YouTube has recently unveiled upcoming policies aiming to restrict uploads of content related to gambling or featuring realistic graphic violence in games. The upcoming YouTube update will likely be controversial with gamers, as it may affect videos of popular titles such as Counter-Strike 2, Overwatch 2, and even Grand Theft Auto 6.
Founded in 2005 and bought by Google the following year, YouTube is among the most popular platforms for watching video game content. YouTube has achieved earnings of over $9.79 billion in the second quarter of 2025, and the platform is likely to remain hugely influential for the gaming space in the years to come.
YouTube’s latest guidelines, which will start to be enforced on November 17, 2025, will likely make it harder for content creators to upload videos of some games. YouTube’s upcoming policies make three major changes, and two of them directly affect the gaming space, while the third is solely focused on age-restricting social casino content. One of the changes redefines “online gambling content,” which is currently prohibited from being directly linked to, marketed, or sold on the platform. The plan is to expand the definition to cover “online gambling with additional items that have...
