YouTube will launch their dedicated Gaming service later today. Featuring content some of the biggest games – and gamers – in the world, this new service looks to begin a new chapter in the site’s history.
Available as a site and app, this new service aims to focus gaming in one place, with over 25,000 games having their own channels on the site – all hosting high quality live streams, the latest trailers and updates as well as covering championship events.
This new site will bring YouTube into competition with the streaming service Twitch. Currently the fourth biggest site in the US (behind Google, Apple and Netflix), Twitch is widely known in the gaming community as the go-to place for live streaming games, hosting hundreds of daily live streams of games and events, with over 100 million monthly views in 2014.
YouTube will also be looking to some of their current roster of ‘stars’ to help launch the channel – especially their most followed user, Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie – which will be first launched in the UK and US with more countries to follow.
YouTube Gaming is scheduled to launch today (August 26) at 6pm GMT.
Words by Megan Roxburgh