YouTube has a new destination for gamers as it plans to shutter gaming app

By Trevor Mogg Published September 19, 2018

Google is retiring its YouTube Gaming app and folding some of the features into a new gaming destination on its main site, the company said on Tuesday, September 18.

The app launched in 2015 as part of efforts to take on video-gaming platform Twitch, but in a post on the YouTube blog on Tuesday, the company said it intends to retire the Android and iOS app in March 2019 and instead turn its attention to improving its gaming offerings on the main YouTube site.

Recommended Videos

YouTube Gaming — the app and desktop versions — offers livestreams and archived videos of tens of thousands of games, each one with its own page. Live chats with other gamers is another feature of the service, and players can peruse video recommendations based on their favorite games.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

In its post, YouTube said that although it has a “strong and vibrant audience” for its gaming app, “the amount of gamers we are able to reach is far bigger on YouTube,” which around 200 million gamers visit on a daily basis. In other words, too few people were downloading and using the YouTube gaming app.

A brand-new gaming destination can be found at youtube.com/gaming (YouTube’s old gaming site is still live at the time of writing), which should include enough stuff to keep even the most dedicated gamers happy. As you’d expect, you’ll find top live games and the latest gaming videos from your subscriptions, as well as dedicated shelves for livestreams and trending videos. Keen to grow its creator base, YouTube will also be highlighting up-and-coming creators who are emerging as popular figures among YouTube’s gaming fans.

YouTube’s gaming app allowed Google developers to test new features that included “Game Pages for better discoverability, Super Chat and Channel Memberships to help fans show support for their favorite creators, and Dark Theme.” Audience response to these features was “so positive” that developers transferred them from the YouTube Gaming app to the main YouTube experience.

YouTube said more than 50 billion hours of gaming content was viewed on its streaming service in 2017. With this renewed effort to improve the experience for gamers on its main site, it can realistically hope to push that figure even higher throughout the rest of this year.

Topics

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Gaming

Netflix games may be coming to TVs soon, as revealed by new iOS app

Selecting a game in Netflix Games.

It looks like Netflix might be expanding its gaming offerings to TVs soon, as a Netflix Game Controller is now on the iOS App Store. Netflix has yet to announce or comment on the purpose of the app, but a message shown when the app boots up confirms that it's coming.
Netflix has slowly made its way into the gaming industry over the past couple of years, acquiring studios and adding a dedicated game section to its mobile app that lets players download premium mobile games. The library includes some great games like Poinpy and Before Your Eyes, but has yet to break into the mainstream, likely due to its somewhat obscure availability. This new app, which was preemptively listed on Apple's storefront by Netflix and lines up with leaks from earlier this year, indicates that Netflix Games are coming to the TV.
The description for the app states that "this Game Controller app pairs with your TV and allows you to play games on Netflix using your phone or mobile device." After downloading and booting up the app, Digital Trends discovered two more messages asking players to "choose a game on your TV and follow the directions to connect" and that "Netflix Games on TV are in beta. Some devices may not be supported at this time."
All of this points to an impending beta rollout for games on Netflix's TV apps, which has not been announced yet. As such, we don't have any idea about which televisions or games the iOS app or Netflix Games on TV will support just yet. Regardless, this looks like a massive evolution for Netflix's gaming efforts, especially as it gears up to release a cloud gaming service.
Netflix declined to comment on the program when asked by Digital Trends, but it did refer us to previous statements it made about its intentions to break into cloud and TV game streaming.

Giveaways

Celebrate our 1,000,000 YouTube subscriber milestone with us and win!

YouTube Subscriber Giveaway

Digital Trends 1,000,000 YouTube Subscriber Giveaway!

We did it! On November 27, 2022, the Digital Trends YouTube channel reached a major milestone: 1 million subscribers! We’ve been counting down for weeks, and now that the moment has finally arrived, we’re ready to celebrate with those who helped us get here (you!) by giving away more than $4,500 in prizes!

Gaming

EA Origin has been replaced with a new, faster PC app

The ea app homepage.

After the announcement in 2020 that the EA Origin marketplace would be shutting down, EA has released its next PC platform: the EA app.

Origin was EA's exclusive PC launcher for its titles first launched in 2011. It was intended to compete with other digital PC storefronts such as Steam, though it eventually integrated with its competitor to sell their titles on that service. Origin, however, was still required to run EA titles even if bought on Steam. Despite accumulating over 50 million registered users, the service was heavily criticized and maligned by the PC community due to security flaws and suspicions of spying on players. In late 2020, EA announced that it would retire Origin in favor of a new client simply called the EA app.