During his April 17 broadcast, Twitch star Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel explained to his viewers why Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek’s move to Mixer is “lost potential” for the medium.
xQc is one of the top streamers on Twitch, as he dedicates an insane amount of time to broadcasts. While viewers may know him for his fast-talking rants and explosive personality, the Overwatch pro will give his insight into the industry from time to time.
That is what happened during his latest broadcast, when a viewer asked him his thoughts on Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins and shroud’s monumental deal in 2019 to sign exclusively to Mixer. The Canadian opened up about why he thinks the move wasn’t entirely worth it.
xQc explains why Mixer deals are “lost potential”
The streamer was in the middle of playing Call of Duty: Warzone, when a viewer asked him about his feelings on Mixer exclusivity deals. While he acknowledged their positive benefits, he also explained why he thinks they are problematic.
“Yeah, it makes the industry go forward for everybody that these things happen. But at the same time there is a crazy amount of lost potential. A lot of muscle is lost when that happens. Which is very bad for everybody,” he said, before exclaiming that shroud’s viewership numbers would be bigger on Twitch.
“Look at Valorant. It got a lot of views, but shroud would have probably been 800k, or maybe even more,” he continued. Hasan ‘HasanAbi’ Piker, who was in the match with him, agreed and pointed out, “Even Tarkov. He was already organically playing it.”
The Twitch star then explained why he felt shroud getting less eyes on his streams overall was not worth the money Microsoft paid. “The damage done is way bigger than whatever they paid him. Times 10. The lost potential is worth way more than whatever they paid him!”
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The Canadian personality praised shroud, stating his importance to the FPS genre. “Shroud for FPS and for streaming overall is a crazy amount of muscle. It’s insane how much weight he carries. And having him on Mixer, with his fans, all of a sudden have no potential,” he said.
As he wrapped up his rant, he stated that he believed all the growth the streamer would have gotten had he stayed on Twitch is being lost. “All those combined releases and crazy events… It’s exponential growth. That is completely lost. And that potential is worth millions of dollars.”
xQc compared streamers who signed to Mixer to developers who go exclusive to a specific game store. In that they lose out on a major part of the market, as most players are on other, more popular platforms.
However, the Canadian also said that if Ninja and shroud were to ever come back to Twitch, they would not only get back their viewers, but would gain more due to the publicity and hype of their return.