The Complete Beginners Guide to Streaming on Twitch

Are you eager to start streaming on Twitch but don’t know where to begin?

Look no further!

In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know to start streaming on Twitch, including the very minimum things you need in order to go live for the first time.

Table of Contents

What is Twitch?

Twitch is a live streaming platform that primarily focuses on video game live streaming, but has also expanded to include streams of other types of content such as music, talk shows, and creative projects.

On Twitch, users can create their own channels and broadcast their live streams to their followers.

Viewers can watch these streams in real-time and interact with the streamer through chat.

Twitch has become a major player in the gaming and live streaming industries, with millions of active users and thousands of streamers broadcasting daily with its popularity growing all the time.

Minimum Requirements for Streaming on Twitch

The barrier to entry when it comes to streaming on Twitch is actually pretty low if you are a gaming streamer.

It’s likely that you’ll have everything that you need to get started without actually having to invest any money at the moment. At least if you’re going for the bare minimum setup to see if you enjoy it or not.

Those things are

A computer or console
Stable internet connection
Microphone
Twitch account

Those are quite literally the only things that you should need to at least get started. Now the reasons that we included a microphone in there are so that you can engage with your chat.

These days, very few people would sit and watch someone else play a game without any soft of audio interaction from you at all.

A webcam is definitely not a necessary requirement either as plenty of streamers do very well having never included a webcam on their content.

Most games consoles can also stream directly to Twitch without the need for a PC, so don’t let not having a PC put you off getting started either.

If you need a microphone, then we’ve got a great buyers guide to help you choose one that suits your needs and budget.

Setting up your Twitch account

Signing up for Twitch is incredibly simple and you can do it on either Desktop or mobile by following the steps below:

Go to Twitch’s website and click the “Sign Up” button.
Enter your date of birth and click “Sign Up.”
Enter your email address, create a username (this will be your channel name) and password, and click “Sign Up.”
Follow the instructions to verify your email address.
Optionally, set up two-factor authentication to secure your account.
Customize your profile by adding a profile picture and bio.

Setting Up Your Streaming Software

Streaming on console directly

Now if you’re on a console, then you can stream directly from the console without having to use a separate piece of software.

Simply follow the instructions below depending on your console to set up Twitch streaming on your console of choice.

You may also choose to set up your console to stream via a PC in order for you to make use of things like overlays and scenes. For that, you’ll need a capture card to send the video signal from your console to the PC.

You can then pretty much follow the instructions for the PC part below, adding in a video capture device of your capture card as part of your sources.

Streaming on PC

In order to stream on PC, you will need a piece of software that allows you to send your game over to Twitch. The most used out of those on offer would definitely be OBS (Open Broadcast Software).

Once you’ve downloaded and installed OBS it’s time to set up your connection to Twitch.

Run the installer and launch OBS for the first time.
It will then give you the option to run the auto-configuration wizard which is probably the easiest way to get things set up for beginners.
The wizard will then ask you to choose your resolution and our recommendation would be to change the Output resolution to 720p (1280×720).

The reason for this is that it makes your stream 720p on Twitch which is probably the most accessible resolution for your viewers.
On the next screen, you will be asked to choose your platform which should be defaulted as Twitch.
Choose to connect your twitch account and a popup will appear that asks you to log in with your Twitch account details.
It will then do everything that it needs to in order to connect your OBS to Twitch.
Run through the rest of the wizard until it’s fully completed and you’re almost ready to go.

It may also be worth setting up a second profile to allow you to test your streaming setup as a private stream. Here are the instructions on how to do that.

Setting up a basic scene

If you’re just looking to get started then it’s as simple as adding some sources.

You can look into improving your scenes to have overlays and transitions at a later date, but the very basics would be to add the below. We’ll also be publishing a much more in-depth guide on how to set up scenes and overlays very soon.

At the bottom of the OBS setup you’ll see scenes and sources.

Start by adding at least one scene if there isn’t one already.
Add a source that you want to stream.
Click on the + icon and choose whether you want to display either game capture or display capture.

If you play your games as full-screen then you can choose game capture and set it to capture any full-screen application.

If not, then choose display capture and then set it to your main gaming display. Just be aware that this will display everything that you display on that screen whilst you’re live.
You’ll also need to add in your audio capture for your microphone if you’re going to be using one.
Click on the + icon again and choose “Audio Input Capture” and give it a name. On the following screen, select your microphone from the dropdown and then save.

You’re now good to go!

Going live

Once you’re ready to go live and everything looks as it should on the preview screen, it’s time to name your stream.

There should either be a popup within OBS that allows you to change the name of your stream and add tags to it.

Fill in those boxes with a catchy title, choose a category of the game that you’re going to stream and add in your tags as those help with discoverability.

Then it’s just a case of hitting “Start Streaming”

Once you’re live, be sure to visit your own stream and check that everything is running as it should be and that you have sound as there’s nothing worse than streaming for an hour only to find out that your microphone was muted the whole time.

You are now officially a Twitch Streamer!

Enjoy the journey and be sure to keep learning about things you can do to improve your content and grow your community.

We’ll be publishing plenty of guides to help you along the way like thiese about understanding Twitch affiliate and Twitch Partner as well as giving you advice to help you get there.