Facebook announced that it is shutting down Facebook Gaming app just two years after it was launched.
The Facebook Gaming app is a focused, gaming-only experience where you can watch your favourite streamers, play instant games and take part in gaming groups. This was supposed to be Facebook’s answer to Amazon’s Twitch.
As from October 28, 2022, the standalone gaming app will no longer be available on iOS and Android, but gaming features will still be accessible via the main Facebook app.

In an update on the app, the company said, “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 this app first launched. This was truly a community-led effort to bring new gaming features to Facebook.”
“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,” it added.
In a statement by Meta to Techcrunch, “We know how important gaming is to our community and remain committed to connecting our gaming community with the content they love. The standalone Facebook Gaming app has been an incredible environment for our gaming team to test and iterate on a wide variety of gaming-specific features and products, and many of these features have found a home in the main Facebook App. We’ll continue to support our gaming communities, developers, and creators on the main Facebook app where hundreds of millions of people play games, watch gaming video, and connect in gaming Groups each month.”
Since the app was launched two years ago during the COVID pandemic, it has struggled to compete in the video game streaming wars. Another tech giant, Microsoft shuttered its own app, live-streaming gaming platform, Mixer, in July 2020.
According to a recent streaming report published by StreamLabs, Facebook Gaming represented just 7.9% of the market share for hours watched in the second quarter of 2022 while Twitch came in tops with 76.7% of hours watched and YouTube Gaming Live accounted for 15.4%.