Today, there are various ways for you to share your content with a mass audience. For instance, there are many popular video-sharing platforms you can share videos on, like YouTube. If your videos become popular enough, you can even make a living creating and sharing videos. While there are many ways and places to share your videos, one of the most popular ways to live stream your content. Twitch is the most popular livestreaming platform on the internet, with over 140 million monthly active users. Though most people use Twitch to watch content live, Twitch does allow you to save streams as VODs (Videos on Demand). VODs can help you boost your viewership on Twitch and even on other video-sharing platforms. However, Twitch doesn’t automatically save your streams as VODs. You have to turn it on inside of your Twitch account settings manually. So, how do you save streams on Twitch?

This article will discuss the benefits of saving your Twitch streams and walk you through the steps you need to take to make sure Twitch saves your streams.

Why save your Twitch streams?

There are various reasons why you would want to save their streams as a streamer. The first reason is it creates a great backlog of content for people to check out while you’re offline.

Saving your streams also give your current viewers a chance to catch up on streams they might have missed. Twitch is different than YouTube. Most videos on YouTube range between 10 to 20 minutes. Twitch streams can go on for hours. Even your most dedicated viewers are bound to miss a few streams. VODs make your content more accessible to people who might have otherwise not been able to watch your stream if it wasn’t recorded. You can even upload your Twitch VODs to other platforms like YouTube, expanding your content’s accessibility.

Saving a stream before it happens

To start saving your streams as VODs, you will need to follow a few steps to enable it. Here are the steps you need to take:

  1. Go to Twitch.tv and log into your account.
  2. Select your profile icon on the right. This will open a drop-down menu.
  3. Click ‘Creator Dashboard’ in the drop-down menu.
  4. Once you’re inside the Creator Dashboard, select the ‘Streaming’ tab on the left side of the screen.
  5. Scroll down to VOD settings.
  6. Switch the ‘Store past broadcasts’ toggle on. Your VODs will automatically be publicly published. If you want to keep the private, switch the toggle underneath the ‘Store past broadcasts’ to off.
Twitch VOD settings

Now Twitch will save your streams as VODs! However, unlike YouTube, Twitch streams are only accessible for a limited time. For standard users, Twitch keeps their streams up for 14 days. Partner streamers get a little more time; their streams last for 60 days.

How to permanently save your Twitch stream

It is possible to save your streams on Twitch permanently. However, you have to turn a portion of your stream or the entire stream into a Highlight to do so. Here are the steps:

  1. In the Creator Dashboard, select the ‘Content’ tab.
  2. Click ‘Video Producer.’
  3. Select the video you want to turn into a Highlight. You can either select a portion of it or select the entire stream.
  4. Once you’ve selected the portion you want to turn into a Highlight, select ‘Publish Highlights.’
  5. Add a title, thumbnail and tags to your Highlight and hit ‘Save Changes.’

Your viewers can then access your Highlights on your Twitch channel. To access them, go to the ‘Videos’ tab on your channel. Then, click the ‘Filter by’ menu and select ‘Highlights.’

How to stop saving your streams?

If you decide you no longer want to save your streams on Twitch, it’s pretty simple to turn off automatic VOD recordings. Essentially, you do the same steps you did to turn on VOD recording. The only difference is you switch the toggle ‘Store past broadcasts’ off instead of on.

Keep your streams accessible for all

Twitch is a considerably popular livestreaming platform. There are millions of people who watch content on the platform every day. While most of them are there to watch their favorite creators live, there’s a sizable amount who watch VODs. To build up your library of content and keep your viewers engaged even when you’re offline, save your livestreams. It’s quick to do and can help you grow your Twitch channel.