The standalone YouTube Gaming app is shutting down on May 30th. YouTube announced the impending shutdown last year, saying that the spinoff had caused “confusion” among gaming fans.
It integrated the service into its main app instead, launching a games-focused hub that has already mostly replaced the old YouTube Gaming.
In a help page, YouTube directs any remaining YouTube Gaming fans to this newer hub. It’s also merged YouTube and YouTube Gaming subscriptions, although people will apparently lose the list of games they’ve saved. “We launched YouTube Gaming as a standalone app for gamers where we tested out new features based on the gaming community’s feedback,” the page explains.
“We want to continue to build a stronger home for the gaming community that thrives on YouTube.”
YouTube Gaming launched in 2015. YouTube promoted it as a way to improve the live stream experience and keep irrelevant content away from gaming fans, in addition to being a testbed for features like channel memberships and a dark mode.
But according to the company, most users still watched gaming videos on the main app, and many didn’t even understand what YouTube Gaming was for. Its best features later came to the core platform — where far more people actually saw them.
