Stadia is a game streaming service. To use it, customers don’t need a powerful computer, they just need high-speed Internet. The game launches on Google’s servers and gets an image on the user’s screen. Initially the company was going to develop its own games but it quickly abandoned them. The demise of the project was predicted a few months ago when the first rumors about its possible cancellation appeared, but the company later tried to deny them. As it now becomes clear, they were true.

Why is Google Stadia shutting down?

Google explains its decision due to the low popularity of the service.

A few years ago we launched Stadia, a consumer gaming service. While Stadia’s approach to consumer game streaming is built on a solid technological foundation, it hasn’t caught on by users as we hoped, so we’ve made the tough decision to start ending our Stadia streaming service.
— wrote Phil Harrison, Stadia’s vice president and general manager.

The company thanked everyone who used the service and promised to refund money for purchases.

We are grateful to Stadia players who have been with us from the beginning. We will refund all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, as well as all game and add-on purchases made through the Stadia Store. Players will continue to access their game library and play until January 18, 2023 to complete their last game session. We expect most returns to be completed by mid-January 2023.
– said in a post on the company’s blog.

Google also says that the tech platform built for Stadia is well established, so you can find apps on the company’s other services, including YouTube.