A popular question among my followers, for sure!
Let’s start with a little backstory, if you would allow me. Ow, first, I need to make this one statement, because otherwise you may never read until the end of the article and miss it. I am NOT leaving Twitch, not completely. Will tell you more about that below. Now, the backstory.
The Backstory
I started Live Streaming to Twitch out of curiosity and because up until that moment I was always recording my SWTOR Operation gameplay for personal viewing later on. You know, to track my movements, mistakes, moments where I need to change or upgrade something in my gameplay. Things many semi-hardcore (because in 2013 I still was one) and hardcore raiders often do. Using FRAPS proved an expensive solution as I was facing 2 major issues: running out of HDD space if I wanted to keep some of these archives and a severe FPS punishment while raiding and recording. We all know how FRAPS works (it records raw video files with no compression and taxes the CPU seriously) and combining this with the SWTOR’s excuse of an engine, you can imagine what the result was in reality. My PC hardware was powerful back then, but quite weaker compared to what I have now (thanks to the fantastic support I receive from Patreon pledges, Stream Tips, YouTube revenue, my website)… I’m afraid I may have started digging another hole here and crossing to a different subject a little bit. Back on topic.
In August 2013 I started on Twitch with the idea of having my recordings saved for me online. Also using OBS allowed me to lighten the burden on my HDD and CPU. At first I had only a handful of viewers and most of them were from Solstice. People from our other team who would visit to have some fun enjoying our raids while they weren’t raiding. Slowly and without really any push from me, I started gaining random visitors and new followers. A few months down the road I realized it’s not just my little corner any more after my chat started filling up with questions about the game, comments and just general activity. I had to learn how to not stream for my own benefits any more, but see if I can also be a good or at least an average entertainer.
Twitch had always had problems, Since the very beginning. During massive eSports events and competitions, the chat would stop working, the smaller streams would begin lagging, stuttering, buffering, even the website would go down for a short while or if not, it would show a blank page in the game’s category – as if nobody is streaming or watching it. It may sound strange to you if you haven’t used Twitch long enough, but, yes – the same problems the biggest and most popular live streaming platform had 2-3 years ago, it has them now. Still. Again.
The real reason for this post – why am I streaming to YouTube now
YouTube had a live streaming service for a long time. Only in the Summer of last year, 2015, Google finally realized they need to fix or completely revamp it. While not really broken, this service was totally user unfriendly, clumsy and slow. I tried it a few times, but the never really liked. Not a bit. Somewhere in Spring 2015 Google decided to begin this new project called “YouTube Gaming” after their attempt to swallow Twitch (as in purchase/buy it) failed and Amazon beat them for it. In August/September 2015 we saw the first version of the new Gaming portal, which, of course, is here today, but slightly changed. Google keeps updating and upgrading the service. While it’s still in beta, I can honestly say it surpasses my expectations. There are a lot of things it still needs added. Simple things, such as better integration with Social media and.. Chat Time Stamps. Lol.
Twitch’s side – advantages and limitations
While Twitch is a well established live streaming gaming platform, they always have issues of various kinds (some I mentioned above already). The worst limitation for me is the maximum bitrate they recommend or should I really say it plainly “ALLOW” us to use. If a streamer is not partnere, which is a dead end for SWTOR streamers, such as myself, they can only use upto 3000-3500 kbps and that includes the audio. And it’s a dead end, because the game is not nearly as popular as we wish it to be or as Twitch needs it to be to even turn its eye upon it (just like Sauron didn’tnotice the little Hobbits, as his eye was busy with the much bigger things happening at the doorstep of Mordor). Also the resolution is strongly recommended to be 720p30 or lower. Some non-partners have attempted to do 1080p60 and while possible, the bitrate limitations and the fact that Twitch still uses Flash Player, are a killer for a huge portion of the viewers. Twitch recommends for 720p30 a bitrate of 2000 up to 2500kbps to be used. Well, after over 2 years of constant streaming and more than enough of experience, I can tell you – SWTOR looks horrible on 2000kbps!
