Google is experimenting with YouTube Playables

As its newest experimental product, YouTube is trying new things with games. Games that can be played on both desktop and mobile devices will be included in the new "Playables" area that the business is introducing to the website. Playables will only start appearing for "a small number of users," and no list of games has yet been made public.

The latest YouTube Playables experiment features the game Stack Bounce, in which a 3D ball bounces on top of rings that you must break through with precisely timed clicks. The reason you may be familiar with the game is that Google already has it available on its minigames service, GameSnacks.

Look for a new "Playables" area on YouTube alongside content on the home feed to see if you're a part of the game experiment. When video games are added to YouTube, they join short-form videos, movies, video game streaming, music, TV shows, podcasts, and other forms of entertainment as new entertainment options.

There are other streaming video platforms that offer gaming besides YouTube. While social media platform TikTok has games available for a small number of users and has experimented with allowing broadcasters to play with their viewers as well as a live trivia competition with cash rewards, Netflix is making its own push into video gaming.

When Google shut down its cloud streaming service, Stadia, in January, its biggest gaming push vanished, and the company's plans to release Chromebooks with Nvidia graphics processors seem to have been shelved. When offered in a location where users frequently see them online, such as on Google's homepage with Doodles, some of Google's most popular games gain traction. There's a good possibility that someone will play games if they start to show up on YouTube as people browse.