YouTube Revamps Live With Mini-Games and AI Highlights

YouTube’s biggest Live update yet

At its Made on YouTube event, the company unveiled a sweeping set of Live features designed to make livestreams more interactive, mobile-friendly, and discoverable. YouTube called this the most significant Live update ever as it chases rising livestream viewership and intensifying competition from TikTok Live and Twitch.

YouTube reported that more than 30% of daily logged-in viewers watched live content in Q2 2025 — a clear signal that Live is central to viewer engagement.

• Playables mini-games integrated into Live (Angry Birds Showdown, Cut the Rope, Trivia Crack, etc.)
• Simultaneous horizontal and vertical broadcasting with one shared chat
• AI-powered highlights that auto-create shareable Shorts
• Live reactions to other streams and a vertical-live experiment
• Practice Mode for rehearsing setups without going live
• Side-by-side ads that don’t interrupt viewing and easy member-only livestream toggles

Playables brings casual games directly into streams, offering low-pressure ways for new creators to engage audiences. Think of it as the digital equivalent of board games at a party — it lowers friction, encourages interaction, and can be a gateway for streamers who aren’t ready for full production shows.

The simultaneous horizontal and vertical broadcast addresses a real pain point: desktop viewers expect landscape while mobile viewers prefer portrait. YouTube’s approach keeps everyone in one shared chat, streamlining community interaction even as layouts adapt to device orientation. This follows industry moves from Twitch and hardware makers like Apple.

AI highlights automate one of the most time-consuming tasks for creators: clipping standout moments. By turning top moments into Shorts, creators get more discovery and platforms get more snackable content — a win for reach and creator efficiency.

Monetization experiments like side-by-side ads suggest YouTube is testing non-disruptive revenue models that protect viewer experience. Combined with member-only toggles and Practice Mode, creators get more control over how and when they monetize.

What this means practically: creators should test Playables for onboarding, monitor retention differences between portrait and landscape viewers, and use AI clips to fuel Shorts strategies. Platforms and brands will need new moderation and measurement strategies for a single chat across orientations.

For product teams and media partners, the update is a reminder that Live is evolving beyond long-form broadcasts into a hybrid of interactive play, mobile-first viewing, and AI-driven content curation. That shift opens new opportunities — and new complexities around UX, ads, and creator workflows.

QuarkyByte’s approach is to treat these changes as measurable experiments: map the creator funnel, instrument orientation-based metrics, A/B test ad placements and quantify how AI highlights affect discovery. Organizations planning to adopt these features should focus on analytics, moderation, and optimizing the creator experience to convert trials into sustained growth.