Getting set up to stream games on YouTube is a little complicated, but you only have to go through the entire process one time. After that, you’ll be able to start streaming at any time with the push of the button. We’ll show you two methods to stream games on YouTube, including both XSplit and OBS, and also how to stream at any time without any additional software.
What You Need to Get Started With YouTube Game Streaming
YouTube makes it extremely easy to live stream your webcam, but streaming a game is a little more complicated. To stream on YouTube Gaming, you need:
A verified YouTube account: If your YouTube account isn’t verified, you won’t be able to stream. Don’t worry, the verification process is easy. A computer: You can use a Windows, Mac or Linux computer to stream, and you can use a desktop or a laptop. The important thing is that the computer must be powerful enough to encode video in real time while you’re also playing a game. Broadband internet: Your internet connection needs to have enough upstream bandwidth to upload high definition video in real time. An encoder program: This program records your gameplay, encodes it into a format that’s suitable for streaming, and uploads it to YouTube. Without an encoder, you can’t stream on YouTube Gaming. Two free options are Open Broadcast Studio (OBS) and XSplit Broadcaster.
If you want to talk to your viewers, or insert live video of yourself on top of your games, you’ll also need a headset or microphone and a webcam. Here’s where you can download the OBS and XSplit Broadcaster encoders:
Download OBS for Windows, MacOS and Linux Download XSplit Broadcaster for Windows
How to Verify Your YouTube Account
Before you can live stream on YouTube, you need to verify your account. If you don’t have an account at all, you’ll need to first navigate to the main YouTube site and click Sign In. Since you don’t have an account, you’ll need to click on Create an account and follow the instructions. If you have a YouTube account, and it isn’t verified, you’ll need to verify it before you can stream. This is an easy process, but you will need a working phone to complete it. Here’s how to verify your YouTube account:
How to Stream on YouTube Gaming
Once you have a verified YouTube account, a decent computer and internet connection, and you’ve downloaded your encoder software, you’re ready to start streaming on YouTube Gaming. Here’s how to set up your YouTube Gaming stream:
How to Stream on YouTube With XSplit Broadcaster
XSplit Broadcaster is a free streaming encoder that’s available for Windows. Some features are locked behind a paid subscription, but you can use the basic streaming functionality without paying anything. You do have to sign up for an XSplit account when you install the program, but you don’t need to pay for a subscription. If you prefer open source software that’s totally free, skip this section and use OBS instead. The first step in setting up XSplit to stream your game is to make sure it’s using the correct source. You can have it broadcast the specific game that you want to stream, or have it broadcast a specific monitor if you use multiple monitors. To set up XSplit Broadcaster to broadcast a monitor: You can also set up XSplit to broadcast a specific game if the game is currently running: With your source selected, you’re almost ready to start your broadcast. First, you’ll need to authorize XSplit to connect to your YouTube account: For XSplit to work with YouTube, you’ll need to enter your channel ID: The next step is to let Google know that it’s okay for XSplit to connect to your YouTube account: You’re almost there. All that’s left is to set up your stream and start broadcasting: At this point, your live stream will be available on YouTube. You can tell that XSplit is broadcasting by the Streaming Live message at the top of the window. If you don’t see that message, your stream isn’t live.
How to Stream on YouTube With OBS
OBS is open source software that’s totally free to use. Since it’s open source, people are even free to take the code, modify it, and make new versions available. If you’re interested in monetizing your live streams, Streamlabs has a version of OBS that has a lot of features to help you do that. When you’re just getting started, the basic version of OBS will also work just fine. Unlike XSplit, you don’t have to sign up for an account to use OBS. Just download the program, install it, and you’re ready to set it up. The first step is to get it working with YouTube by clicking on Settings. To set up OBS with YouTube, you need to have your Stream key. If you forgot to copy it or write it down, return to your YouTube Creator Studio page and get it before you proceed. Here’s how to set OBS up to work with YouTube: OBS is now ready to broadcast to YouTube, but you still need to tell it what to broadcast. If the right game already appears in the OBS window, then you’re good to go. If it doesn’t, you’ll need to press the + button in the Sources section and tell it what to stream. The easiest way to set this up is to create a source for your game. You can create a separate source for every game you stream, or you can just choose to stream the specific monitor that your game displays on. Here’s how to create a stream source in OBS: The next step is to set up your game capture source: The next step is to tell OBS what game to capture: With your source created, you’re ready to start streaming:
How to Verify Your YouTube Gaming Stream is Working
Once you have set your encoder to start streaming, your game stream should be live. If you want to be sure that everything is working, you’ll need to go back to your Creator Studio page and open your live stream. If your live stream is working, you’ll see a big green dot next to the word LIVE at the top of your stream page. You can also scroll down and click on STREAM HEALTH to see if YouTube has any advice to improve the quality of the stream. It takes a few moments for a stream to go live after you start streaming in an encoder, so if you don’t see the green dot, give it a bit. If the dot stays gray, you will need to return to your encoder and start streaming again.
How to Stop Streaming on YouTube Gaming
When your stream is live, you can change the title, description, and whether it is private, public, or unlisted on your YouTube Creator Studio page. That is the extent of control you have over the stream from that page. When it’s time to shut down the stream, you have to do it from within your encoder. Here’s how to stop a stream in XSplit: To stop streaming in OBS, all you have to do is click Stop Streaming. The green square in the bottom right corner of the window will go away, which means that OBS is no longer streaming.
Can You Stream on YouTube From a Web Browser Without An Encoder?
YouTube has made it easier than ever to live stream from Chrome. You can actually stream directly from the browser, without any kind of encoder software. However, you can only stream video from a webcam and audio from a microphone. You can’t use direct Chrome streaming to stream games. If you want to use the streaming functionality that’s built into Chrome to do some webcam broadcasts for your fans when you aren’t gaming, here’s how to do it:
