Continuing our series this week on gaming, today we look at the overlap of social and gaming content.
Gaming on Facebook has come a long way since the days of FarmVille. If we look at an audience of internet users interested in gaming, social motivations are focused around consuming content, with almost half using social to fill spare time or to find entertaining content, in both cases exceeding staying up-to-date with friends or the news.
The largest over-index for this group is using social to watch sports events. We have written before about how social networks like Facebook are competing with media broadcasters for sports rights in certain markets, but it is also making moves in the developing esports battleground. Alongside Amazon’s Twitch and Google’s YouTube Gaming, Facebook is challenging to become the content hub of choice to watch gaming streams.
To achieve this, Facebook has given financial incentives to streamers to drive usage of Facebook Live, and established a software development kit to allow gamers to stream directly from games, which should make an impact on the uptake of this feature.
86% of Gamers visited Facebook in the last month, so the user base is already there. Its next step is to build on connecting people and new networks around content creators in the livestream arena.
Gamers are defined as internet users aged 16-64 who say they have a strong interest in gaming.
