Building up a livestreaming community takes a lot of time, effort, commitment, and more a little luck—but what if there was a way of broadening how many people can access your stream?
Instead of just streaming on one website, it’s now possible to broadcast across multiple platforms at once and reach thousands more potential viewers. Why just build a community on Twitch when there’s viewers waiting on YouTube or Kick too? Enter, multistreaming. Here’s everything you need to know, including how you can set it up.
What is multistreaming?
Multistreaming (or simulcasting) lets a streamer broadcast their livestream across multiple platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Kick, and Facebook at the same time, opening up avenues to more traffic by hitting different viewer bases simultaneously.
Multistreaming, at least on Twitch, wasn’t always allowed. Ninja’s push to simulcast in August 2023 despite signing an exclusivity deal with the Amazon streaming giant eventually led to Twitch relaxing the rule. There are still some restrictions when it comes to what you can and can’t do while simulcasting: Twitch, for example, doesn’t allow you to post links that would see viewers leave its site for another during your stream.
But, as long as you aren’t bound to an exclusivity contract, there’s nothing stopping you from streaming to multiple sites—and there may be a benefit to doing so. With thousands of viewers across numerous platforms, hitting multiple sites drastically opens the potential for eyes on your stream. It’s also never been easier to multistream today either, with plenty of streaming software options allowing you to connect to your accounts in just a few clicks.
That’s not to say multistreaming isn’t without its downsides. Ludwig, who’s been pretty outspoken against multistreaming, believes developing a community across multiple platforms through live streaming is tough because you can’t prioritize one.
How to set up multistreaming
If you want to give it a crack, the most common system used for multistreaming is Restream.io, a site designed to connect several platforms in one go. To set up simulcasting with Restream.io:
- Head to the Restream.io site.
- Make an account (or link your existing Google or Facebook account).
- Once done, open Restream Studio (in-browser) or download and open the Studio software on your PC.
- After the initial setup, click Channels in the top-right of the screen.
- Select the platforms on which you’d like to stream and connect to them.
- Once you’ve set up the rest of your stream, hit Go Live and begin broadcasting to multiple channels at once.
You can also connect to Restream from your existing streaming software like Streamlabs or OBS via the Streams tab in the settings. Instead of selecting a particular platform, select Restream.io and connect your account.
You won’t get too many features with Restream’s free package. The minimum monthly plan ($16 USD a month) allowing you added features like an increase in the number of streams at the same time and the removal of the watermark.
Other multistreaming platforms include Castr, Switchboard Live, XSplit, and Wirecast.
