I assumed I would boot up the app and there would be a big red button saying GAMES … but no. I have to sign up to PREMIUM. Then find the YOUR PREMIUM BENEFITS section. Then find EXPERIMENTAL FEATURES and select TRY EXPERIMENTAL FEATURES. Then find the TRY GAMES ON YOUTUBE part therein and tap on TRY IT OUT.
Just use an ad blocker then, I haven’t seen an ad on YouTube in years. If they charged a reasonable amount for their ad-free experience (say, about what they earn from ads, so like $1-2/month), I’d pay. But $14/month is way too much, and I’d rather just not use YouTube than pay that.
I pay for premium so I can turn off my phone screen or do other things on my phone while listening to videos or music. Not having ads is a bonus. They would probably bug me if I had them. I’ve become indifferent to ads on most other things.
I just use YouTube on Firefox on mobile, it does pause when you change apps but you can press play from the notification or lock screen, ublock origin also works here
I use NewPipe to do that.