Facebook Watch has reached a major milestone. According to Variety, the streaming platform announced they are currently attracting over 1.25 billion users each month. The uptick in viewership is owed to live events, original shows, sports, news, music videos and user-generated content available on the platform.
Launched in 2017, Facebook Watch has proven to be a viable competitor to YouTube, which claims to have a little over two billion logged-in visitors monthly, Variety reports.
Over the last couple of years, Facebook Watch has become home to some culturally relevant shows, which have aided in its success. The platform has launched the Jada Pinkett-Smith helmed, “Red Table Talk,” and became the new home for Steve Harvey’s “Steve on Watch, after his show got cancelled by NBC. Facebook Watch also houses talent-driven docu-series such as “The Biebers on Watch,” featuring home-shot video by Justin and Hailey Bieber, as well as “Returning the Favor” with Mike Rowe.
The service has also hosted several culturally relevant and trendy live events lately, including “Change Together: From the March on Washington to Today” hosted by Queen Latifah and other celebs, as well as “#Graduation2020: Facebook & Instagram Celebrate the Class of 2020” which feaured appearances from Oprah, Miley Cyrus, among others.
“You don’t reach a billion of anything without focus and providing something of value,” said Matthew Henick, Facebook’s VP of content strategy and planning and product marketing. “There’s no denying a platform of our size can steer people anywhere temporarily — but what we’re seeing is consistent audience coming to Facebook Watch.”
While there’s no arguing that Faceook Watch has been magnetic, the company didn’t specify how much video people are actually watching on the platform. The 1.25 billion monthly average figures are accounting for anyone who has watched as little as one minute on Facebook Watch.