How to Broadcast on Steam

Published: Oct 30, 2020

If you try to explain why you love gaming so much, many thoughts will come to your mind. You enjoy the excitement and thrill that different games give you. However, modern computer gaming is not just about the games. It’s also about community. You love watching others play, collaborating with them towards a single goal, and broadcasting your own gameplay for others to see and comment on. 

Steam is one of the most popular game broadcasting services at the moment. It’s designed to enable users to stream their gameplay live, without any need to install additional software. All you need is a powerful computer with a strong Internet connection. So, if you have issues like slow Internet or camera not working on MacBook, try to fix them before you start a broadcast. And how exactly do you start broadcasting? We’ll give you simple tips that help you share your gameplay with the world. 

How to Start Broadcasting Your Gameplay on Steam

Understand How Steam Works

The Steam client records, encodes, and broadcasts your game. Everything occurs in real time, and you have absolutely nothing to worry about. As long as your Internet connection is stable and your computer is appropriate for gaming, the client will take care of the rest. 

The system allows you to connect a microphone, so you can talk through the gameplay to explain what you’re doing. You can also use other programs on your computer to include audio by your choice while you play. 

If you want to watch streamers, you’ll find them through the Steam Community website. You can search for a game that you want to watch, or a particular user who you specifically like. 

Meet the Requirements

Steam imposes two requirements to enable its users to broadcast gameplay: 

  • You mustn’t be community banned. Don’t get into heated arguments and don’t insult people in the community. This is a simple standard to meet.
  • You have to get access to a non-limited account and make at least one purchase. This is the main disadvantage that users mention. If you haven’t bought a game on the platform, you won’t be able to use the broadcasting feature.  

Set Up Your Steam Client

You’ll need to enable the broadcasting functionality on your profile, so you’ll be able to share your games. This is how you do it:

Navan Travel
  • Find the Settings option under the Steam menu;
  • You’ll see a Broadcasting option in the menu on the left; click on it;
  • If you haven’t set up the functionality, you’ll see “broadcasting disabled” under the privacy setting. Click that dropdown menu and select Anyone can watch my games. If you want to restrict the viewers to your friends, you can choose Friends can request to watch my games or Friends can watch my games. 
  • Finally, you only need to click OK and you’re done. You can now start broadcasting your gameplay.

Start Sharing Your Gameplay

When you’re ready to share the mastery of your play with the world, you only need to start a game. Then, type Shift + Tab on your keyboard, and the Steam overlay will show up. At this point, you’ll need to turn on your microphone (if you want to speak) and adjust the settings. In case your Internet connection or your computer can’t handle HD streaming, you can adjust the quality of broadcasting to a lower setting.  

Then, close the overlay and return to your game. You’re ready to start broadcasting. 

In the top-right corner of your screen, you’ll see the status of broadcasting (live) and the number of viewers following your game. 

Steam will not save any of your streams. YouTube Gaming and Twitch, on the other hand, allow you to preserve successful gameplay so you can analyze it later. Steam only works for real-time streaming. 

Easy, Right?

If you already have a non-limited Steam account, you can start broadcasting right away. We gave you all needed information above. Are you ready to share your gameplay with the community?