Facebook is not only upping its live-streaming video feature, it’s also looking to expand into live-stream video gaming. Now, the company plans to take on the likes of Twitch and YouTube in order to widen the type of activity and content available for users. So how will Facebook fare, and should competitors be concerned? 

In a deal with World of Warcraft and OverWatch developer Blizzard Entertainment, Facebook will soon be enabling video gamers to live stream their games in News Feed. Users will then be able to share and discuss this content with their viewers, as they would on Twitch, for instance. Blizzard Entertainment itself already boasts tens of millions of subscribers, while those who regularly play games on Facebook or with a Facebook log in on other sites, is projected to be around 650 million. This partnership will clearly enable an even greater number of gamers to subscribe to or continue to use Blizzard with their Facebook details, putting the site at the forefront of live game streaming. Facebook’s past history for gamers though hasn’t been particularly prolific, with social games such as Zynga’s FarmVille and Candy Crush the most popular to date. There’s also the widely played “Clash of Clans”, a social game which allows users to build villages and troops, and engage with groups of players to wage wars.

Analysts predict that over 500 million people worldwide will regularly watch live stream games this year, predominantly on Twitch and YouTube- Twitch alone for instance, already has around 100 million users each month. This shows huge potential for Facebook to tap into this area, especially when it’s already a popular platform with users for playing connected games. The advantage of this is also the fact that gamers and spectators won’t have to leave the site in order to view games- everything is directly viewable in NewsFeed. It’s clear that Facebook is following in the footsteps of the likes of YouTube for instance, who just last year also released their own standalone app solely for video game live streaming entitled YouTube Gaming, which has since become the most popular channel for gamers. With Facebook already having their growing and successful live-stream video feature in place, we think the ground is ripe for this sector.

However, the potential problem we see with Facebook’s new partnership, is the fact that social games are not always well received on a platform meant for connecting with friends, family and communities. The other contentious area is that gamers have a reputation for being “anti-Facebook”, with the gaming community instead turning to YouTube and Twitch for the purposes of playing and discussion- figures show that these two video platforms currently account for a combined 71% of activity from gamers, a large figure that could be hard territory to break into. There’s also the issue of monetization- prolific gamers can earn thousands per month on Twitch and YouTube from ad revenue and brand sponsorships, whereas it’s not yet clear if a royalty scheme will be in place on Facebook. Only time will tell if Facebook can refine its features enough to appeal to the gaming market, but if it does, we imagine there will be enough space for the platform to prosper.

Are you an avid gamer or fan? Do you think Facebook will succeed in this area? We’d love to hear your thoughts as always, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments on our Facebook page.