You guys are silly.
Monkey, AND GLBasic are buried under so many other languages that i cannot even find them with moderate patience of reading all the links, on Google when searching for a basic compiler.
How can you say Monkey is winning compared to GLBasic when neither is really on the main stream charts.
Until today i never even heard of monkey.
Of course you won't find anything about monkey when searching for BASIC compiler - if you search after "car" you won't get results for an amphibious vehicle... Monkey is officially not called a "BASIC" dialect (at least it is not mentioned on the website)
I think GLBasic and Unity/TGM/... are just two different horses. GLB is a programming language while Unity is a game engine (that doesn't even have its own language, just using C#). Unity has its own 3d editor with all that fancy stuff - GLB gives you the freedom to make it yourself. So I don't think it makes sense to compare GLB and Unity.
And as far as I know, monkey is the only programming language that has a similar "concept". It compiles its source to another high level language, is really just a language and not an overbloated game editor. I don't know any other language (maybe haxe) that offers that like GLB and monkey. So I say: These two are the main competitors.
All in all: Monkey (I think one of the biggest competitors of GLB) supports more (important) targets, has a more powerful language and costs around the same (of course some other disadvantages...) - I think GLB should not stay and improve so Monkey is not winning 
.
I really loathe Monkey myself. Two massive strikes against it for me are that a) it only has a simplistic 2D library with it and no 3D, and b) it's a source to source compiler which means you have to organise your own compiler for each platform (unless I've missed something somewhere). I like GLB because it comes with (most of) what you need to compile for various platforms -- the obvious exception being iOS based devices thanks to Apple's obnoxious more-Microsoft-than-Microsoft approach to its business model.
The third strike against it is the fact that it's by Mark Sibly. 
Disclaimer: Of course these are just my opinions and most others might not agree with them, and as I have a few bones to pick with Mark Sibly I'm probably not the most balanced person around when it comes to discussions about Blitz Research products.
So setting some enviroment variables it too much work? I can see your point - Initially it can be frustating to set up these compilers and find out what's wrong. But I don't think once you have got everything running that is a serious problem. When trying to compile to iOS, Android and webOS with GLB you also have to set up your machine. And the other targets, well, they are working awesome
Edit: BTW the most interesting thing I find about Game Maker Studio and Yoyo's new approach to its pricing is the fact that they've decided (heck they even stated somewhere, and I'd find you the link if I could be bothered) that they are more interested in having its products used by "Professionals" than Game Makers usual users -- an attitude they have obviously reflected with their new pricing scheme. The problem I see with that is the development package market is already flooded with tools that are more established in the "professional" arena, and most of those come with 3D available from the start (even though you may have to pay extra for it). Sure Yoyo has stated they will look at adding that later, but I suspect most "professionals" would want that choice now. Also by targeting this new market almost exclusively thanks to their new pricing structure they have managed to snub the people who have supported Game Maker all these years, therefore wont be able to rely on that market helping support them while they look to gain inroads into the "professional" market.
I don't know anything about Game Maker. But as far as I can tell, this piece of code is much overprized
Last but not least I want to say: I am a developer. And the most important thing as a developer is to stay as objective as possible when it comes to your toolchain and your work flow. Always consider using another target/platform/editor/banana, and just because you don't like the color of the website (I'm exaggerating) not using a software is, in my opinion, contra productive.
