YouTube Gaming coming to Japan, its first market in Asia

With six of the top 10 most-watched Japanese YouTube channels falling under the gaming category, it should come as no surprise that YouTube is bringing its official Gaming app to Japan.

Japan will be one of the first markets globally, after the US and UK, to get a localized version of the gaming-only video and live-streaming app. A YouTube spokesperson confirmed with Tech in Asia that it will “definitely be the first country with a localized app for Asia,” though a specific release date was not provided. The spokesperson said it would launch “as soon as possible.”

The announcement was made by YouTube global head of gaming content Ryan Watt, speaking on stage at Tokyo Game Show. Watt pointed out several Japanese YouTube superstars who have leveraged their online celebrity to become much more than mere gaming enthusiasts:

• Hikakin, with 5.9 million subscribers across four channels, is a full-time YouTuber. After he reviewed mobile game Chariso DX (BikeRider DX in English), it hit number one on the App Store.
• Max Murai, with 500 million views a year after launching his YouTube channel, has already published an autobiography and released a song with Sony Music. He’s currently raising funds for a feature film.
• Hajime, popular for his “let’s play” videos, launched his own mobile game. It shot to the number one spot on Google Play’s casual gaming charts and number one overall on the App Store.

“We’re incredibly proud of [YouTube’s] thriving Japanese gaming community,” Watt said. “They’re not only making gaming videos full time – they’re also making games, they’re making songs, they’re writing books, and they’re entrepreneurs. Who knows, maybe [one of them] will be the next PewDiePie.

Some of YouTube Japan’s top gaming video creators.

Japan is one of YouTube’s top-10 countries worldwide in terms of total time spent watching YouTube videos. The company says that viewing hours increased 60 percent, across all categories, between 2013 and 2014. 60 percent of those views were on mobile. Additionally, 80 percent more hours of video were uploaded by Japanese users in 2014 compared to the year prior.

YouTube Gaming was announced in June as an apparent attempt to challenge Twitch. Acquired by Amazon for just under US$1 billion last August, Twitch (which is offered in 28 languages, including Japanese) is the largest gameplay live-streaming site in the world. YouTube Gaming undoubtedly seeks to bring those stray eyeballs back to the platform that gave birth to online video, despite its late entry into the gaming-specific live-streaming space