Streaming has been becoming more and more popular, both as a source of entertainment and as a career choice. If you are considering a career in streaming then you have a vast array of streaming platforms to choose from, so you will want to know which is best for the content you want to make and for the overall success of your career.
Many people will look to Twitch if they are planning on streaming video game content, but there is also a case to be made for Mixer. So, what do you need to know about the mixer vs twitch debate to make the most informed decision about your career? I will answer that question in detail below. After you have this information, you’ll want to look at the best recording software reviews and the best streaming software programs to really hit the ground running.
Why You Should Stream on Twitch:
There are a lot of reasons why Twitch is the first platform people think of when they think of streaming. The primary reason that you should consider Twitch for your streaming career is because it is so synonymous with the concept of streaming in general. It is the most popular place for video game streaming content which means the possible revenue you can expect from your streaming career is higher.
When people are considering the argument of Mixer vs Twitch, or Twitch vs YouTube, Twitch is a lot of people’s first choice when it comes to streaming games, not just for the streamers themselves, but also for the viewers. A lot of people don’t even know about most of the other available streaming platforms, which can make it difficult for streamers that don't want to stream on Twitch. Twitch is one of the best streaming platforms around, so it is definitely in your interest to learn how to twitch stream.
Twitch Has a Much Bigger Audience
Almost everyone with an interest in gaming knows about Twitch or have at least heard about it. This has resulted in a lot of popularity for Twitch and a lot of streamers flocking to it as a platform. More viewers mean more potential revenue for you if you are noticed and become popular. That said, this isn’t new information and therefore a lot of Streamers also populate Twitch which makes it harder to be noticed and reap the benefits of all of those viewers. There is a lot of competition.
Twitch has been the most popular streaming platform for as long as streaming has been a popular source of entertainment and it most likely will be for a long time barring any kind of scandal that puts it in a negative light. Because of this consistent popularity, it is an excellent choice for streamers of all kinds.
It’s Easier to Make Money on Twitch (for now)
Because of how popular it is, Twitch can afford to reward its streamers more and reward more of them, which means it is easier to start making money off of your streaming career. Make no mistake though, streaming does require work and it isn’t “free money”, you will have to have a certain amount of consistent viewership before you can apply for the Twitch partnership program and start making money off of your streams, so don’t just quit your job and start streaming and expect to be able to support yourself right away.
Because of how many people regularly view streams on twitch, it is easier to reach that minimum amount to become a Twitch partner. You have to compete for less, but if you are really serious about making a living off of your Twitch stream, then you should prepare yourself to be spending a large amount of your time streaming.
Consistency is the key to gathering a following. You should be doing your best to be streaming frequently and at the same times when you do. Having a schedule and sticking to it will allow you to gather viewers more quickly because they will know exactly when to expect you to start streaming and tune in.
Twitch Has Better Analytics
Twitch has been around as a streaming platform for the longest amount of time and it has the highest number of professional streamers attached to it. This means that they have had the incentive to invest in very detailed and useful analytics for their streamers to use to their advantage.
They provide excellent analytics for monitoring your revenue and viewership trends so that you can study what is working and what isn’t. If you notice that a lot of your viewership comes at a certain time of day and not at another, then you might want to adjust your stream to match that timeslot to increase your viewership and thus your revenue. This is a service that Twitch provides that not all streaming services will do for their streamers.
This kind of feature can be extremely helpful for tailoring your content and keeping on top of trends so that you can increase channel growth and success.
Videos on Demand (VODs) Are Easier to Discover
It is much easier for your viewers to find the recordings of your previous broadcasts on Twitch. Some streaming services don’t even offer that as an option, or they make it difficult to find unless you know that it is available and where to find it. That isn’t the case with Twitch. You can find the “Videos on Demand” section very easily. This is a nice quality of life feature that viewers will appreciate and it is one of the things that make Twitch as popular as it is.
No matter what, you can’t be streaming 24 hours a day which means some people are going to miss out on your streams, but if people know about you then they can find the recording of your stream and watch it when it is convenient for them and some viewers actually prefer that method of viewing content, which means they might make donations when you aren’t even online. Never underestimate the popularity of VODs.
Why You Should Stream on Mixer:
Not everyone wants to stream on Twitch. Some people don’t like it because of how popular it is. Twitch has also had some very controversial moderation in the past and sometimes people get wrongfully banned from it, which means you will have to find a twitch alternative for your streaming. Thankfully, that isn’t necessarily the end of your streaming career, you can pick up mixer streaming. Many former Twitch streamers have swapped to mixer live streaming and continued to be very successful. All you have to do is learn how to stream on Mixer, which is often a simple case of using the Mixer application.
Super-Fast Streaming Technology
You can expect your mixer live stream to be extremely fast. This is because Mixer has started implementing their own proprietary streaming protocol that they are calling the "Faster Than Light" protocol.
The FTL protocol is supposed to provide stream latencies that are lower than one second, which is so fast that it might as well be instantaneous. It is still new, so users might run into issues while it is perfected, but if it works the way it is supposed to then you can interact with your viewers much faster than you can on other platforms.
This new streaming protocol is compatible with a lot of the most popular streaming applications like XSplit and OBS Studio, so you will likely be able to make use of it and take advantage of the benefits it provides. It is even compatible with streaming via console on the Xbox One using its built-in broadcast function, so console gamers can benefit too!
