If you watch games, you have probably used or heard of Twitch, Facebook Gaming, and YouTube Gaming and may be wondering which is the best and how they compare. Here we pit the three titans of game streaming up against one another to decide which is the best live game streaming platform.
Twitch.tv
Twitch started as an offshoot of Justin.tv, which was a general-purpose streaming service back in the day. Twitch was an offshoot focused on gaming, though, and it quickly took off, resulting in a company rebrand to Twitch.tv, the closing of Justin.tv, and a full focus on Twitch and what it offers.
In addition to gaming, Twitch has also been used to broadcast live events unrelated to gaming, as well as art and other forms of creativity.
Twitch’s popularity quickly made it one of the most popular video-streaming platforms on the Internet, making a noticeable impact around the web. Because of this, Google and Amazon both looked to purchase the service, but ultimately, Amazon won out in the end, and Google decided to make their own live game streaming platform.
Pros
- Size. As the pioneer, Twitch is by far the largest and most popular game-streaming service, and its capabilities only increase as time goes on.
- Great for growing as a creator and finding a new audience, especially when compared to YouTube Gaming, due to its larger size.
- Higher average revenue than YouTube Gaming.
- By far the most powerful chat/moderation system.
Cons
- While Twitch is the best for growing, it’s still tough to get noticed in the early days of your streaming.
- Additionally, you won’t be able to monetize your Twitch stream until you reach Partner status, which can take quite some time. Compared to YouTube Gaming, meeting the bar to make money on Twitch is much more difficult.
- Limited allowed bitrates prevents streaming above 1080p 60fps.
- Uses Flash instead of HTML5.
Facebook Gaming
Facebook Gaming is the social media site’s game-streaming service, which integrates directly into the video component of Facebook. This means your content can appear in people’s feeds just like any other video on Facebook would, even sometimes to people who aren’t following you yet.
Facebook Gaming occupies a very strange place in the video streaming marketplace. Even on its own platform, it’s long since been overshadowed by Facebook Reels, which is where most video watching time on Facebook is directed. While it briefly showed potential to be a viable competitor to YouTube Gaming and Twitch, Facebook Gaming has long since proven to be a dud, to the extent that Facebook officially ended its Facebook Gaming Creator Program on October 31st, 2025.
Pros
- Tied to your Facebook account, so easily able to extend your content to friends and family.
- Due to Facebook Gaming chat being tied to real-name Facebook accounts, the likelihood of spam and hateful comments are greatly reduced compared to more anonymous services.
Cons
- Bar to enter the partner program is about on par with other services but is reported to take much longer for approval, even after meeting the requirements.
- Limited to just 1080p and 60 FPS streaming, like Twitch.
- Has greatly diminished in viewership since its peak in 2021, now a distant third place to Twitch and YouTube for gaming content. While Facebook Gaming still exists, it’s a shell of its former self in favor of Facebook Reels and other platforms. Virtually impossible to recommend.
YouTube Gaming
Gaming is easily the largest part of YouTube, so when Google opted to launch an entire sub-site of YouTube called YouTube Gaming, few people were surprised. Much of YouTube Gaming takes pre-existing YouTube gaming videos and offers them in a slick, red and black theme, but the real attraction is using the YouTube Gaming streaming service which is rising as a worthy rival to Twitch.
Suffice to say, Google wasn’t happy about Amazon getting Twitch instead. Let’s see how it stacks up.
Pros
- YouTube integration. This means all your stream archives are automatically saved, and a DVR function is available during the stream as opposed to needing to wait an hour until the stream archive becomes available (a la Twitch).
- The absolute best for reaching your pre-existing audience if you’re a YouTuber. No need for anyone to sign up for Twitch or find it – anyone subscribed to your channel will get notified when you start streaming.
- Uses HTML5 and avoids Flash.
- Offers up to 4K 60FPS streaming.
Cons
- Not nearly as good for growing your audience as Twitch is.
- Doesn’t offer the depth of chat and moderation functions that Twitch does.
Verdict
Ultimately, who wins this battle depends on your personal needs as a content creator.
If you’re just starting out and don’t have a pre-existing YouTube presence, Twitch is your best bet to start climbing up the ranks, though the climb will be slow and rely on you being consistent and providing high-quality streams for people to enjoy.
YouTube Gaming, meanwhile, is the best live game streaming platform for reaching a pre-existing audience on YouTube. Many gaming content creators start on YouTube, and since YouTube Gaming is a very good platform, it’s always growing. Its reach to your pre-existing audience is much better than Twitch’s, too.
Facebook Gaming offers an interesting alternative to the larger platforms—or at least, it used to. Revenue and support have dropped so much over time that I wouldn’t be surprised to see it outright killed at some point in the near future.
However, its general utility as a way to share gameplay with people in your Facebook circle is still there, and Facebook itself is unlikely to go anywhere in the near future. If you can adjust your gaming content appropriately for Reels, you may even have a fighting chance making money… but there’s a reason most gaming viewership goes to desktop and console-centric platforms like YouTube Gaming and Twitch.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What happened to Hitbox?
Hitbox was a Twitch alternative that first ended in May of 2017 when it was acquired by Azubu and turned into Smashcast. Smashcast then ended in 2020, meaning Hitbox died twice.
But that isn’t the whole story of Hitbox. It was founded at a time when the scene was much younger, and the innovation it pushed of 4K 60 FPS streaming was noteworthy. It’s still noteworthy today, as most 4K streams are from businesses and not individual streamers.
2. What happened to Mixer?
Mixer was a streaming platform from Microsoft, launched in 2017, having started as Bean the previous year. Mixer’s big innovation was low-latency, high-quality streams that enabled higher levels of interactivity than other platforms.
Mixer prominently bought out top Twitch streamers like Ninja to come stream on its service instead, but unfortunately, this was not enough to save It. Microsoft shut it down in 2020 and made an agreement with Facebook to allow partners on Mixer to become partners on FB Gaming.
3. What hardware do I need to start streaming games?
You’ll want to get a powerful 8+ thread CPU and a modern mid- to high-range graphics card with a video encoder built in. Most graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia have built-in streaming software as well, but you’ll need to download your AMD or Nvidia drivers in order to access those.
4. What software do I need to start streaming games?
Fortunately, you don’t need to pay a cent to start streaming games. As mentioned above, you can get some fairly solid results streaming straight from your graphics card if you get matching graphics driver software. You’ll even be able to enjoy live chat overlays and other stream monitoring features without needing to leave your game.
But for a more professional presentation, most prefer to go for Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) or even Streamlabs OBS. The two are mostly the same, but Streamlabs OBS is a version of OBS modified for more ease of use. It has a paid tier, but fortunately, this tier is mainly for accessing paid themes rather than necessary features.
