Facebook eyes major play in Indian gaming streaming space

With a view to bring in single app for users to play, stream games and build a community of followers, social media giant Facebook is creating a place for itself in the fast-growing and fiercely competitive online gaming and streaming segment in India, according to The Economic Times report. The company reported a dramatic growth, which was much larger than any of the gaming-specific platforms in recent times. The social media company has been growing in the segment in the last two years, it added.

It also said that, it has been encouraging Indian gaming publishers to start creating HTML-5 versions of their games for Facebook to reach global audiences.

During the July to August period this year, Facebook clocked 234 million gameplay sessions in India, making it the third ranked country with the most gameplay sessions.

The US based company said that more than 20 million people were active members in Facebook gaming groups in the same period of time. In the past one year, viewership has increased by over six times for live gaming videos in India.

Though the company did not disclose India’s viewership numbers, it said that more than 200 million people watch live gaming videos globally every month. The social media site has also launched several monetization tools for gaming creators and streamers, including advertisements and fan subscriptions.

Back in July, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he wanted Facebook platforms to be the best place to earn a living for millions of creators.

YouTube still on top in game streaming

For a long time, YouTube has dominated the gaming streaming space in India, with startups like Rheo TV and Loco also carve a niche for themselves.

Around the World, Twitch and YouTube are among the most popular apps for gamers to live stream their play. 2020, went on to become the biggest year for YouTube Gaming, with 100 billion watch time hours and 40 million-plus active gaming channels.