YouTube has unveiled new stats on its gaming content, as well as a plan for how it aims to grow that market on its platform in the near future. This year has seen some tremendous growth, with over 800 billion gaming-related views, over 90 million hours live-streamed, and over 250 million uploads being logged in just the first half of 2021.
According to YouTube’s global head of gaming, Ryan Wyatt, the streaming platform’s plan to expand will involve investing in more content creators such as Dr Lupo and TimTheTatMan, continued support for esports through events such as the Minecraft Championships Pride 2021, and continuing to promote short-form videos with the $100 million Shorts Fund.
YouTube also plans to work on creating new tools that will help viewers discover live content, add more monetization options, expand the available options for chat, and continue developing the Live Redirect for Gaming feature which will send viewers into other streams.
“YouTube Gaming recognizes that content creators will be more important than ever to game developers over the next 5 years,” Wyatt explained in a blog post. “It’s no longer about bringing games to creators when they want marketing support on launch. They’ll be there as true partners–influencing creative direction, functionality, and formats.”
YouTube’s in a prime position to grow its gaming community as its biggest competition in this space, Twitch, faces several challenges of its own. The platform added more tools to help users combat “hate raids” after much prodding from its community to be more proactive much push from the Twitch community, while the previously mentioned Dr Lupo and TimTheTatMan jumped ship and joined YouTube.
YouTube’s other rival in this space will be Facebook, with that company announcing this week its own plans to spend $10 billion developing its metaverse. With thousands of people working on the concept, Facebook’s parent group has even rebranded itself to Meta and will begin working to make itself known as more than just a social media company.
Source: Gamespot
