A peek into the world of Facebook gaming creators – Lessons in monetisation

India is emerging as one of the largest gaming markets in the world, and Facebook has seen an increased focus on gaming on its platform, especially gaming videos in the country. Facebook Gaming is building the world’s gaming community a place for everyone to play games, watch gaming videos, and connect through gaming content and groups. Developers, publishers, and creators are using Facebook Gaming to find an audience and monetise.

Over the last year, viewership of live gaming videos in India has grown by over 530% (August 2021).

Meta provides a value platform to creators, irrespective of the stage they are at in their creator journeys. To support gaming creators, Facebook has several programmes, which aid a gaming enthusiast’s journey, such as ‘The Gaming Creator Programme’ and ‘Level Up programme’ that help gaming creators build and grow their communities on Facebook and work hand in hand with them to shape the future of gaming video. Meta recently launched ‘Next Level’ across 24 Tier 2 and 3 cities to identify and train next-gen gaming creators across different universities in India.

Facebook Gaming provides monetisation tools for gaming creators to earn a livelihood on Facebook. Eligible gaming creators have access to a full suite of monetisation tools on Facebook Gaming – from ad revenue to Stars, Fan Subscriptions and more.

Given the increasing popularity of short-form videos as an essential way for creators to communicate with and grow their audience, Meta recently launched Clips to Reels, for gaming video creators on Facebook to convert live gameplay clips into Reels. This will enable gaming creators to attract new viewers across Facebook by creating 60-second Reels from existing Facebook Gaming content.

To get an idea of how Meta helps the gaming ecosystem to thrive, let’s take a look at the stories of two gaming creators on FB.

Nonngem Konyak (Taisen Gaming)

Taisen always had the will and conviction to do something different. After having witnessed her passion for gaming first hand, her husband recommended her to start streaming and reach more people. There was no looking back for Taisen after this. She grew remarkably as a Facebook gamer, with an aim to make more people aware about gaming as a career in North East India. Within the first few months of her journey, she managed to get her first sponsor, making gaming a full-time career. During the pandemic, Taisen was able to single-handedly support her family by streaming online after her husband lost his job.

Nonngem Konyak started streaming on Facebook in 2021. According to her, it has been a great platform for her growth and journey. “The Facebook Gaming team is always there to support us as they guide me with what works and what doesn’t while keeping me updated with the latest trends in order to make relevant content for my viewers. Due to their continuous guidance, I have witnessed a steady increase in my followers by around 250K. Facebook has helped turn my dreams into reality as Facebook Gaming’s monetisation, content and streams help creators earn through the platform and make us self-reliant. Gaming has provided me with the financial freedom to pursue my interest as a full-time professional. Being able to stream games gives me satisfaction and joy at the same time with financial gains,” she says.

With regard to the widespread notion that youngsters are whiling away their time on games, Konyak says, “Our society has always considered academic qualifications and mainstream job titles like engineers, doctors or chartered accountants to be of the utmost regard. Gaming is a new field with a lot of scope, and it is something that society is still learning about. I believe that there is an immense scope in the gaming industry, and if one is dedicated and sincere, then they will ultimately get the success. In today’s time, one should explore as much as one can and not restrict themselves. One thing that could be done to change the perception is to create more awareness about gaming as a profession and how it can be a sustainable career option and not just be limited to a hobby.”

Small towns

Coming from India’s Tier 2 and 3 cities and towns, what were her experiences and challenges?

If you are a gamer from a non-metro city, then the first resistance that you would face will be from your family as you will have to convince them about your decision to pursue gaming as a full-time profession, says Konyak. “You should have immense faith and should be determined about your choice. The other challenges that I faced were pertaining to the cost involved in setting up the game streaming equipment. Initially, there was a lack of sponsors who take some time to invest in early-stage gamers. But in order to achieve my dreams, I managed to convince my family and asked for six months’ time to show progress and results. I gave my full time to streaming to get to a point wherein my family started believing in my decision,” she says.

