The Facebook Gaming app will shut down in October

For years, Facebook has been working to compete in the livestreaming space, and even acquired Mixer's assets after Microsoft shut the service down a few years ago. While streaming on Facebook will continue, the dedicated Facebook Gaming app will be shutting down soon. 

Meta announced this week that it plans to shut down the Facebook Gaming app for iOS and Android on the 28th of October. After that date, the app will no longer be functional.

Since launch, Facebook Gaming has been the main app for watching livestreams, some of which come from some very big streamers like Gothalion, who signed an exclusive deal with Mixer months before the service shut down. After Mixer's closure, all partners were offered a new deal with Facebook Gaming, or alternatively, they could get out of their deal early and go to a rival site like Twitch or YouTube. Some, like Ninja, chose to return to Twitch, while others moved over to a new deal with Facebook.

Facebook livestreaming will still exist within the main Facebook app and website, but with the Facebook Gaming app shutting down, we do wonder if we'll see anymore big streamer signings for the service, or if Facebook will focus on retaining the streamers it already has, and attracting newcomers to the space to help build the userbase.

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KitGuru Says: Microsoft couldn't get the job done with Mixer, and Facebook doesn't exactly have much pull with the core gaming audience, which made it highly unlikely that Facebook Gaming would succeed where Mixer failed. 

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