YouTube video player for Unity.

YouTubePlayerResponse.cs

using System;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using UnityEngine;

/// <summary>
/// Holds the result of parsing the ytInitialPlayerResponse JSON from a YouTube page.
/// </summary>
/// <remarks>
/// This is an incomplete list of fields in ytInitialPlayerResponse.
/// The full object contains many more, but we only care about a few.
/// </remarks>
[Serializable]
public struct YouTubePlayerResponse
{
    [Serializable]
    public struct PlayabilityStatus
    {
        public string reason;
        public string status;
    }
    
    [Serializable]
    public struct StreamingData
    {
        [Serializable]
        public struct Format
        {
            public int bitrate;
            public string fps;
            public string mimeType;
            public string quality;
            public string url;

            /// <summary>
            /// Whether this format is compatible with Unity's VideoPlayer.
            /// </summary>
            // TODO: this is probably needlessly restrictive
            public bool IsCompatible => mimeType.Contains("video/mp4");
        }

        public Format[] formats;
    }
    
    [Serializable]
    public struct VideoDetails
    {
        public string shortDescription;
        public string title;
    }
    
    public PlayabilityStatus playabilityStatus;
    public StreamingData streamingData;
    public VideoDetails videoDetails;

    // Example of unplayable video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm5q1o7ofnc
    public bool IsPlayable => playabilityStatus.status != "ERROR";

    public static YouTubePlayerResponse FromJson(string json)
    {
        return JsonUtility.FromJson<YouTubePlayerResponse>(json);
    }

    public static YouTubePlayerResponse? FromPageSource(string pageSource)
    {
        // Extract the JSON from the JavaScript in the HTML.
        var regex = new Regex(@"ytInitialPlayerResponse\s*=\s*(\{.+?\})\s*;", RegexOptions.Multiline);
        var match = regex.Match(pageSource);

        if (!match.Success)
        {
            return null;
        }
        
        var json = match.Result("$1");
        return FromJson(json);
    }
}

YouTubeRequest.cs

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Networking;

public enum YouTubeRequestResult
{
    InProgress, 
    Error, 
    Success,
}

/// <summary>
/// Provides a method to find URLs to a YouTube video's raw video files.
/// </summary>
public class YouTubeRequest
{
    public string Error { get; private set; }
    public YouTubeRequestResult Result { get; private set; }

    public YouTubePlayerResponse.StreamingData.Format BestQualityFormat => Formats
        .OrderByDescending(format => format.bitrate)
        .First();
    
    public List<YouTubePlayerResponse.StreamingData.Format> Formats => _playerResponse.streamingData.formats
        .Where(format => format.IsCompatible)
        .ToList();

    private YouTubePlayerResponse _playerResponse;
    private readonly string _youTubeUrl;

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates a request to find a YouTube video files.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="youTubeUrl">YouTube video URL.</param>
    public YouTubeRequest(string youTubeUrl)
    {
        if (!YouTubeUtils.TryNormalizeYouTubeUrl(youTubeUrl, out _youTubeUrl))
        {
            throw new ArgumentException("Invalid YouTube URL.", nameof(youTubeUrl));
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Downloads a list of video files for a YouTube video.
    /// </summary>
    public IEnumerator SendRequest()
    {
        Result = YouTubeRequestResult.InProgress;
        Debug.Log($"Fetching YouTube page source from {_youTubeUrl}");

        // Fetch the page source. That is, get the HTML that the browser downloads when you visit a YouTube page.
        string pageSource;
        
        using (var request = UnityWebRequest.Get(_youTubeUrl))
        {
            yield return request.SendWebRequest();

            if (request.result != UnityWebRequest.Result.Success)
            {
                ReportError($"Error fetching YouTube page: {request.error}");
                yield break;
            }

            pageSource = request.downloadHandler.text;
        }

        // Extract video details from the page HTML.
        var playerResponse = YouTubePlayerResponse.FromPageSource(pageSource);

        if (!playerResponse.HasValue)
        {
            ReportError("Unable to parse video details from YouTube page.");
            yield break;
        }

        _playerResponse = playerResponse.Value;
        Debug.Log($"Downloaded details for YouTube video: \"{playerResponse.Value.videoDetails.title}\"");

        if (!playerResponse.Value.IsPlayable)
        {
            ReportError($"YouTube video unplayable: {playerResponse.Value.playabilityStatus.reason}");
            yield break;
        }

