Nick Eh 30 invited Ryan Wyatt of YouTube Gaming to his show to do an interview about gaming at YouTube. Here’s a quick break down of the key points.
Ryan Wyatt – Head of YouTube Gaming
Ryan Wyatt joined popular streamer Nick Eh 30 in a Fortnite gaming session to do an informal interview. Both Ryan and Nick Eh 30 were playing while Nick was asking questions about the state of YouTube Gaming. Here are Ryan’s responses.
How is Gaming Doing on YouTube Overall?
Nick asked Ryan how Gaming was doing on YouTube. Ryan started off saying he’s been running gaming at YouTube for four and a half years. He said that 2018 was their best year ever in gaming, and that it continues to grow. Additionally, a “Fact Box” popped up during the question that stated Gaming on YouTube in 2018 had 50 billion hours of Gaming content watched on YouTube in the last 12 months, and 200M daily logged-in users watch Gaming every single day on YouTube.
Ryan also threw out a fun fact about the amount of time gamers spend on YT, saying:
“You can walk to Pluto and back 12 times. That’s how much people watch gaming.”
What are the biggest Priorities for YouTube Gaming?
Nick followed up asking Ryan Wyatt what were the biggest priorities for YT Gaming. Ryan mentioned that there are three priorities for YT Gaming.
- User Community – people that are watching and engaging with gaming content.
- Content Creators
- Game Publishers – they are the backbone of gaming.
Ryan continued, saying that YouTube Gaming are focused to building tools for establishing a better business. Live streaming has been a big focus for YouTube, and Ryan mentioned that there are more features that YouTube needs to create. All of the competitive gaming platforms that focus on streaming push YouTube to continue innovate and develop new features. Essentially, Ryan said that YT Gaming wants to build all the tools that live streamers need on the platform.
The other thing YT Gaming are trying to address is creating more monetization streams for gamers regardless if their Live or VOD creators, or if their a hybrid of the two. A lot of what YouTube Gaming is focusing on now is how can they do more with their “alternative monetization” (ex: super chats and memberships). Ryan did agree that YouTube needs to do a lot more for content creator.
Comparing this with their main competitor, Twitch.tv, there are many features that YouTube need to add to their platform to even compete with Twitch. YouTube has the audience, however, the way that audience interacts with YouTube creators is limited. It will be interesting to see what YouTube Gaming brings to the table in the near future, and how they will compete head on with Twitch.
Where do you See YouTube Gaming in 1-2 years?
Ryan was asked where he sees YouTube Gaming in 1-2 years. On his map, he has three points.
- Mobile Gaming
- Live streaming
- Google Stadia
He said that mobile gaming has become massive. Games such as Garena Free Fire, PUBG Mobile are leading the way. However, mobile gaming hasn’t picked up much in North America and Europe, but has become really big in Asia. He continued saying that viewership for this platform will be taking the forefront of the mobile initiative.
Additionally, Ryan Wyatt mentioned that Google Stadia was part of the vision of the future. For example, through Google Stadia, gamers can click on a link of the streamer they are watching, and start playing the featured game instantaneously. He did say that Stadia will take a couple of years for games to come out and the creator ecosystem to adopt it. Nevertheless, this is YouTube Gaming’s main competitive edge as no competitor in the space has that feature.
Nick Eh 30 goes more in depth in the interview which can be viewed below.
Will YouTube Gaming Be The Twitch Killer?
YT Gaming is no where near cracking the code to streaming dominance. Twitch.tv was able to fill the void that was missing for YouTube content creators. That void was not only the engagement with viewers, but primarily about the monetization methods and how content creators can stay afloat. YouTube’s CPM model (Cost Per Mile) is controversial, and it’s incredibly volatile. Streamers have complained about this, and one Reddit user by the name of u/Zee_n1 made a comparison of the two. However, in his post, Zee_n1 made a case that it’s hard to make money on both platforms, however, Twitch is more rewarding through their CPM model (source: Reddit).
For YT Gaming to offer great new features sadly won’t be enough. Unless they can optimize monetization streams for content creators, they will have an up-hill battle against giants Twitch. Google Stadia will definitely add a new dynamic for content creators, but deciding if it will actually hurt them rather than help them is a whole different debate.
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