According to her, the Indian gaming community is still at a nascent stage, and there is a lot of development yet to happen, while the gamers in the West already have a competitive edge because of the readily available resources, games, Internet connectivity and sponsors. Whereas in India, she adds, the streamers at an early stage struggle to get the right resources. “But nonetheless, Indian gamers are skilled and at the rate at which this sector is growing, I believe very soon we would be competing at a global level with a lot more participation.” 

Does she have any suggestions/ advice to aspiring gamers, especially in smaller towns and cities in India?

“I always suggest to my fellow gamers to make streaming their passion and look at it as a full-time profession rather than a hobby,” she says. “A few things to get started are to get a stable Internet connection and decent devices. Then they should work on honing their skills, participate in gaming events, make their social media presence stronger, and regularly stream. In the beginning, they might not have a massive following, but with consistent efforts and patience, they will be successful.”

Konyak says that PC and console games have started to become more popular. Games like GTA 5, Unchartered, Last of Us, The Lost Legacy and other story-based games are getting a lot of attention from gamers in India.

Harkaran and Angad (TechGoggles)

The sibling-duo, Hakaran and Angad, are the fastest growing gaming creators on Facebook with a following of 894K. They started streaming at the age of 15 and 22, respectively, due to their love of gaming. When Angad, the older sibling, witnessed that he was earning more in gaming than his 9-5 job, both the brothers thought of investing their full time into gaming and making a career out of it. Their parents were in complete support of this decision as they saw massive growth opportunities in the field of gaming. Due to the hard work and perseverance of Angad and Hakaran, they were able to gift their father a Mercedes C class. The parents couldn’t have been prouder than they were.

Harkiran and his brother Angad Singh had always been passionate about gaming and technology since childhood. Having grown up together, they always enjoyed playing all kinds of games together. It was only seven years ago that they casually decided to explore content creation with their page TechGoggles on Facebook. However, they did not take to gaming straight away. On Facebook, they started by reviewing gadgets and curating content around technology. Once they had made enough money to buy their gaming PC, then they started pursuing gaming full time. 

“With the help of Facebook, we have been able to reach millions of people, not only in India but across the world. Today, we not are only earning to support ourselves, but also our families through gaming,” they say.

There are a lot of negative notions that the society at large has towards gaming and they mostly stem from the lack of awareness, say Harkiran and Angad Singh.

“Since we have been in the industry for over five years now, we have witnessed a positive change, particularly in the last two years. As more and more people are becoming aware about the monetisation aspect of gaming, the acceptance is slowly growing. Additionally, in our opinion, anything consumed excessively and out of proportion can have a negative impact. So, it's very important to maintain a balance no matter what profession you are in. For kids who are really passionate about gaming and want to pursue it as a career, I would recommend them to join the Facebook Gaming creator community as it can help them turn their passion into a well-paying profession. And most importantly, once you start following your passion, what the society thinks eventually takes a back seat,” says the duo.

One of the key challenges faced by the brothers was the lack of society’s understanding around gaming as a profession and around what they aim to do. “Our parents, however, were extremely supportive and never stopped us from taking up gaming. As we overcame this, we initially had issues streaming from home since we did not have a proper set-up and the right kind of devices. Slowly and steadily, we bought the equipment that we needed and started streaming at full scale. You will always find challenges, but with faith and consistency we all can overcome them and be successful,” say the bothers.

According to the brothers, Indian gaming is evolving at a rapid pace and a lot of creators in India have been creating content on Facebook, which is being consumed globally. So, they add, the Indian gaming community is almost at par, if not ahead, with the global community.

The brothers believe in smart work, which means constantly adapting to the needs and demands of the audience to help them stay connected with their community and grow. According to them, it is extremely important to consistently improve content one day at a time, even if resources are limited. “Our advice would also be to initially start small, with whatever resources you have as a gamer and slowly scale up and expand, depending on your engagement levels,” they add.

Harkiran and Angad Singh say that they are now seeing a lot of creators streaming content for PC games. “Even audiences are more interested in story-based games mostly played on PC. Another strong trend that we are witnessing today is short-form videos. Back when we started, people preferred longer content, varying from two to three hours. Today, people prefer Reels, and shorter content.”