A new competitor has entered the live streaming ring, and it's coming straight for the throne.

Facebook ($FB) has released the Facebook Gaming App (the name is just so no one forgets who made it) and it's available on Android devices right now. It allows anyone to stream games from their phones, which includes highlighting Facebook's casual games alongside juggernauts like Fortnite. The release was moved up from June to now, just because so many people are stuck in their houses, bored out of their minds. 

While Facebook has poured a lot of money into games on its platforms, VR kits by Oculus, and now live streaming, it has an uphill climb to reach the top of the mountain. Amazon's ($AMZN) Twitch has been the dominant service for gamers, streamers, esports, and everything in between for years now. By every conceivable metric, Twitch is lightyears ahead of YouTube Gaming, Facebook Gaming, and Microsoft's Mixer.

Since we don't have any data on Facebook's latest app (yet!), we have to compare the king of online gaming to its closest rival, Mixer. The comparisons are not flattering for Microsoft ($MSFT). 

The last six months for Mixer have been a test to see if signing the most popular streamer in the world, Ninja, was a smart move for Microsoft. They spent millions to sign him to an exclusive deal, and saw a 9% increase to their Twitter following. Twitch's Twitter following went up 4%, but is still 6 million followers ahead.

No matter where you look within our data, Twitch is always at least a million people ahead in terms of viewers, fans, followers, likes - you name it. It's been around for longer, has more streamers using it, more channels and topics and games, and even more old TV if you're not into games.

There's been a rash to sign top tier talent and popular streamers to exclusive contracts, which is how YouTube is looking to increase its gaming platform. But at the end of the day, the FAANG tech giants will dump endless amounts of money into every industry to just grow and see if anything sticks. Video games make more money than any other form of entertainment, and it remains to be seen if these new platforms by Google ($GOOG), Microsoft, or Facebook will put a dent into Twitch.

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

Further Reading: 

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