        Result = YouTubeRequestResult.Success;
    }
    
    private void ReportError(string error)
    {
        Error = error;
        Result = YouTubeRequestResult.Error;
    }
}

YouTubeUtils.cs

using System;
using System.Web;

/// <summary>
/// Utility functions for interacting with YouTube.
/// </summary>
public static class YouTubeUtils
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Pulls the video ID from a YouTube URL.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="youTubeUrl">YouTube URL to extract ID from.</param>
    /// <returns>Canonical YouTube video ID (e.g. VZBYoN-iHkE).</returns>
    public static string ExtractVideoId(string youTubeUrl)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(youTubeUrl))
        {
            return null;
        }
        
        // YouTube URLs come in a few different formats.
        // Normalize the URL such that the video ID appears in the query string.
        youTubeUrl = youTubeUrl
            .Trim()
            .Replace("youtu.be/", "youtube.com/watch?v=")
            .Replace("youtube.com/embed/", "youtube.com/watch?v=")
            .Replace("/watch#", "/watch?");

        if (youTubeUrl.Contains("/v/"))
        {
            var absolutePath = new Uri(youTubeUrl).AbsolutePath;
            absolutePath = absolutePath.Replace("/v/", "/watch?v=");
            youTubeUrl = $"https://youtube.com{absolutePath}";
        }

        // The URL should now contain a query string of the format v={video-id}.
        var queryString = new Uri(youTubeUrl).Query;
        var query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(queryString);
        return query.Get("v");
    }
    
    /// <summary>
    /// Normalizes a YouTube URL to the format https://youtube.com/watch?v={video-id}.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="youTubeUrl">YouTube URL to normalize.</param>
    /// <param name="normalizedYouTubeUrl">Normalized YouTube URL.</param>
    /// <returns>Whether normalization was successful and the URL is valid.</returns>
    public static bool TryNormalizeYouTubeUrl(string youTubeUrl, out string normalizedYouTubeUrl)
    {
        var videoId = ExtractVideoId(youTubeUrl);

        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(videoId))
        {
            normalizedYouTubeUrl = null;
            return false;
        }

        normalizedYouTubeUrl = $"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v={videoId}&gl=US&hl=en&has_verified=1&bpctr=9999999999";
        return true;
    }
}

YouTubeVideoPlayer.cs

using System;
using System.Collections;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Video;

public class YouTubeVideoPlayer : MonoBehaviour
{
    public VideoPlayer videoPlayer;
    
    [InspectorName("YouTube URL")]
    public string youTubeUrl;
    
    private void Awake()
    {
        if (videoPlayer == null)
        {
            videoPlayer = GetComponent<VideoPlayer>();
        }
    }

    private void Start()
    {
        StartCoroutine(SetVideoPlayerUrl());
    }
    
    private IEnumerator SetVideoPlayerUrl()
    {
        if (videoPlayer == null)
        {
            Debug.LogError("No video player.");
            yield break;
        }
        
        var request = new YouTubeRequest(youTubeUrl);
        yield return request.SendRequest();

        if (request.Result == YouTubeRequestResult.Error)
        {
            Debug.LogError($"Failed to fetch YouTube video details: {request.Error}");
            yield break;
        }
        
        Debug.Log("Fetched YouTube formats.");

        try
        {
            videoPlayer.url = request.BestQualityFormat.url;
        }
        catch (InvalidOperationException)
        {
            Debug.LogError("Failed to find any compatible formats.");
        }
    }
}

Usage: attach to a game object that has a VideoPlayer component attached, or set a VideoPlayer from another game object in the inspector field.

This doesn't work in WebGL builds due to CORS.

Hi,
I use Unity 2020.3.19f1 and i have an error

Can't play movie []
UnityEngine.StackTraceUtility:ExtractStackTrace ()
YoutubeVideoPlayer/d__4:MoveNext () (at Assets/YoutubeVideoPlayer.cs:47)
UnityEngine.SetupCoroutine:InvokeMoveNext (System.Collections.IEnumerator,intptr)

have you an idea ?
Thank's

@aphaena: It’s tough to say what the problem might be. It might be helpful to print the JSON string that YouTubePlayerResponse:FromPageSource returns, or what the final URL that it sets on videoPlayer.url is.

It's perfect when i active my gameobject with youtube video player after my app is started.
Thank's you for your share
Beautifull job :)

I don't know about you all but for me highest quality lags a lot even with a fiber connection on PC. But the code seems to work !

hello the video starts after 9-10 seconds how can i make that this time to 1-2 seconds
Thank you