The Facebook Gaming app, which allows users to view and play video games on-demand, will be shut down.
While gaming elements will still be accessible through the main Facebook app, Facebook Gaming will no longer be accessible on iOS and Android as of October 28.
The firm posted an update on the Facebook Gaming app, saying, “We want to offer our deepest appreciation to all of you for everything that you’ve done to develop a flourishing community for gamers and fans since this app first launched.”
It went on to say that the initiative to provide new gaming capabilities to Facebook was really community-led.
You may still discover your games, streams, and groups when you visit Gaming in the Facebook app despite this announcement. Our objective is still to connect players, fans, and creators with the games they love.
Facebook Gaming, which was introduced more than two years ago as the Covid-19 epidemic sparked a rise in both the playing and streaming of video games, was previously seen as a possible challenge to Twitch, the market leader.
The newly renamed parent firm Meta’s subsidiary, Facebook, has had trouble breaking into the market for live game streaming. In the second quarter of 2022, Facebook Gaming had just a 7.9% market share for hours seen, trailing Twitch (76.7%) and YouTube (15.4%), according to a report by market research firm Streamlabs.
Not the first online behemoth that has attempted to replicate the Twitch model and failed, including Facebook. After agreeing to a multimillion-dollar deal to have the well-known Fortnite player Tyler “Ninja” Blevins stream on its service only, Microsoft shut down its own streaming platform, Mixer, in 2020.
YouTube, Twitch’s main rival, has had greater success undercutting Twitch’s hegemony. Ludwig Ahgren, Rachell Hofstetter, and Timothy Betar, who go under the online monikers “Ludwig,” “Valkyrae,” and “TimTheTatman,” respectively, have all recently been lured away from Twitch by the company’s YouTube Gaming subsidiary.
