More than 200 million YouTube users watch game videos every day

Every day, more than 200 million users use YouTube to watch gaming videos. In the past 12 months, those users have watched a total of 50 billion hours of video about games.

Ryan Wyatt, head of YouTube Gaming, reveals this in an interview with VentureBeat. He spoke to the news site in connection with The Game Awards 2018, which were held last Thursday.

Another trend Wyatt sees is the growing popularity of mobile gaming videos on YouTube. “That happens much, much more now. That struck me the most, how big and explosive mobile gaming has become on our platform”. He is also impressed by the rapid growth in popularity of Fortnite.

YouTube set up a games division in 2015, consisting of a subdomain of the site and an app. YouTube Gaming makes it easier for the user to find certain games or YouTube channels, after which they can also easily filter for live video or video on demand. With the move, YouTube more directly competed with Twitch.tv. However, changes have been made within that strategy again this year; the YouTube Gaming app will stop, because many of its functions are now included in the regular app.