Facebook has announced that it will soon shut down the Facebook Gaming app for Android and iOS, a little over two years after it was released. In a recent announcement, the site announced that the gaming app will be unavailable from October 28, 2022 and will be removed from both Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Facebook rolled out the game streaming and gaming platform in 2018 to give competition to Twitch and YouTube. At that time the e-sport communities were all the rage. Later in 2020, Facebook launched an app for its gaming community and even established a creator programme. In 2020, Facebook also bought Mixer, a streaming app by Microsoft.
Now, Facebook is closing this gaming app and is removing it from app stores. It’s not clear why the tech giant is closing the streaming app. Facebook has not given any reason behind the shutdown. Facebook will be continuing its web-based version of Gaming service. It will also be available on Facebook’s main social media app.
“We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of you for everything that you’ve done to build a thriving community for gamers and fans since the app first launched. This was truly a community-led effort to bring new gaming features to Facebook,” Facebook cites in its official notice for the users.
The notice further reads, “Despite this news, our mission to connect players, fans and creators with the games they love hasn’t changed, and you’ll still be able to find your games, streamers and groups when you visit Gaming in the Facebook app.”
Facebook launched its Gaming service in 2018 which is accessible from the Facebook app itself. Later seeing popularity, the company launched a separate Facebook Gaming in April 2020. The platform lets users watch their favourite streamers, play instant games and be connected in gaming groups.
Although game streaming saw a spike in popularity during COVID-19, when people were staying home, this year the number of hours spent on such services have started to decline. According to data from Streamlabs, the number of hours spent watching game streaming on Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube decreased by 8.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2022. In both the first and second quarters of this year, Facebook Gaming had the fewest viewer hours of the three, with 803 million in Q1 and 580 million in Q2.
Significantly, a lot of features from the Facebook Gaming app are missing from the web version of the Facebook app. For instance, it doesn’t allow users to support live streaming of mobile games. However, the company might include these missing features in the main app by the time it shuts down the standalone Gaming app.
Similar to Facebook, YouTube earlier also introduced a Gaming app. The app was confused with the main platform and the company decided to incorporate it into the main site. Now one can find the YouTube gaming section on YouTube’s main app and site. It is possible that Facebook is planning to do the same to keep all its gaming users hooked on the main app.
