Twitch, YouTube Gaming, Facebook Gaming, and Mixer, a platform owned by Microsoft, are all vying to become the biggest game streaming platform in the US.
Facebook Gaming is experiencing pretty rapid growth, but it’s still lagging behind and is largely considered the underdog.
In December 2019, Facebook Gaming had a 210% increase in hours watched compared to December 2018.
But it still only has an 8.5% market share. To put that number in perspective, YouTube Gaming has a 27.9% share of hours watched, and Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, has a market share of 61%.
Facebook is still doing better than Mixer, though, which only has a 2.6% market share.
Even though Twitch has a lot of competition from the likes of Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, they’re still the clear leader in the game streaming market. Why?
Why Twitch is ahead
For a long time, YouTube Gaming was bringing in more revenue than Twitch. But that all changed last year.
Twitch generated $1.54 billion in revenue while YouTube Gaming brought in $1.46 billion.
Despite having a much smaller global audience than YouTube, Twitch managed to bring in more revenue, which is an impressive feat. If the trend continues, the revenue gap between Twitch and YouTube Gaming could keep widening.
Zach Oscar at MediaPost suggests that the reason why Twitch is more popular than YouTube Gaming is because gamers prefer live-streams over on-demand content.
YouTube offers a mix of on-demand and live-streamed content, but has a reputation for being a video-sharing platform.
YouTube just isn’t seen as the go-to place for live-streams like Twitch is, which may be why YouTube’s game streaming platform is lagging behind.
Facebook Gaming is likely struggling for the same reasons. People view Facebook as a social media site, not a destination for gaming and live-streaming, which will be a tough perception to change.
Why Facebook gaming is behind
Another reason why Facebook is so far behind the competition is because they’ve had trouble attracting top-quality talent over the years.
Facebook experienced a huge surge in views in December because they signed some big names in the gaming world, including Corrina Kopf and Hearthstone streamer Jeremy Wang.
After Mixer poached some popular streamers from Twitch, the platform experienced a significant increase in views too.
So the key to success for game streaming platforms in 2020 is to attract and retain enough top talent to drive views.
What we hope to see from Facebook in 2020
Facebook has the potential to give Twitch and YouTube Gaming a run for their money.
Facebook Gaming may be struggling to gain a foothold in the US, but the platform is already very popular in Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines.
Those also happen to be the places where Facebook is beta-testing its mobile app, which combines mini games, gaming groups, and videos with game streaming.
We’d like to see how rolling out a mobile app in the US would affect Facebook Gaming’s monthly views.
We also hope to see Facebook sign on some more popular streamers this year to build their talent base and keep pace with Twitch and YouTube.
A little competition makes everything better, especially gaming. We’re excited to keep following this story and see how this battle royale between Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Google plays out.