YouTube for Xbox One X now supports 4K and 60 fps

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
last updated

The official YouTube app is getting a major upgrade for Xbox One X and Xbox One S consoles.

Updated December 12, 2017: Microsoft has clarified this release to us: 4K support is now available for the Xbox One X with HDR support coming soon. For Xbox One S users: "The team is working to bring 4K YouTube and HDR support to Xbox One S. We will have more to share soon."

It's a little late to the party, but the official YouTube app for Xbox One X has picked up support for 4K and HDR (coming soon) (via Reddit). Coming more than a year after the Xbox One S launched with support for 4K video, the updated app will now stream 4K content on that console and the newer Xbox One X.

It doesn't look like HDR support is available here just yet, but it is coming soon. However, the updated app does include support for playback for video at 60 frames per second (fps). This comes not long after Google launched YouTube TV on Xbox One.

Curiously, it 4K support isn't coming in an update to the current app. Instead, you can grab the updated app from a separate, newer YouTube app listing (opens in new tab). And though it's a separate listing, the app still very much looks the same, albeit with 4K and 60 fps support.

Are you a heavy user of the official YouTube app? Will this be enough to tear you away from third-party alternatives like myTube, which already included 4K support?

See at Microsoft (opens in new tab)

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

12 Comments
  • Just use MyTube!, it's fairly better and continuously developed and supported. It's a UWP too.
  • Yeah myTube! is still way better and is available on all Windows 10 devices (Xbox, laptop, Phone, PC, HoloLens, Mixed Reality, IOT, etc.)
  • I love my tube
  • "This comes not long after Microsoft launched YouTube TV on Xbox One." I think you may want to correct this excerpt from the article, Dan... :)
  • Aye, I blame my Monday morning brain and lack of coffee! >.>
  • myTube's playback performance is severely degraded and in my Testing on Xbox One X it cannot play back 4K 60fps with properly synced audio at all. Frames are constantly dropped and audio loops. This is even using multiple versions of the BETA with various decoding tweaks.
  • I wonder if it's an API issue. I know everytime YouTube changes something he has to fix the app. The good thing is it's constantly updated so hopefully a fix will be coming
  • There too lazy to update apps typical google
  • I use YouTube heavily on the XBOX and plan on getting the updated app. 
  • 79€ in a Chromecast ultra is a great investment to make if you use Youtube and other on a daily basis.
  • I wish they'd build an official YouTube app for Windows 10 PC.
  • How do I stop the stupid gif video previews instead of the video thumbnail.
    I watch lots of tech reviews and this ruins it by not letting my see the thumbnail when scrolling through.