Several years ago, Google launched YouTube Gaming which is basically the company’s answer to platforms such as Twitch. However given that plenty of gamers had been streaming and posting game content on regular YouTube for a while now, YouTube Gaming just felt like a dedicated space for such content that made it easier to find what you wanted.However it seems that maybe it wasn’t as popular as Google had hoped for, because now it looks like Google has decided that maybe YouTube Gaming doesn’t need a dedicated website anymore. Google has confirmed that they will be shutting down the site, but note that this is only the website and that YouTube Gaming is still around.
Instead Google will now be moving YouTube Gaming and its features over to YouTube. According to Google, “We have a strong and vibrant audience on the YouTube Gaming app, but the amount of gamers we are able to reach is far bigger on YouTube. After all, YouTube is where more than 200 million gamers come to engage with your favorite games and creators every day, watching over 50 billion hours of gaming content in the last 12 months alone.”
They add, “That’s why, in March 2019, we’ll retire the YouTube Gaming app and focus all of our gaming efforts on YouTube where we can reach our entire gaming community.”