San Francisco, United States — YouTube on Friday said it is creating an online arena devoted to video game play, jumping onto a hot “e-sports” trend and challenging Amazon-owned Twitch.

YouTube Gaming will debut in Britain and the United States in the coming months, according to Product Manager Alan Joyce.

“YouTube Gaming is built to be all about your favourite games and gamers, with more videos than anywhere else,” Joyce said in a blog post.

“From Asteroids to Zelda, more than 25,000 games will each have their own page, a single place for all the best videos and live streams about that title.”

YouTube Gaming will also have channels devoted to specific game publishers or personalities.

A preview of the new YouTube offering, including game content creators such as ‘iHasCupquake’ and ‘NadeShot’, will be showcased at a major Electronic Entertainment Expo extravaganza this week in Los Angeles.

“Live streams bring the gaming community closer together, so they’ve put them front-and-centre on the YouTube Gaming homepage,” Joyce said.

“In the coming weeks, YouTube will launch an improved live experience that makes it simpler to broadcast your game play to YouTube.”

The popularity of gaming has given rise to new genres of YouTube videos, including watching play, speed-runs, walk-throughs, and even segments on cooking gamer-themed delectables.

Along with the YouTube Gaming website accessible through web browsers, there will be an application for mobile devices.

Leading video game play broadcasting platform Twitch will have a strong presence at E3, with plans to live stream press conferences, demos, interviews and more.

Twitch will augment its English-language broadcast with regionalised shows from partners including Rocket Beans TV in German and Jeuxvideo in French.

US online retail giant Amazon last year bolstered its Internet video presence, whistling past Google to snatch up Twitch and its huge audience for

live-streamed gaming.

The acquisition was one of the largest in Amazon’s history: US$970 million in cash for the three-year-old Internet company.