Facebook Gaming is overrun with strange videos and scams

The fast fade of Facebook Gaming shows Meta’s challenge in driving young people and their vibrant communities to its flagship social network, and the limitations of its strategy to copy competitors’ successful products. — AFP

Facebook Gaming was supposed to be the social media giant’s answer to Amazon.com Inc’s Twitch – a place to watch people play video games. Four years after its promising launch, the service has turned into an eerie digital ghost town where some of the most-watched accounts aren’t even gamers, some of the top live streams aren’t even live, and a large portion of the real gamers’ video views have disappeared.

The typical fare on a game-streaming site involves a player narrating as they play. But on a recent February morning, the No. 1 spot on Facebook Gaming was dominated by video from the military game Arma 3 billed as footage of Russia’s Ukraine invasion. Other top videos included a montage of chiropractic footage and an unmanned digital double-decker airplane, floating with no narration.