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Choosing a Streaming Platform That’s Right for You!

Lisa Magloff
April 13, 20213 mins read
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Making a decision about the best places to stream games can be overwhelming. There are a huge number of streaming platforms, with their own unique strengths and weaknesses. While the best way to find a platform that suits is to try them out, it helps if the choices can be narrowed down a bit first. So, let’s get narrowing.

A mobile phone on a desk displaying the Twitch app, is that the best place to stream games? Let's find out!
Photo by Caspar Camille Rubin on Unsplash

Going for community

While almost everyone on these sites is a gaming fan, different platforms can have a different feel to them. For example, major streaming site Twitch is probably the service most people associate with game streaming, but there are a lot of options.

The Twitch community has created a host of unique live streaming events, including Twitch Plays Pokémon – a crowdsourced Pokémon video game using commands sent by users through the channel’s chat room; and last year’s nostalgic Bob Ross marathon.

Amazon-owned Twitch is widely considered one of the best places to stream games, where you can watch your favorite gamers stream their games, and interact with them on a real-time basis. The site also contains a lot of different gaming communities that have regular viewers, making it a good place to build friendships with people from all over the world.

A gaming PC setup with a microphone and lighting ready to find out what the best place to stream games is.
Photo by Jack B on Unsplash

Follow the money?

In addition to Twitch, two other big streaming sites are YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming, which last year merged with Microsoft streaming site Mixer and sees these companies making an even bigger play to be one of the best places to stream games.

Facebook requires a high level of followers (10,000) before you can start monetizing. And that has to be as a single page, not a profile, which is a harder barrier to reach. Compare this with just 50 followers needed to start monetizing on Twitch.

With YouTube Gaming, you can live stream directly using the same software that you use for Twitch. However, while YouTube is often considered nearly as good as Twitch, its main focus is not purely on gaming. However, it is worth noting that a lot of the largest creators on YouTube do have a gaming element to their content. Do remember that monetizing on YouTube also requires a lot of followers.

That said, YouTube Gaming is both simple and easy to use, and it also provides excellent quality and features that make transcoding easier. One suggestion for those who want to monetize is to stream to Twitch, and then post highlights of your streams to YouTube or Facebook. It’s also worth noting that both of these sites are investing heavily in becoming the best places to stream games so these monetization goalposts are always going to be changing!

Someone stood at a PC with headphones on playing a game wondering what the best place to stream games is.
Photo by Fredrick Tendong on Unsplash

Even more options

Popular with Asian users is Bigo Live, which is offered in around 150 countries worldwide. The site uses Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality to help deliver its streaming services. Bigo supports live game streaming but also features a wide number of other options such as fan events.

Those who are more interested in shooting videos with their smartphones could consider Instagram Live. Instagram Live has become more and more popular but is currently only available via the smartphone app unless you happen to read this article from us that runs down how to stream from your PC to Instagram which could make it one of the best places to stream games if you have a large audience there or are looking to build one.

There is also Caffeine.tv, which offers decreased lag times and the ability to host your own sports broadcast, as well as a unique monetization pathway that involves asking viewers to purchase digital items for your stream. These innovations, however, as with many places, are becoming more common elsewhere as time goes on.

GosuGamers is another up-and-coming game streaming site. It is very popular with the esports scene and boasts a wide range of games. At the moment, monetization is mostly limited to winning tournaments and challenges though – so this site is worth considering if you are really into competitive esports.

If you’re hoping to stream your gaming, there are now a huge number of places to do this. But the great news is that XSplit Broadcaster works with all of them – making it easy to try out any number of sites to find the best game streaming platform for you!

Lisa Magloff

Lisa is a freelance writer who has written more than 100 books, specializing in science, tech and education. When not at the keyboard, she can be found messing around with science.More from this Author