Best OBS Settings for Twitch - A Beginners Guide (2024)

FAQs

What should be the Twitch setup for beginners? ›

All you need to start is a computer (PC or laptop), a webcam, and a microphone (though a headset would work just as well).

Open OBS Studio and click on Menu > Settings. From the settings window, select the Video tab. Change the Output (Scaled) Resolution to either 1920x1080 or 1280x720. Change the Common FPS Values to either 30 (if streaming at 1080p) or 60 (if streaming at 720p).

Streaming with no buffering should be equally important as high video and audio quality. For example, if your internet upload speed is 2000 Mbps, then your OBS setting for streaming, audio, and video bitrates should not exceed 1000 Mbps.

By default, OBS uses the best open-source video encoding library – x264. It has several presets that set the CPU usage and the video quality of your output to optimally balance between these two. The default preset is called “veryfast” and, in most cases, it does provide the best balance.

According to CNBC, a Twitch streamer with about a 100-viewer average makes roughly $250 per 100 subscribers from ad revenue. Of course, in order to make that much, you've got to build up a somewhat large following which is no easy task.

The most popular bitrate for Twitch

The suggested stream option is to have a 1080p resolution with 60 fps. Now, of course, you have options. Depending on your setup, you can stream at 720p at 30 fps, but note that the quality won't be as good as when using the recommended settings.

For lower-end PCs, we recommend Bicubic. Depending on your equipment and internet, you can set your FPS to 30-60 frames, but 60 is preferred for most streams. There you have it!

What is a good bitrate for 1080p 120fps? ›

You might not want to use it is if you're using x264 (more details below), which can deliver better quality video rendering when tuned correctly, but for most streamers who seek to strike a balance between performance and quality, NVENC is amazing and absolutely the way to go.

On Turing-based NVIDIA GeForce GPUs (ex: RTX 20-Series and GTX 1660/Ti), NVENC produces an image quality comparable to the x264 medium preset. Older Pascal and Kepler GPUs produce an image comparable to x264 veryfast. Deciding which of these encoders to use comes down to your individual hardware setup and requirements.

The overwhelming majority of streams will attract less than 10 viewers. Getting 50 would likely put a channel in the very top percentage of streams overall.

According to a Quora answer from a Twitch streamer, you'll get paid $3.50 for every 1,000 ad viewers. So if you have less than 1,000 viewers on a stream, you're making pennies per ad.

The ideal stream length is between three and four hours.

Even if you do everything above right, there's no guarantee that you'll find new viewers.

When it comes to choosing your stream settings, it's always better to prefer a steady stream over a high-quality picture. If your internet connection can't handle 1080p @ 60 fps and it risks interrupting your stream, bump it down to 720p.

How do I improve my Twitch stream quality? ›

What happens if my bitrate is too high? High bitrate means higher quality video, but it also means your video file will be much larger. The larger the file, the more likely it is that your viewers may experience buffering issues.

A high bitrate will guarantee that a video running at a high resolution and fps will be smooth, but lower resolution videos will continue to look poor, no matter how high the bitrate is.

A good rule of thumb is for the bitrate of your stream to use no more than 50% of your available upload bandwidth capacity on a dedicated line. For example, if the result you get from a speed test shows that you have 2Mbps of upload speed available, your combined audio and video bitrate should not exceed 1Mbps.

29.97 fps — Television was originally broadcast at 30 fps in the U.S., but 29.97 was introduced for technical reasons to support color TV. If you're shooting solely for streaming, you should go with 30 fps. 30 fps — Used for non-broadcast video in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Full HD resolution is typically 1080p, 60 frames per second (fps). Streaming at a higher resolution like 1080p requires a higher bitrate, and a higher frame rate takes more encoding power. If you have the bandwidth and encoding power to stream at 1080p, 60 fps, great!

Universally, 24fps is accepted as the norm for a “cinematic” frame rate. 30fps is accepted for broadcast in North America, and 25fps is the broadcast standard in Europe. In the one-second sequence below, several individual frames pass each second. To be specific, there are twenty-four individual stills.

Make sure the rate control is set to CBR. As for the bitrate, the optimal value depends on your upload speed and hardware. If you want to stream in 1080p 60 FPS on Twitch, set the bitrate to 6000 Kbps. In case of lower resolutions and frames per second, the Twitch guideline recommends a bitrate of around 4500 Kbps.

For 4K @ 30fps h. 264, the recommended target average bitrate is ~45 Mbps, and for HEVC, it is ~22.5 Mbps. For 4K @ 60fps HEVC, the recommended target average bitrate is ~48-54 Mbps, depending on the device.

What quality should I stream on Twitch? ›

Video Quality

Full HD resolution is typically 1080p, 60 frames per second (fps). Streaming at a higher resolution like 1080p requires a higher bitrate, and a higher frame rate takes more encoding power. If you have the bandwidth and encoding power to stream at 1080p, 60 fps, great!

Now if your stream is pixelated, this means the bitrate is too low. If you have the bandwidth you can increase the bitrate, but if you don't you will have to reduce your streaming resolution and frame rate.

Low Internet Bandwidth

In these cases, either there is not enough bandwidth between the ISP and Twitch, or something is wrong in the network path to Twitch. To resolve this, switch to a different Twitch server, check that no other network process is using bandwidth, or contact your ISP for network diagnostics.

For the best quality live streams on Twitch, we recommend setting the following parameters: Framerate: 60 or 50 fps; Keyframe Interval: 2 seconds; Preset: Quality; B-frames: 2. These settings work best with the 1080p resolution and 60 FPS.

How much does a good streaming setup cost? The answer to this question will depend on your budget, the audiovisual quality you want and how seriously you'll be taking your game streaming. It can range anywhere from around $500, if you already have a gaming PC, to $1,500 and up if you want high-end gear.

What is a basic streaming setup? As a beginner, you need four things to go live: a camera, a microphone, streaming software, and a good internet connection. You can also add accessories that will drastically improve the quality of your live stream without too much effort.

Twitch isn't on the leading edge of video quality — it doesn't even support 4K streaming — so you can get away with lower-quality gear. It's perfect for beginners. There's one obstacle many Twitch content creators face, though.

According to a Quora answer from a Twitch streamer, you'll get paid $3.50 for every 1,000 ad viewers. So if you have less than 1,000 viewers on a stream, you're making pennies per ad.

How much does 10k viewers make Twitch? ›

Streamers in the top 100 on the platform make a minimum of $32,850 USD per month on Twitch via subs, bit donations, and ads alone. Streamers in the top 1000 on the platform made a minimum of $7,063 USD per month. Streamers in the top 10,000 on the platform make a minimum of $904 USD per month.

A minimum of eight hours broadcasted. A minimum of seven different broadcast days. An average of three concurrent viewers or more. At least 50 followers.

Streaming to zero viewers is an experience that is surprisingly common. 95% of streamers on Twitch average 0-5 concurrent viewers per stream. Even so, it doesn't make the sensation sting any less. I don't blame anyone for quitting because they don't like streaming to an empty room.

When you get to 100 average viewers, you can say you've won your first big battle. You can become a Twitch Partner and earn money there. Twitch Affiliates also attract sponsors. As for 2021, the average streamer with 100 viewers could earn around $1,500 per month on their Twitch channel.