All Instant Games will be now be available to Facebook users as part of the app’s new “Play Lab” tier, “which will allow games that previously may not have passed Quality Review to go live on our platform in a way that allows them to acquire users, collect feedback, and experiment,” the company wrote in a blog post.
Under the Play Lab tier, Instant Games can have a designated game page and grow their player base via paid user acquisition, social discovery, and community building and be able to be discovered via Search, but will not be distributed through Facebook's organic discovery or editorial surfaces.
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Meta has also devised a tier for higher-quality Instant Games as well in order to help guide users toward games that have passed Quality Review.
The company says “Play Tab” games will be distributed across its organic discovery surfaces and available for promotion in editorial units.
Facebook has been attempting to build out its free gaming offerings for the past several years. The company launched a designated Facebook Gaming app in April 2020 but shut it down last October, transitioning games, streamers and gaming groups to the Gaming tab on the Facebook app.
This past April, the platform also introduced multiplayer games in the Messenger app, allowing users to play games together during video calls.
Now, the easier uploading process may lead to more users taking advantage of Instant Games, which could increase ad views on the channel.
Because all Instant Games, even those that are of lesser quality, are subject to Meta's Developer Policies and Platform Terms, advertisers can assume their ads won't appear beside harmful, offensive or unchecked content.