that the contract with Twitch had encumbered his ability to "grow his brand" outside of gaming, and that his interest in streaming had been deteriorating due to the perceived "toxicity" of Twitch's community.[21]
A report by Streamlabs and Newzoo reported that in the third quarter of 2019, Mixer had a 188% quarter-by-quarter increase in the amount of unique hours of content being streamed on the service, but that the percentage of concurrent viewers had fallen by 11.7%.[22] Mixer founders Boehm and Salsamendi both left Microsoft in October 2019.[23][24] The same month, streamer Shroud also entered into an exclusivity agreement with Mixer,[25] followed shortly afterward by KingGothalion.[26]
On June 22, 2020, citing a poor market share and inability to scale in comparison to competing services, Microsoft announced that Mixer would be shut down on July 22, 2020. As part of an agreement to collaborate with Facebook, Inc. (now Meta Platforms, Inc.) on aspects of its xCloud cloud gaming service, Mixer would redirect users to the Facebook Gaming service after it ceased operations, and some partnered streamers offered opportunities to join equivalent Facebook Gaming programs where applicable. Outstanding subscriptions and Embers were converted to Microsoft Store credit.[27] Mixer's employees were transferred to the Microsoft Teams division.[27] Meta Platforms, Inc. holds rights to Mixer trademarks.[28]
Attempting to visit mixer.com now results in a redirect to Facebook Gaming. Microsoft released its contracts with exclusively-signed streamers;[29] in August, Ninja held a stream on YouTube before returning to Twitch, while Shroud re-signed exclusively with Twitch.[30][31]
