YouTube announces live streaming for Android games

Android Gaming streaming

With game streaming being all the rage nowadays, YouTube has chosen the first day of the Tokyo Game Show to announce that Android gamers will soon be able to live stream their mobile gaming sessions directly to the service.

The announcement was made in part due to the ever-rising popularity of mobile gaming in Japan, which is why YouTube also revealed that the country would be the next to receive a version of the YouTube Gaming app.

In a statement, YouTube's Global Head of Gaming Partnerships Ryan Wyatt said "Japan's mobile games define its gaming culture, far more so than in other countries," and that the mobile gaming trend "shows there's a real need for gamers to easily share what's on their screen with the gaming community, as it happens."

Though YouTube Gaming faces tough competition from Twitch in the rest of the world, the Amazon-owned game-streaming service is not generally used in Japan, and does not yet cater to mobile gamers (outside of the odd iOS game), leaving YouTube Gaming open for a chance at securing that market.

YouTube Gaming launched last month in the United States and United Kingdom, and while no official release dates have been given for Android game-streaming or the service's Japanese release, YouTube says both will be coming "soon".

Stephen Lambrechts
Senior Journalist, Phones and Entertainment

Stephen primarily covers phones and entertainment for TechRadar's Australian team, and has written professionally across the categories of tech, film, television and gaming in both print and online for over a decade. He's obsessed with smartphones, televisions, consoles and gaming PCs, and has a deep-seated desire to consume all forms of media at the highest quality possible. 


He's also likely to talk a person’s ear off at the mere mention of Android, cats, retro sneaker releases, travelling and physical media, such as vinyl and boutique Blu-ray releases. Right now, he's most excited about QD-OLED technology, The Batman and Hellblade 2: Senua's Saga.