Playing is Believing – One Year Later, Samsung Gaming Hub Continues to Wow Gamers and Expand Access Worldwide

Last June we set out to bring video games and services together in an easy-to-use platform, directly accessible via Samsung Smart TVs. No downloads, no waiting, no console required. Compatible with game controllers and Samsung devices that players already own.

Today, we’re excited to reflect on the first steps that Samsung Gaming Hub has taken to deliver on that promise, and share a first look at the new brand identity rolling out worldwide in the coming months.

Samsung Gaming Hub brings the best of gaming together, invites players to come as they are, and empowers those players with more options in how they want to play: whether it’s using their Samsung Smart TV remote to play arcade classics like Pac-Man and Space Invaders, or digging in for a full Halo campaign with a PlayStation DualSense controller.

Our first year has given our team much to be proud of; we have broadened access to game streaming around the world – players across nine territories can access high-quality game streaming on over 21 million Samsung devices – giving new and established players more choices to ‘just play’ on their own terms. Monthly Active Users have grown on Samsung Gaming Hub, with a thirteenfold increase from July 2022 to May 2023. And this is just the beginning.

Embodying the ‘Playing is Believing’ spirit, Destiny Caldwell (@Dessyyc), Corey Tonge (@CoreyTonge), and Austin Felt (@AustinFelt) go hands-on with Samsung Gaming Hub at one of several industry events the platform was featured at this past year.

In one year, Samsung Gaming Hub has added:

• More Games: Discover and play over 3,000 games through partner services on Samsung Gaming Hub – from the most popular AAA and brand-new game launches like Starfield coming in September to beloved indie titles, arcade classics and more. There’s something for everyone on Samsung Gaming Hub.
• More Partners: In addition to Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce NOW and Utomik – Samsung Gaming Hub added Amazon Luna, Antstream Arcade and Blacknut as streaming partners.
• More Screens: After launching on 2022 Samsung Smart TVs and monitors, we introduced backwards compatibility for partner apps with 2021 Smart TVs giving tens of millions of players access to their favorite games and services on Samsung devices – no console or PC required. Samsung Gaming Hub is also available across our 2023 TV lineup, and the newest Odyssey OLED G9, the world’s first 49” OLED monitor.
• More Regions: Samsung Gaming Hub is available in Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Spain, the U.S. and the U.K., with availability in more regions coming soon. In European countries that don’t currently support the Gaming Hub, cloud gaming apps can be downloaded from the TV App Store and accessed through the Samsung Smart Hub.
• More Ways to Pick Up and Play: Samsung Gaming Hub and partner apps through the Smart Hub are compatible with 90% of Bluetooth controllers on the market. We’ve even worked with partners to make some games playable with mobile virtual controllers from Amazon Luna, or by using your Samsung TV remote to play games from Antstream and Blacknut. This removes another barrier of entry for potential players and unlocks gaming for many new users.

We took the Samsung Gaming Hub around the world, featuring it at events including Summer Game Fest, The Game Awards, San Diego Comic-Con, Gamescom, Day of the Devs, and the Brazil Game Show. “Playing is believing” quickly became our takeaway from these events and it continues to be an amazingly rewarding experience for our team to witness people discovering the magic of game streaming firsthand through the Samsung Gaming Hub.

Players would innocently ask: “Where’s the console?” and their faces would light up when we would explain that they don’t have to wait for downloads or worry about freeing up storage on their devices. They could ‘just play’ the games that they want to play. Creators and journalists who were skeptical about game streaming said that if they didn’t know they were streaming games through the Gaming Hub, then they would have believed they were playing on a console. In one year we went from proving the technology works to players asking us about “what’s next” for Samsung Gaming Hub. Playing truly is believing.

One immediate element of “what’s next” is a refreshed brand identity for the service. On this special milestone birthday, we are excited to unveil a new Samsung Gaming Hub logo to honor the advancements over the past 12 months, but more importantly to signal the unlimited potential for the platform to grow and evolve in the future. This revamped branding establishes Samsung Gaming Hub as an innovative leader in gaming and reinforces Samsung’s steadfast dedication to game streaming across Samsung devices. The new logo illustrates our promise to democratize gaming for everyone by unlocking access to thousands of games with almost any controller, so you can just play.

From the very beginning our goal has been to build something that players actually want to use and addresses some of the biggest pain points we’ve heard from players like siloed game experiences that require a clunky leap from one platform to another, or downloads that take ages and storage limitations that force players to choose between experiences they want to keep or update. As we look to the future, Samsung remains committed to bringing high quality game streaming experiences to seasoned players and new gamers alike on their Samsung devices.

We invite you to discover new games and old favorites through the Samsung Gaming Hub.

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