Video content is massive and figures behind the consumption of content is even more impressive. According to the third annual Acumen Report, the average 13 to 24 year old consumes in the vicinity of 22 hours per week of video content. This is between subscription online services like Netflix and the more traditionally used services like YouTube or Vimeo. But over the last two to three years YouTube, and parent company Google, have seen their dominance in the video stream realm get eroded by both Facebook video and Twitch respectively. The battle between Twitch and YouTube for supremacy within the Esport sphere makes for interesting reading especially when you consider that viewers consumed nearly 2.3 billion hours of video content related to games in 2013. So the recent launch of YouTube Gaming, which aims to once more dominate the live steaming space, is very timely indeed.
Some information about this new streaming platform was released back in June 2015 with Gamespot reporting that YouTube Gaming would feature dedicated pages for more than 25,000 games, with each serving as a hub where users could access videos and live streams. The video content would also be available for publication by video game publishers and YouTube creators.
Content on the YouTube Gaming platform is pulled from users subscription lists and displayed on your home screen. User can also upload content via desktop, mobile or tablet. Uploading on mobile and tablet is made possible through the specific app now available in the App and Play store respectively. As with regular YouTube, users can build out their subscriber lists with ease by adding games, channels and even users to their subscription lists. Additional users will never miss out on a live-stream as subscribers will get notification when gamers start so that you can keep track of their favourite gamers activities.
YouTube worked with a number of noted gamers when designing the layout of the new platform which is why certain features like on-demand viewing has been incorporated into the build from the beginning. This is a certainly a unique selling point that Twitch are yet to incorporate in their offerings which might be telling for YouTube Gaming as it's estimated that between only 10-20% of all stream views for most gamers feeds only come from live streams. The remainder of views onYouTube came from repeat or non live viewing.
As the recent DOTA 2 event showcased, the desire for content around esports is growing exponentially. With the launch with of Youtube Gaming, as well as the continued growth of Twitch, the hope could be that there wouldn't be too long of a wait for gamers to reach a level of mainstream notoriety equivalent to that of other video producers.