YouTube launches free games with Playables

After Netflix, Crunchyroll and even LinkedIn, it's now the turn of the biggest video-sharing platform to offer a free games service. Youtube has launched Playables, a feature currently available in only a few regions. On the programme: dozens of titles accessible to all users from the site or the application. 

Over 75 free games available in certain regions on YouTube Playables

After launching Playables to just a handful of users in recent months, YouTube Playables is now available to all users (whether Premium or not) in the UK, US, Canada and Australia .

Playables is available in desktop version, but also on the YouTube application, on both Android and iOS. And the least we can say is that the offer is pretty interesting! The 75 games available include titles such as Angry Birds, Cut the Rope and Word of Wonders, each of which has been downloaded more than a hundred million times from the Play Store. The other thing all these games have in common is that they are lightweight, so they run smoothly on any device. Players will of course be able to save their progress and keep track of their best scores.

Accessing YouTube Playables games couldn't be easier: the service can be accessed from the home page, via the Explorer menu.

YouTube Playables: a slow roll-out

Remember Google Stadia, the cloud gaming platform? It's probably one of the multinational's biggest flops. In fact, the service closed its doors in 2023, after refunding all its users. To avoid another such flop, Google took the time to prepare Playables' arrival properly.

On 23 September 2023, the service was offered only to certain users. In May this year, Playable was extended to the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia. It's now just a matter of months before the new service is offered globally, to users all over the world.

Will YouTube Playables be as successful as Netflix's games catalogue? Will it enable YouTube to diversify sufficiently to attract users from Twitch, the streaming platform with which it is in direct competition? We'll have to wait a little longer to find out!