Shroud’s back home, boys!
And to no one’s surprise, his first stream back garnered nearly half a million audience before the stream even officially started.
His return to streaming also marked the reveal of his new branding and logo.
Twitch comeback
After Microsoft decided to shut down the rising live streaming platform Mixer, Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek, decided to return to Twitch on Wednesday.
“I’m coming home http://twitch.tv/shroud”
This decision comes after Mixer fully integrated with Facebook Gaming instead.
Many fans speculated about the possibility of Shroud moving to YouTube or Facebook, but turns out— he’s going home.
He was reportedly offered about $20 million to stay on at FB Gaming, but as it turns out, he declined and instead allowed his contract to be bought out.
Shroud’s impact on Twitch remains uncontested. In fact, he managed to attract nearly 500,000 active viewers in his comeback stream before it even officially started.
Many viewers showed and waited along with a “starting soon” message, before Shroud went live at 2:50PM ET.
More and more Twitch users continued to pour in, enough for Shroud to surpass half a million active viewers just a few minutes past the hour.
A little late?
Shroud was a little late to his original scheduled stream because of technical difficulties.
In case you missed it, it’s a reason he frequently cites when showing up late to scheduled streams that has turned to be an inside joke among his community.
However, he did say that his stream might remain capped at 720p as an end result of apparent bit rate and audio issues.
Early issues aside, Shroud played Riot’s new tactical shooter game Valorant. Through his gameplay, he maintained between 400,000 to 475,000 active viewers.
He acknowledged the remarkable viewership numbers on Twitter:
“I pictured an epic return… not quite like this though <3”
Shroud is to thank for more than 80 percent of the viewership of Valorant, which is currently at the top of the most-viewed Twitch charts.
He says:
“I am so excited to be able to announce my return to Twitch and more importantly get back to streaming.”
“As I was exploring options, I realised that there was no better place than Twitch to engage with the best and most loyal gaming community worldwide.”
“Twitch is where I was able to first turn my passion for streaming into a successful career – and it is all due to my incredible and loyal fanbase.”
Nicknamed as the “human aimbot,” Shroud rose to global prominence from playing FPS titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Even after leaving for Mixer, he still has over 7 million subscribers on Twitch.
Thankfully for his loyal fans, Shroud can now pick up where he left it off again with his online community.
