YouTube now supports 60 FPS!

In a surprise update, YouTube announced that its platform now allows for 60 FPS playback! Now you might be thinking to yourself  "Well what the heck does that mean and why does it matter?". Trust me on this, it's a huge deal because internet videos look absolutely incredible thanks to this update. For those who aren't familiar with technical terms, FPS stands for frames per second which is essentially how many frames of movement there are in a video or movie. The higher the frames per second, the better quality is for the animation. Before this update, YouTube was unfortunately locked into 30 FPS. This is because YouTube is the biggest video streaming website in the world with many users online a a time so, in order to prevent massive slow down and extended loading time for users with slower internet, they locked all of the videos into a safe and conservative 30 FPS. It's pretty good for web video standards but doesn't show the capabilities of full high definition. In professional animation, you can have a resolution as high as 4K (A resolution that goes beyond the current highest standard, 1080p) but if the FPS is say a mere 15 FPS, it's not going to look that great in movement. It's one thing to look at a still image at 1080p but fluid movement is needed to have a solid animation. This means that FPS is essentially more important than resolution when it comes to animation. If you still can't visualize this whole concept in your head, check out GameXplains recent comparison video.

Now it must be mentioned that in order to see the highest quality, you must be browsing on Google chrome and have the 1080p 60FPS option selected in the video's time bar. Once equipped you can clearly see the difference. It's so buttery smooth and is very easy on the eyes. To some, this might not seem like much, but I believe this is revolutionary for YouTube and internet video websites as a whole. Upgrading from 30 to 60 FPS allows us to watch YouTube in true HD for the first time. It's like watching an actual television! This is especially good for Let's Play channels because they are the ones who will probably use this feature the most. Before the upgrade, the quality of the games visuals were unfortunately forcibly downgraded and could never show the true potential of the visuals. Now, content creators can create deep and meaningful content while also having gorgeous looking quality. This can definitely help out some creators because now their content will look more professional and will be able to attract a bigger audience. The 60 FPS feature used to only be exclusive to game news media websites such as IGN who don't have as heavy traffic as YouTube does video wise. With this new feature, content creators can now have the quality of a corporations video and that's a nice advantage to have for an independent content creator. It's safe to say that Let's Plays never looked so good.