Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced a major new change that will greatly incentivize streamers to either switch to or continue to grow on Facebook Gaming.
While Twitch remains the dominant force in streaming, competitors such as YouTube and Facebook have been steadily growing in the background.
Since Mixer’s demise, it’s been quite quiet on the streaming wars front, with no Ninja- or shroud- caliber moves shaking up the ecosystem. Now, Mark Zuckerberg has announced a huge change that should pique a lot of streamers’ interests.
In a June 7 Facebook post, Zuckerberg revealed that Facebook will be keeping fan subscriptions, badges, and their upcoming independent news products free for creators for another two years.
Facebook had first introduced subscriptions at $4.99 back in 2018, the exact same price as a standard Twitch sub. However, Twitch takes 50% of the subscription fee, meaning that Facebook streamers are earning twice as much per sub.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
“And when we do introduce a revenue share, it will be less than the 30% that Apple and others take,” Zuckerberg further noted, referring to the entire Facebook creator sphere.
Seeing as streamers will be keeping all they earn until 2023, it will be interesting to see how many entertainers decide to make the swap or put more time and effort into streaming on Facebook.
The news also comes just over a month after Twitch announced some radical new sub options for users from countries with less valuable currency.
With Twitch’s “local sub pricing” aimed at helping viewers afford subscriptions and Facebook assisting streamers, there are two different philosophies at work.
Whether or not this tactic ends up resulting in some significant growth for Facebook Gaming remains to be seen, but it’s certainly something new to factor in when evaluating the ongoing streaming wars.
