Mixer.com (formerly Beam.pro) is Microsoft's streaming service, competing head on with Amazon's Twitch. Mixer differentiates itself with extremely low latency between streamer and viewer, in addition to its interactive API allowing viewers to trigger events within live streams.
Today, Microsoft announced that Mixer hit 10 million monthly active users, and while that pales in comparison to Twitch, which has over 100 million, Mixer has definitely experienced growth since becoming integrated with Xbox and Windows 10.
Additionally, Microsoft announced that Mixer viewers will soon be able to purchase games for Xbox and Windows 10 directly from the live stream they're watching, and partnered Mixer streamers will receive a cut of the profit. Microsoft also announced that it hopes to expand the system, dubbed the Mixer Direct Purchase program, to other storefronts in the future, perhaps including the likes of Steam.
Soon, Mixer will also bring in a donation system, allowing viewers to donate to Mixer streamers directly without having to go through a third-party service, such as StreamTip. Although Mixer will, of course, continue to support third-party systems.
Microsoft's investment in Mixer is far from over, with the site seeing regular stability improvements and new features. It remains to be seen whether Mixer can avoid the fate of Groove Music, Lumia, Kinect, Microsoft Band, and all of the other great products Microsoft has killed in recent years, but Mixer forms a core pillar of Xbox's overall strategy to engage gamers wherever they are and regardless of what they're doing. Hopefully, Mixer will be one Microsoft service that manages to stick around.
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