YouTube Gaming: what happened, and why it shut down

YouTube Gaming was a dedicated app and website for game videos and live streams, launched by YouTube in the US and UK on 26 August 2015 as an answer to Twitch, with game pages, live chat and later Super Chat and channel sponsorships. YouTube announced in September 2018 that it would fold Gaming back into the main app and shut the standalone app and site on 30 May 2019.

Timeline [edit]

2015

26 August 2015 Launch

YouTube Gaming launches in the US and UK

App, website, live streams and 25,000 game pages.

2016

1 September 2016 Feature

Sponsorships

A $3.99 monthly channel subscription, first on Gaming.

2017

12 January 2017 Feature

Super Chat

Paid highlighted messages, born on Gaming, later on all of YouTube.

2018

18 September 2018 Shutdown announced

Gaming to move into the main YouTube app

The standalone app to be retired in 2019.

2019

30 May 2019 Shutdown

Standalone app and site closed

gaming.youtube.com redirects to youtube.com/gaming.

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: On 18 September 2018 YouTube said the standalone Gaming app would be retired in March 2019 (later 30 May) and replaced by a Gaming destination inside the main YouTube app and site. Its reasoning was that most game video was already being watched in the main app and that the separate app "has a much smaller audience"; the features that worked, such as Super Chat, sponsorships and dark mode, had already been moved into YouTube proper.

Our analysis: YouTube Gaming was built to stop Twitch, which Amazon had bought a year earlier for $970 million, from owning live game streaming. But YouTube already had the largest gaming audience on earth inside its main app, and asking creators and viewers to move to a second one only split it. Once the useful pieces had been copied back, the standalone app was a redundant front door. Twitch kept live; YouTube kept everything else.

History [edit]

A door built for Twitch's audience

Amazon bought Twitch in August 2014, reportedly after Google had tried to. A year later, on 26 August 2015, YouTube launched YouTube Gaming: a separate app for Android and iOS and a site at gaming.youtube.com that showed only game content, with a page for each of more than 25,000 games, live streams up front, a dark theme, 60 fps playback, DVR on live video and a search that assumed you meant the game, not the animal. It launched in the US and UK and rolled out to more countries over the following year.

Gaming was where YouTube tried things first: a mobile app that could stream your phone screen, then Sponsorships (a $3.99 monthly channel subscription) in 2016 and Super Chat, paid highlighted messages, which arrived in January 2017 and became a big part of YouTube's creator economy. Its dark mode was so popular that it went to the whole of YouTube.

Folded back in

The problem was that YouTube itself already had the largest gaming audience anywhere; PewDiePie, Markiplier and Jacksepticeye lived in the main app, and the Gaming app added little for their viewers beyond a filter. On 18 September 2018 YouTube announced a Gaming destination inside the main app and site and said the standalone app would go in March 2019. The date slipped to 30 May 2019, when the app was removed from the stores and gaming.youtube.com began redirecting to youtube.com/gaming.

Nothing was lost except the separate app; the streams, channels and features had all been merged. Twitch stayed the home of live game streaming, and YouTube stayed the home of everything else, until it started signing Twitch streamers to exclusive deals in 2020.

The domain today

gaming.youtube.com redirects to youtube.com/gaming, the Gaming section of the main site.

Last verified: 16 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).

YouTube Gaming

Timeline [edit]

The site through time

Ownership [edit]