Esports news site Blix.gg will shut down editorial operations tomorrow, January 16th, Blix.gg Project Manager Slava Britvin has announced on social media.
Blix.gg’s parent company EX CORP confirmed that it has decided to ‘freeze’ the project in a statement sent to Esports Insider, though did not rule out some form of return.
Blix.gg is an esports news outlet that provides breaking news, interviews and reporting across a wide variety of esports titles. The publication is owned by EX CORP, a holding company that also owns in-game skin trading site CS.MONEY, among other esports companies.
In a statement sent to Esports Insider, EX CORP said the publication had seen great results but was not a sustainable business in current market conditions.
Timofey Sobolevsky, COO of EX CORP, said: “We started Blix.gg as an internal startup in EX CORP. Even though the team managed to gain great results both in terms of the audience and the quality of the content they produced, it has become clear that it will be extremely difficult to run media as a sustainable business during the esports winter and expect any ROI in the foreseeing future.
“This is why we have decided to freeze the project, though we do not exclude the possibility of running some other content-related projects in the future.”
Project Manager Slava Britvin said in his post on X, which was reposted by the official Blix.gg X account, that there were ‘many factors’ that led to the decision, including the so-called esports winter.
“With a heavy heart I have to say that Blix.gg project will basically shut down the editorial operations starting tomorrow,” Blix.gg Manager Slava Britvin commented in his X post. “There are many factors [that] led to such an end, but also esports winter hitting us, so it is how it is.” Britvin said further details would be released at a later date.
Blix.gg received roughly 245,000 monthly site visits in December 2023, according to web analytics site Similarweb. On its website, the outlet lists seven managerial staff and 42 writers.
The outlet notably breaks lots of esports pro player signings and roster moves. Blix.gg also has match coverage and tournament statistics integrated into its website.
Multiple now-former Blix writers took to social media to announce the end of their time at Blix and that they are looking for new work.
The shutdown comes amid a difficult period for esports news publications amid a market correction in esports, dubbed the ‘esports winter’, alongside broader difficulties successfully monetising online news media.
Numerous esports news publications have shut down or undergone widespread layoffs in recent years, including Washington Post’s Launcher, Upcomer, Inven Global, ShiftRLE and more.
