Stadia now supports streaming directly to YouTube at 4K

Ben Schoon | Nov 15 2021 - 7:46 am PT

One of the exciting announcements during the launch of Google’s Stadia platform was the ability to stream games directly to YouTube, no additional software needed. Over a year after its launch, that feature was finally added, and now it’s getting an upgrade. Stadia can now stream to YouTube at 4K.

Rolling out now, Stadia now appears to support streaming directly to YouTube at 4K at up to 60fps and in HDR, should the game meet those qualifications. Previously, the resolution was capped at 1080p regardless of the resolution the player would see locally. One Stadia player posted an example of Red Dead Redemption 2 streaming at 4K.

This new 4K ceiling for Stadia streams on YouTube may be dependant on the game being played, as one user saw a stream limit of 1440p at 60fps. In any case, this is an upgrade that’s welcome for those using Stadia’s direct streaming option. As far as we can tell, the higher streaming quality kicks in automatically.

Notably, this is the first real expansion of Stadia’s YouTube integration we’ve seen since direct streaming debuted last year. It’s unclear if Google has further plans to expand on Stadia’s built-in streaming tools — the ability to include a webcam feed would certainly be welcome — but it’s nice to see the feature hasn’t been forgotten.