Co-Host Streams With Your Friends
A feature that is unique to Mixer is having the ability to stream with friends. On other streaming platforms, you can kind of pull this off by having one person stream and then everyone else will either host that person, or you will all stream separately and play together. But no matter which option you go with you will be competing for viewership with your friends and nobody wants that. It provides a feeling that your success is coming at the cost of your friends and that won’t make anyone feel good.
With Mixer, you don't have to worry about that because they provide a co-streaming feature that allows you to stream to a single page with up to three of your friends and also merge all of your chats so everyone is being seen at the same time. This allows for a more friendly streaming environment and turns your stream into a cooperative endeavor where you all are assisting each other instead of a competitive one where you might be negatively impacting someone else's career.
Xbox Integration and Playing with Your Favorite Streamers
Mixer is all about giving its streamers the most efficient way to interact with their viewers as they possibly can. It isn’t just about the streamer, it’s about everyone. So, they have a whole host of interesting tools that provide a more friendly and inclusive experience and ways for the streamer to allow their viewers to interact with the stream.
One of those useful features is the FTL streaming protocol we covered earlier because it makes the viewers' interactions happen more quickly and there is less lag between the streamer and the viewers. Another tool for viewers to interact with the stream is via their Xbox Integration. Using this tool you can provide a way for viewers to have effects on the game you are playing.
This is very similar to the way certain games have provided this interaction in the past, such as the Jackbox Party Pack series of games or Choice Chamber, where stream viewers can do things like vote on the funniest responses and gift players points, or they can do things like choosing which items you get in-game and have a direct effect on how you play the game.
Through the Xbox Integration on the mixer app, you can provide the ability for your viewers to interact with your stream like this in other games, not just ones specifically designed to work with that kind of feature.
The Cons of Streaming on Mixer vs Twitch
There are some downsides to streaming on either Mixer or Twitch. No one streaming platform is perfect for every situation, so you will have to weigh both the pros and the cons to decide which streaming platform will work best for you. You also have to keep in mind that all streaming platforms are competing with each other and people will have different opinions on each one, so which streaming platform you use will have a massive impact on how successful your stream is or isn’t.
Twitch Moderation is Controversial
Twitch has had a lot of problems in the past and continues to have them regarding its moderation decisions. Streaming is still a relatively new source of entertainment, and so a lot of things are still being figured out about what is acceptable for streaming and what isn’t. Twitch has pioneered that decision-making process because it has been the most popular streaming platform for the entirety of streaming’s popularity as an entertainment platform and they have frequently made the wrong choice on whether they should or should not ban certain kinds of behavior.
Many of the most popular streamers on their platform are openly skeptical or even opposed to their moderation choices and it doesn’t look like that is going to change any time soon. If you are going to stream on Twitch, then you are going to have to accept that your career is going to be in the hands of Twitch and its moderation team. That means you could have your channel shut down and lose your source of income at the drop of a hat for very arbitrary reasons.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that that will happen, but it is a possibility that you will have to be aware of if you are going to attempt to stream on Twitch.
Difficult to Get Noticed on Twitch
Twitch has a lot of streamers that use it very frequently. This means that newer streamers are often lost in a sea of similar streams and you may find yourself streaming with no viewers or a small viewership for a long time before your channel begins to gain in popularity. Even excellent streams that are of a very high quality suffer from this problem which means you have to be prepared to continue your stream even when nobody is watching in the hopes that you will get noticed.
Mixer Has a Poor Audience to Streamer Ratio
On the other side of the spectrum, Mixer isn’t as popular for viewers as Twitch, which means there are a lot of streamers but not enough viewers to go around. The competition will be fierce to gather as many viewers as possible. So, it will be easier for you to get noticed, but there won’t be as many viewers to go around and support your work.
Difficult to Stream from PlayStation to Mixer
Mixer is owned and operated by Microsoft which means it has excellent compatibility with the Windows operating system and the Xbox line of consoles. However, as a consequence of this ownership, it is exceedingly difficult to stream to Mixer from a competing console like a PlayStation. If you are primarily a PlayStation gamer then Mixer will be a poor choice for a streaming platform because it will be an overly complicated process to stream your gameplay to that platform.
Unfortunately, there isn’t anything you can do, as a streamer, to mitigate this problem because it is the result of the business practices of Microsoft and PlayStation. They are competing companies and they take that competition seriously, so PlayStation gamers should look for a different platform to stream on until a time comes when that competition is less fear if that ever happens.
Mixer vs Twitch: The Final Verdict
Ultimately, one platform isn’t better than the other and which platform you go with is going to rely on your preferences and how the benefits and downfalls of each platform affect your content and the stream that you want to make. There are a few situations that make one platform very clearly better than the other, however, such as your choice of console.
If you are a PlayStation gamer and you plan to mostly stream from your PlayStation console then Mixer isn’t the platform for you and you should probably go with Twitch as your streaming platform of choice. On the flip side, if you are primarily an Xbox gamer, then Mixer is a fantastic choice for you because it is made to be very compatible with the Xbox system.
If you are confident in your ability to stand out from the crowd, then you might want to go with Twitch because the maximum amount of money you can make with that platform is inherently higher due to its popularity. If you think you can do better than the streamers on Mixer, then you might want to go there because you can quickly pick up a consistent following based on your stream quality. The twitch vs mixer debate primarily depends on your streaming content and personal preferences.
