In the last few years, YouTube Gaming has become a worthy competitor to Twitch. Big-name streamers have embraced the platform thanks to its more flexible contracts and perceived friendliness toward content creators. YouTube itself has also done a lot to forward its nascent platform by adding features that streamers and viewers have come to expect on other sites.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that the platform is impervious, though. Rival streaming website Mixer shut down in 2020 after it failed to attract enough viewers and converts from Twitch, even after signing Ninja as a platform-exclusive streamer. In order to stay competitive with Twitch and upcoming rivals like Facebook Gaming, YouTube Gaming needs to continuously add the features fans and creators want. That’s where gifted subscriptions come into play.
When are gifted subscriptions arriving?
In October 2021, Ryan Wyatt, the now-former head of YouTube Gaming, announced several upcoming features in a tweet. In addition to easier integration between Clips and Shorts, more mod tools, and better monetization, Wyatt shared that creators and fans could expect gifted memberships to arrive sometime in 2022.
After that, no announcements were made regarding gifted subs until February of this year. In a Japanese-language tweet, the official YouTube Creators Japan account announced that a small number of channels would soon have access to “gifted memberships.” The goal of this rollout, which the YouTube Creators account referred to as an alpha, is to test the feature before it’s granted to all YouTube Gaming creators.
As of April 2022, there has been no other word on when creators around the world will be able to access and use gifted subs. Wyatt is no longer with the company, but the alpha test in Japan seems to show that the feature is still planned for this year. Interested fans and streamers should keep a close eye on YouTube’s social accounts for future news about gifted subs and the platform’s other promised features.
