You can now play games on YouTube, if you really must.

When you think of all the different places and ways that you can play games it's probably a safe bet that you initially think of the various Xbox or PlayStation consoles and maybe the PC. Then there's your phone or tablet, and from there, you're probably left thinking about streaming services like Luna. But we can feel pretty sure that you didn't think of YouTube. Well, now you can.

That's because YouTube has launched what it calls Playables, a collection of small games that can be played via their own corner of the YouTube website. They can also be found in the sidebar on the YouTube website or in your YouTube app of choice, but you'll need to be a YouTube Premium subscriber and have chosen to participate in the test.

2

YouTube has been giving Premium subscribers the option to do that for a few days now and once you're in on the act you can choose from a handful of games that include Angry Birds Showdown, Brain Out, Daily Solitaire, The Daily Crossword, and 8 Ball Billiards Classic. They're all free, apart from the subscription of course, and YouTube says that you'll be able to play them until March 28, 2024. It's all part of a test to give YouTube the time to figure out whether anyone really wants to play games on its website or in its apps.

Normally, we'd say that the answer to that is a resounding "no," but Netflix might have proven otherwise. It's been offering its own apps for a little while now so maybe it's only a matter of time until we start playing all our games via the services we stream those must-watch TV shows, too.