Mixer
Also known as Beam
- Cause of death
- Killed by indifference
- Made by
- Microsoft
Mixer never reached the viewership scale needed to compete with Twitch and YouTube, so Microsoft closed it and moved its community to Facebook Gaming.
Microsoft bought the startup Beam Interactive in 2016, relaunched it as Mixer in 2017, and paid millions to pull Ninja and Shroud off Twitch. None of it moved the numbers. Gaming chief Phil Spencer conceded Mixer had started 'pretty far behind' on monthly active viewers and never closed the gap, and the shutdown was announced during Apple's WWDC keynote, which is where you put news you would rather nobody read. Streamers got 30 days before every Mixer URL began redirecting to Facebook Gaming.
Replaced by Facebook Gaming.
Standing in the archive
Rank 108 of 127 by lifespan. Mixer outlasted 15% of everything else on file.
Cite this entry
"Mixer." How Long It Lasted, https://www.howlongitlasted.com/thing/mixer.
Died nearby
- Internet Explorer26y 9m · killed by a successor
- Kinectabout 6 years · killed by indifference
- Skypeabout 21 years · killed by a successor
- Zuneabout 4 years · killed by a successor
- Airbus A38014y 1m · killed by indifference
Sources
- Microsoft is shutting down Mixer and partnering with Facebook Gaming — The Verge
- Mixer Shutting Down, Microsoft Partnering With Facebook Gaming — GameSpot
- Microsoft kills Mixer, will push users to Facebook Gaming — TechCrunch
Last checked by a human on 24 July 2026