If you have an account already, then proceed to the next step. If not, go to https://twitch.tv and choose your username. Enter in your password, date of birth, and phone number. Alternatively you can use an Email to verify your account instead, which is our preferred method. However, using your phone number can come in handy for two-factor authenticationr.

Go to the OBS website, select the version you want to use, and click install. OBS Studio (Open Broadcaster Software) is not only free, but also the best choice to start your streaming journey. It’s an open-sourced software that allows you to set up the appearance of your stream and send that feed to Twitch. There’s other options, but we always find ourselves going back to OBS.

In OBS Studio go to Tools > Auto-configuration wizard. You may also be prompted with the wizard if it’s your first time opening the software. For streaming, we recommend the first option Optimize for streaming, recording is secondary then clicking on next. For new streamers, a base canvas on 1920×1080 is ideal, and 30 or 60 FPS comes down to preference and PC performance. Click next again.

For the service drop down select Twitch. Then, click Connect Account. Next, log in to your Twitch account. Once this is done, you can click next and allow the wizard to run. Hit apply settings.

In the source panel, hit the plus icon and choose either Game Capture or Display Capture (note: using Display Capture will show EVERYTHING on the monitor you select). For beginners, we highly recommend using the game capture option.

Name your source and hit Ok. Leave the mode option to Capture any fullscreen application. If desired, you can also select Capture specific window to assign a specific game to capture in your screen. This can be done in the Window drop down.

For your gameplay audio, click the Settings button in the bottom right of OBS Studio. Navigate to the Audio tab. Under the Desktop Audio drop down, set this to Default. This will enable OBS to hear everything on your desktop and relay it to your Twitch stream.

Under the Mic/Auxilliary Audio drop down select the microphone input you’d like OBS to include for your stream. This is likely the same microphone you’re using for things like Discord or any other voice chat application. Hit Ok to close the settings window.

In OBS Studio add a Video Capture Device source, give it a name, and then under the Device dropdown select the name of your webcam. There’s other useful settings here, like the ability to lower the resolution, set the frame rate, or even flip the webcam vertically. We recommend choosing Custom in the Resolution/FPS Type dropdown, and selecting either 1920×1080 or 1280×720 in the resolution field. Hit Ok to add it in.

While it’s selected in the canvas area (the area showing off your stream setup) you can click and move it anywhere you’d like. You can also drag from the corners to resize your webcam.

Use the Stream Information dock to set your stream title, go live notification, and category. The category will be either the game you’re playing or streaming category like Just Chatting. You can also set some tags to help with discoverability as well.

These docks only appear when you connected your Twitch account in a previous step. The Stream Chat dock will show all your messages on Twitch and allow you to type messages as well!

Hit the Start Streaming button to go live!