Facebook takes a step back in Gaming: closes the app with which it intended to compete with Twitch and YouTube

It’s been a little over two years since Facebook launched a dedicated gaming mobile app that it intended to compete with Twitch and YouTube called Facebook Gaming. Now, Meta’s leading social network has announced that the application will close soonalthough it has not revealed the reasons behind this decision.

When opening Facebook Gaming from a mobile device, the app warns that will no longer be available on October 28 on iOS and Android platforms. The web version of it, which can be found within the Games section of Facebook, will continue to work with streams from creators, web games, and its other features.

The closure of the Facebook Gaming application

Until October 28, the Facebook Gaming application for iOS and Android will continue to work normally, in fact it can still be downloaded from the App Store and Play Store. However, when this deadline arrives, it will no longer be downloadable and users will lose all the features of the platform that were available on mobile.

As we mentioned above, there is no official explanation about the reasons for the closure of the Facebook Gaming application, but we can get an idea of ​​why this platform was born. Part of the philosophy of Meta, the parent company of the social network, is to incorporate functions that are working well for the competition.

Precisely when Facebook Gaming was announced in 2018, Twitch was the leading platform for video game broadcasts and was followed by YouTube and Mixer (the latter, owned by Microsoft, closed in 2020). Mark Zuckerberg’s company wanted to enter this sector with a strong proposal to attract creators and viewers.

In the years that followed, it developed exclusivity deals for some streamers, a content creators program similar to Twitch affiliates, and a (soon to be defunct) mobile app. Despite efforts, Facebook Gaming is third on the viewing hours podium behind Twitch and YouTube.

What do we lose with the closure of the Facebook Gaming app?

The Facebook Gaming mobile app allows users to screencast comments over the microphone, view other creators’ broadcasts, and even play little gamesalthough the latter never materialized in the iOS version due to the rules of the App Store.

For now, Facebook Gaming will continue to live within the web version of Facebook with all these functions, although we do not know if the company could retire it in the future. Yes indeed, Meta is testing a new live streaming appalso similar to Twitch, called “Super” that seeks creators to earn money from their streams.

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