Popular streamer returns to Twitch with over 475,000 views on first stream back

Shroud, legally known as Michael Grzesiek, has yet again returned to Twitch after a brief stint with the now-defunct Mixer.

Shroud announced his return on August 11, not even a month after Mixer had announced it’s absorption into Facebook Gaming. First committing to Twitch in 2017, Shroud quickly grew in subscribers and viewers to reach over 366 million views by July 2020.

When Microsoft first acquired Mixer in 2016, known then as Beam, it was the first step in competing with the now Amazon-owned Twitch. It wasn’t enough for Microsoft to just purchase a platform; they also had to attract streamers and viewers.

The going for Mixer was slow, having a difficult time fostering an organic community. By the time Mixer had been launched in earnest, Twitch had already become the go-to platform for streamers and viewers alike if they weren’t on YouTube.

2019 had come, and by the fall, Mixer’s userbase paled in comparison to the juggernaut Twitch had become. By that time, Shroud had amassed a Twitch following of 7 million followers. He had decided sign with Mixer, who by then elected to ‘purchase’ users, for around $10 million.

In addition to Ninja, it seemed that Mixer’s recruitment of two of the most popular streamers would be the saving grace that would finally bring the massive influx of users they’d been vying for. This strategy, however, would not come to fruition.

It was then on June 22, 2020, that Mixer officially announced that the service would shut down by the end of July 22 – only four years after Microsoft’s initial purchase. Reasons given included “a poor market share and inability to scale in comparison to competing services.”

As a result, Shroud was paid out the entirety of his $10 million agreement and remained ambiguous as to where he would go next. Then, not even a month later, he announced his return to Twitch – his first stream after his return had amassed over 475,000 viewers in four hours.

Shroud already has a sizable presence on YouTube, with 6.37 million subscribers. Still, with Mixer gone and Twitch’s now unchallenged position as a streaming platform, it seemed all too obvious that Shroud would return to the platform that he had once called home.