Mixer Season 2 offers a clear path to monetized video game streaming

Microsoft’s Mixer is ramping up to compete with Twitch
and YouTube.
Mixer

• Mixer is Microsoft’s livestreaming platform, offering
  an alternative to Twitch and YouTube.
• Mixer recently started rolling out a series of new
  upgrades to the platform titled Season 2, giving streamers new
  ways to generate fan engagement and revenue.
• Season 2 improvements to Mixer will continue into 2019,
  focusing on creator support, viewer progression, and
  interactive features.

Mixer, a Microsoft-owned livestreaming website, is in a battle
with Amazon’s Twitch to win the hearts and wallets of game
streamers.

With its recently introduced pack of new features, Mixer is
trying to position itself as the best venue for viewers to
support their favorite streamers and for streamers to thrive
financially. The update, which Mixer is calling “Season 2,” is
focused on promoting more ways to interact on the platform
and more ways for streamers to get revenue.

Livestreaming has had an undeniable impact on the way that
people, and video game fans specifically, interact with their
entertainment and build community. By engaging directly with
their audience, popular streamers have been able to establish
their own communities on platforms like Mixer, Twitch, and
YouTube, without constantly relying on specific games. But to be
successful, rather than just popular, streamers have to find ways
to monetize their audience.

Read more:
Twitch raises incentives for
creators

Video game streamers are primarily dependent on monthly
subscribers and donations for revenue, due to inconsistent
returns from advertisements during their broadcasts. In April
2017, Twitch, the most popular livestreaming platform for video
games, introduced a virtual currency called Bits, giving
players an official way to donate to multiple streams in smaller
increments. Every Bit donated is equal to one cent earned for the
streamer; Twitch charges $7 for 500 Bits, meaning they earn
roughly $2 for every $5 donated to different streamers in Bits.

Twitch users can buy bits to support their favorite
streams.
Twitch

Only Twitch partners and affiliates, streamers with a proven
track record, are eligible to receive income from subscriptions
and bit donations. On YouTube, any creator with a Google AdSense
account can be eligible for ad revenue, and some gaming channels
now have access to a subscription option. Mixer Season 2 is
offering streamers a more direct path to monetization with a more
elaborate currency system and better incentives for viewers who
want to support the creators.

Here’s how Mixer’s 2 currencies will work

With the launch of Season 2, Mixer plans to use two separate
virtual currencies that allow viewers to support their favorite
streams in different ways. Users on Mixer can passively earn one
currency, called “Sparks”, by watching streams or streaming
themselves. Sparks can be spent to trigger special chat
interactions, called skills, which include animated stickers,
GIFs, simple games, and other effects that appear over the Mixer
stream overlay. The effects are considerably more involved and
intentionally more interactive than the emotes offered by Twitch.

The
skill tray, pictured above, lets viewers spend sparks for
different stickers and effects.
Mixer

Spending sparks while watching will help boost the creator’s
channel, and streamers become eligible for a payout after
reaching certain spark milestones. The second currency, Mixer
“Embers”, has not been released yet, but will only be available
for cash purchase. Embers will be able to trigger exclusive
skills and can be used to tip streamers directly.

Streamers get clear financial rewards when viewers use
their sparks on the channel.
Mixer

Whether it’s Sparks, Embers or Bits, the point of the currency is
to encourage viewers to support what they’re watching. As season
2 continues Mixer plans to provide added incentive for spending
sparks with a progression system for viewers. Spending more
sparks with the same streamer will give the viewer access to more
unique skills and channel-specific perks.

Behind the scenes, Mixer will also be implementing automatic
bitrate switching for a smoother viewing experience from mobile
devices or less stable internet connections. Creators will also
have greater control over their stream feed with the
implementation of the RTMP standard used by Twitch and YouTube
and the adoption of Mixer’s FTL streaming protocol on more
devices.

The Mixer development team plans to release Embers and the viewer
progression system in the coming weeks while solidifying the
other Season 2 improvements. Sparks and skill abilities are
already live on the platform and creators are able to use their
new tools to set clear goals for their stream. Visit Mixer to
learn more about Season 2 and try out Microsoft’s streaming
platform for yourself.