Twitch’s positive side is that it is still the absolute dominant. It’s much bigger and popular than all other services combined, probably. It has support from many branches, companies and all those special events that keep being live streamed on Twitch do bring a lot of new +rep points. Being so huge and pretty much 90% of the gamers having at least heard of it once or twice, if not used it themselves, is a big plus for the streamer’s content to be discovered. I mentioned above that this wasn’t really my initial goal, at first.
YouTube’s side – advantages and limitations
With the new beta streaming platform and all the innovations/changes Google did for YouTube Gaming and after a few months of careful testing and learning its secrets, I can now proudly say I am making the right choice. I never cared for big numbers of concurent viewers. If I wanted that, I’d remain on Twitch. No, I am taking the harder approach. Why? YouTube Gaming is new, it’s unknown and even though the new website is much cooler for watching streams with its dark colours. Here we come to the best part – performance and quality. YouTube is known to be the biggest video platform ever and it’s far ahead any possible competition. Because of that, they have a fantastic and very powerful hardware structure and a very well established network, globally. While Google is just launching some special “Partnership” program, of which I know naught yet, they do not consider their small streamers as peasants and useless trash. Every single live stream has transcoding options. If the viewer’s internet connection is acting up, or is just a weak one by default, there’s always a way to watch your favorite live show and enjoy it (at lower resolution). YouTube is using a full working HTML5 video player, which is much lighter on the viewer’s end and on their hardware configuration. They also allow for insane (for streaming!) resolution and quality. The maximum currently allowed is 1080p60 at 9000kbps. That’s 3 times higher bitrate compared to Twitch’s limits/suggestions, To try and compare 1080p60 to 720p30 is like CRT monitor from 1995 compared to a new OLED display. Combining the high resolution with the much better HTML5 player, the viewer receives a lot more for a lot less.
Exactly the opposite to Twitch, YouTube Gaming has one big disadvantage or limitation if you will (because that’s the title of the paragraph, heh). It’s not popular enough yet to gain a slice of the general viewer base. But. It’s Google we are talking about. We know that what they want, they take. There are those little fails that some would remind us about, such as the attempt of Google Plus to beat Facebook. I personally never believed this to be their goal, not at all.
Here are a couple of videos for you to compare. They are both from live shows – one from Twitch and one from YouTube. Also, both were streamed with the best possible settings the platforms allow.
Conclusions and the open door
Unlike many frustrated streamers, who were fighting for their spot under the sun (in our case it’s a spot on Twitch), I never strived for that. It came on its own, slowly, and made me realize that I have it and need to start acting accordingly. I made a note also during the article that I don’t care for numbers of views. That, of course, is not to say I don’t want viewers. Live streaming is nothing without the great company of like-minded players who enjoy the same game and gameplay I show. Currently I get probably half of the views per live show than what I get from Twitch. However, YouTube is my main video source and activity. Always has been. I made my Social accounts to support it and just like it happened with my Twitch account – I realized posting links and advertising my own creations is nothing without the communications with followers. I created a Twitch account not to replace YouTube, but because at the time Google didn’t have a decent product to go Live with. Having to download an archived stream from Twitch, edit, render, re-upload to YouTube, wait for it to process until I can finally publish the video, has always been a strain I struggled a lot with. If I can do it in the same place and with the same audience, what better can I ask for?
I am making it my mission to keep informing you, friends, for the change I have made. I started this campaign slow and careful last autumn, now that I am certain I made the right choice, I will be even more aggressive in bringing as many of you to my YouTube Live shows and events as possible.
Last and final words. I said it in the beginning, to avoid confusion. I’m saying it now. I never favor the platform over the audience. I will use what’s best for my audience and currently YouTube has the lead, by a long stretch. I am NOT leaving Twitch, like those frustrated streamers I mentioned in the previous paragraph, no. I will keep engaging with the hardcore Twitch fans, just so I can keep contact with the people who have been supporting me since my early days. I just won’t do it as often any more. If YouTube and Google screw things up somewhere along the way, I am leaving my backdoor half-open.
That’s all. For now. That’s for reading. I hope I have given a most extensive and complete answer to the question that has been popping on pretty much every single YouTube Live Show I do in the past few months. I probably should have published this sooner, but oh well… :)))
