Like The Old One But Better!
I’ve never used the YouTube gaming app, though apparently I wasn’t missing much. It seems YouTube is launching a newer, better version of their dedicated gaming content, with this new incarnation looking to increase creator visibility and accessibility. Of course, they’re still cordoning off their gaming content to a separate area, but in a better way. Allegedly.
According to Ryan Watt, the head of YouTube Gaming, the app made finding some creators difficult. “The problem is, if you didn’t have the app, or you weren’t using the gaming hub to kind of like discover this content, creators weren’t as discoverable.” The solution to this issue can apparently be found in places like Twitch.
YouTube’s new gaming hub somewhat resembles their largest competitor, and that’s probably for the best. After all, Twitch is more or less built exclusively for gaming. Even producing a replica of the regular YouTube environment with a pure gaming focus will do wonders for creator visibility. These two strategies will hopefully let certain creators get the exposure they need. Of course, there’s still YouTube’s mysterious algorithms to contend with, but that’s a whole separate conversation. The original YouTube gaming app is still in operation, at least until next March. Meanwhile, the new hub is live right now.