YouTube released the first major update to its game streaming service on Thursday.

YouTube Gaming, the platform launched in August that lets viewers watch and comment on live streams of video games much like competitor Twitch, will now allow for Mobile Capture in addition to a number of other features. With the update, gamers can directly stream and record games such as Hearthstone on their Android mobile devices.

According to the Official YouTube Blog, the feature will not require any additional programs or hardware. Users need only tap the "Go Live" button on their YouTube Gaming app to begin streaming. The tool even lets players capture their facial reactions through their device's selfie cameras and to record commentary through the microphone.

The new update also introduces the Import Subscriptions and Watch Later tools. The former searches a user's YouTube account for subscribed channels with gaming content and syncs them with the app. The latter simply lets users bookmark videos for later viewing.

Another major addition is the Sponsorship subscription. For a monthly fee of $3.99, users can help support their favorite streamers, earning perks like special badges and access to exclusive chat sessions. The program is currently only applicable to a number of beta channels, but will likely expand as the service becomes more popular.

The Sponsorship service was likely made to compete with Twitch's partnership program, which offers a similar service for $4.99 a month. Twitch has garnered 12,000 partners from among its 1.7 million broadcasters.

YouTube is looking to dethrone Twitch as the king of video game streaming. According to the website's blog, "Every month gamers watch more than 144 billion minutes of gaming videos and live streams on YouTube. To put it into perspective, that's like watching Let's Plays for more than 270,000 years straight 24 hours a day -- or beating Final Fantasy VII 1,900,000 times a day!"