Gaming, once considered a hobby, has now become a multi-billion dollar industry. Now gaming is a job and gamers are professionals. Games are played competitively nationally and internationally and gamers have become celebrities among the fans. While competitive gaming can raise gamers to fame, Streaming Game is also known to make gamers famous.
The most popular Live Streaming platforms among gamers are YouTube Live, Twitch and mixer. While YouTube Live lets anyone Stream any kind of video (with some restrictions of course), Twitch and Mixer are game dedicated Streaming services.
But…uh.. which one is better? Well, it can be pretty difficult to choose the right streaming service for your channel. You have to factor in the competition, scope of improvement, the popularity of the service and the list goes on and on.
Don’t worry if you’re new to the world of game streaming and want some help to choose the right streaming service for you, we’re more than happy to help. Here we’ll introduce you to the big-time live streaming services, “Twitch” and “Mixer” and help you decide the right one for you. So, here we go…
Twitch
Twitch is the most popular live streaming platform for gamers. It is owned by Amazon and was launched in 2011. Initially, Twitch has introduced just as a spin-off to another streaming platform called Justin.tv. Since it’s the oldest and most popular boy around, Twitch reported its active user to be over 15 million. You can earn money on Twitch just like YouTube by Ads and viewer subscriptions. As in most Amazon services, Amazon Prime holders get a reward, a free subscription per month.
Pros
These are the reasons why Twitch has never been dethroned even after the arrival of many new competitors.
Easy to use
It’s quite easy to navigate around and find what you’re looking for in Twitch because of its user-friendly interface. And a search bar is the icing on the cake.
You’ll find the names of the biggest streamers on the top of the home page. You can even customize your search which can be based on the game, channel or even console. And you can use Twitch on almost every device with a screen. Since it supports all the major consoles, you can stream games directly from PS, X box, or even mobile.
Ever Growing Community
Twitch is a beast in Gaming Community and has an ever-increasing active-user count. With new streamers getting on Twitch everyday and effortless navigation, it’s easy to come across new channels every day. Once you win over some audience, it gets easier to grow to a big-time channel.
Not only new streamers, but Twitch also gains a new audience every day. So the Potential to grow is super huge in Twitch.
Cons
Along with its advantages, Twitch also has some disadvantages.
Higher competition
Twitch is much like a business in real life, where newcomer start-ups struggle to make it big. Those on the top, gain in millions and billions every day. A lot of newcomers come to try their hand in Twitch, but only a few succeed. Coming on top is not easy on Twitch, only the best and most consistent one outgrow others. Along with a hand in gaming, you will also need to stream and play other new games frequently.
Mixer
How can Microsoft stay behind when Amazon is in it? Result being Mixer, another Live streaming platform. The mixer was originally named Beam before it was bought by Microsoft and renamed it as Mixer in 2016.
Initially pretty unheard of, Mixer is now gaining massive popularity. Recently in August 2019, one of the biggest Twitch streamers Ninja, known for his Fortnite Streams, started streaming on Mixer, abandoning Twitch.
The mixer is quite Ad-free so the Streamers depend on their subscriber count with a subscription costing $7.99/month.
Pros
Twitch is growing fast on the virtue of these factors
Gaining massive Audience
The mixer is gaining lots of audience and streamers every day. Not just because of Ninja’s arrival but also because of its easiness to stream on Windows and X box. With that being said, Mixer can also stream on any device with a screen.
Considerably less competition
With Mixer being relatively new, streamers still prefer Twitch. But if you’re starting new and don’t have a lot of experience in streaming, Mixer is highly preferable. With less competition, the content offered by a mixer is also less varied. So, streaming varied content can help you build some loyal audience for you.
Cons
As a new streaming platform, Mixer has a con too.
Not-so-friendly UI
With Twitch gaining on this ground, it is quite harder to navigate around Mixer. Previously broadcasted content is really difficult to find. While the problem still persists and is as much of a concern of a streamer as a person from the audience, this can affect the popularity of the channel. Microsoft has promised to take care of this issue in the unspecified future, but it might take some time before it gets solved since the team responsible for Mixer’s development isn’t big enough.
Conclusion
Well, by now you must have decided a winner for you but still, to clarify any doubts, it all depends on you. If you’re a full-time pro gamer and want to try out streaming while practicing as most pros do, you should go with Twitch. With its huge and ever-growing community, Twitch offers a scope of growth far greater than its competitors.
But if you are just starting out, going with Mixer is more preferable. Though less popularity will hinder the growth of your channel, you will be a big fish in less time due to less competition. And since Mixer is gaining popularity on a large scale, more people will get connected with it. So the scope of growth is quite high.
With all that being said choose the one which best suits you and which you think you can succeed as a Streamer.
Share Your Views: