The battle for second place on the streaming podium continues, and alongside YouTube Gaming, there is another contender that has emerged right behind the unbeaten number 1 Twitch: Facebook Gaming. The streaming service continues to grow. How drastic is the situation for Twitch and YouTube really?
What is happening right now? Yesterday afternoon, the well-known software manufacturer Streamlabs published a statistic on Twitter that surprised some users on the web: Facebook Gaming has overtaken YouTube in the streaming sector and is continuing to grow (via twitter.com).
YouTube Gaming’s viewer numbers have stagnated for several months. Twitch also had to take a step back. Although Twitch remains by far the largest streaming platform, it lost around 11% watch time in Q3 2021 compared to Q2 2021. Apparently, this is due to the easing of restrictions caused by the Corona pandemic.
Watch time of streaming services in Q3 2021 in hours
- Twitch: 5.79 trillion (70.5%)
- Facebook Gaming: 1.29 trillion (15.7%)
- YouTube Gaming: 1.13 trillion (13.8%)
Facebook Comeback: How did the social media giant overtake YouTube?
While many younger people are convinced that Facebook will soon go extinct, the platform proves to be very much alive — even in the streaming sector. Not only has it overtaken YouTube as the second largest streaming platform, but Facebook is also climbing further up the mountain, even though it still needs some time and effort to reach the Twitch summit.
For YouTube, this must be particularly bitter, as YouTube has snatched some Twitch stars like Dr.Lupo or TimTheTatman for millions. But Twitch is also suffering some losses, having lost ground as well.
Twitch’s watch time has decreased by 11% compared to the previous quarter. But not only that, the number of channels broadcasting a stream is also declining: about 200,000 streamers have either given up their hobby or switched to competitors. Streamlabs also highlights this in the published report.
The figure of 200,000 sounds frighteningly high at first, but there are still about 10.2 million unique streamers on Twitch.
The only streaming platform that generates more viewers than in the previous quarter and thus is growing is Facebook Gaming. So the question remains: What is Facebook doing differently, perhaps even better than the other big platforms Twitch and YouTube?
Possible reasons for Facebook’s rapid growth
This is why Facebook is bigger: There isn’t a single detailed answer to the question of why Facebook has overtaken YouTube in the streaming sector. However, there are concrete indications that suggest why Facebook Gaming has surpassed YouTube.
A likely and perhaps already too obvious reason is the persistence of advertising and the sheer size of Facebook. After all, around 1.9 billion people still use the social media site daily (via backlinko.com). In comparison, YouTube is visited by “only” 122 million users daily (via globalmediainsight.com).
This means that the potential audience is many times larger. Coupled with the constant promotion of Facebook Gaming, this reaches many streaming enthusiasts sooner or later.
A look at Google Trends also shows that the search interest in Facebook Gaming is unusually high in regions like Egypt, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, or Peru.
People are searching for YouTube Gaming the most in Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka.
Twitch is most popular in South Korea, Spain, Portugal, Chile, and Peru.
This feature gives Facebook an edge over YouTube: Another reason for the faster growth of Facebook is said to be co-streaming. This feature was only introduced at the beginning of the month and seems to significantly contribute to Facebook’s overtaking process.
With co-streaming, creators can appear together in a broadcast that still runs on both channels simultaneously. Twitch has had this feature for a while now, but YouTube does not.
However, nobody can say for sure why Facebook Gaming has exploded in recent weeks.
