YouTube is taking a swing at gaming, much like Netflix and LinkedIn. The Google-owned video sharing platform has announced that its collection of lightweight, free games, known as “Playables,” will soon be available to all users within the YouTube app. Initially, these games were offered to select users for testing and later made available to YouTube Premium subscribers last November.
Unlike traditional app store games, YouTube’s Playables don’t monetise through paid downloads or in-app purchases—yet—thus avoiding direct competition with the app store model and circumventing Apple’s regulations. In the future, free games on YouTube could potentially become another venue for ads, although Google has not indicated any plans to monetize Playables yet.
These games aim to engage YouTube users, providing a fun diversion between browsing and viewing sessions, and—most importantly—keeping users within the YouTube app longer.
Currently, there are over 75 minigames in the Playables catalogue, according to Google. The Playables lineup includes popular titles such as Angry Birds Showdown, Words of Wonders, Cut the Rope, Tomb of the Mask, and Trivia Crack.
Users will be able to save their game progress and track their all-time best scores. Although not all users will see the Playables immediately, the feature is expected to complete its rollout in the coming weeks.
YouTube isn’t the only tech giant expanding into gaming. Netflix has also been growing its game catalogue through acquisitions, licensing deals, and in-house development. LinkedIn recently rolled out a series of “thinking-oriented” games to boost engagement as well.
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