YouTube Gaming app shuts down this week (not the Gaming hub)

In September of last year, Google announced that it would be retiring the YouTube Gaming app, only about four years after it launched the service. Now, the true end of the app will come this week on May 30 (via The Verge).

After May 30, the app will cease to function and any links/services related to the app will redirect you to the new hub within the traditional YouTube application.

In a new support page on the matter, Google makes it clear that current YouTube Gaming subscriptions will transfer over to the standalone YouTube service (however, you will lose your list of saved games). If you were once a subscriber but let your subscription lapse, your account will be permanently closed after May 30.

The new hub (at www.youtube.com/gaming) has many of the same features as the soon-to-be-gone application, just built-in to regular ol’ YouTube. According to Google, many YouTube visitors still searched for and watched gaming videos in the traditional app, which essentially made the dedicated app inconsequential. This restructuring of the service brings all the gamers back to YouTube proper.

Notably, some features of YouTube were first tested in the Gaming app, such as dark mode and channel subscriptions. With this in mind, it’s a sad day that we’re saying goodbye to the standalone app if simply for its status as the “first” for now-integral features.

Click the button below to visit the new hub which will be your destination for all-things-gaming from now on.