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Is Multi-Streaming Worth It? Pros & Cons

Should you stream on Twitch? Or Youtube Gaming? Or maybe you want to give Facebook Gaming a try. Why not stream on all three; all at once! This is where multi-streaming comes in my friends. But is streaming to multiple platforms worth it?

Is Multi-Streaming Worth It? 

Multi-streaming is absolutely worth it. Multi-streaming is a great way to extend your reach to multiple live streaming platforms and increase your chances of being discovered every time you go live.

But just be aware that if you are a Twitch Affiliate or a Twitch Partner that your ability to multi-stream may be restricted or not allowed at all.  

When it comes to multi-streaming I like to use Streamlabs Prime. Streamlabs Prime comes with so many awesome features besides just multi-streaming, but I will touch more on why I love Streamlabs Prime down below. 

Oh and if you use my Streamlabs Prime code here, you will get a discount on the price.

If you ARE a Twitch Affiliate or a Twitch Partner, then you might have to think a little bit more about your decision to multi-stream. I will be honest, at first I was against multi-streaming, but after doing a bit more research, I can definitely see the pros and cons to multi-streaming. I will give the pros and cons down below, as well as if I think that you should multi-stream.

The Pros to Multi-Streaming

Like I mentioned, multi-streaming will increase your reach, which will in turn help you to get discovered by others. If you only stream on one platform, you will only be discovered by people using that particular platform (Twitch, Youtube, Facebook Gaming, etc.). 

However, if you stream on Twitch, Youtube Gaming, Facebook Gaming, DLive, etc. all at once, then you have 4x the chances of being discovered. People on each of the different platforms may possibly find you and watch your streams.

And let’s say you decide to stick with Twitch, those people can then hop on Twitch and sub, follow or donate if they like you that much.  

I am sure you have heard many streamers tell you that if you are going to grow as a streamer, you have to do things outside of that one streaming channel such as a social media account or a Youtube channel. Almost nobody becomes big off of live streaming alone.

I was thinking of some the big streamers that I follow like Nickmercs and Aydan and neither of them got big from just streaming.

Nickmercs for example starting getting noticed because of all the insane Fortnite kill records he would upload to Youtube.

People saw he was a beast and that lead to them wanting to check out his live streams. That’s how I found him.

Aydan ironically got big for killing Nickmercs a bunch of times in Tilted Towers (a place on the Fortnite map) and then later teaming up with Nickmercs and slaying out with him in a big Fortnite tournament. Not going to lie, I really miss those days!

But either way, their major exposure was not from their live streams. It was from something else that drove a bunch of viewers to their live streams.

And given that both of them are super entertaining, those viewers have stuck around and now both streamers have become pretty big deals in the Twitch scene. 

I am sure you have a few streamers that you watch who blew up from things outside of Twitch. Even a host or a raid is not really something a streamer can control. 

The whole point I am trying to make here is that the more platforms, or lines in the water as I like to say, that you have out there the higher your chances of getting noticed and growing your stream. 

For this reason I think you should see yourself as a streamer and not necessarily a Twitch streamer or a Youtube streamer. 

Also, what happens if the platform you are on takes a major dive? Kind of like Mixer did. Now what do you do? It helps to diversify your streams and your reach so that way if anything happens, you are not starting from ground zero on another platform.

Now that I have made a case for multi-streaming, let me now present you with some cons to multi-streaming.

Cons of Multi-Streaming

Some of the cons of multi-streaming include: having to talk to multiple people on different streams, not being able to multi-stream if you are a Twitch affiliate/partner and not being established on one platform. 

Now let’s dive into each of these cons and decide if they are big enough to stop you from multi-streaming.

The main reason I hear for people not wanting to multi-stream is that it is “weird” talking to people on different platforms.

I used to believe this too, but then I watched this video from Devin Nash and I realized that he was spot on with everything he talked about regarding Twitch affiliate and multi-streaming. 

When you are a small streamer you have a handful of people in your chat, sometimes you won’t even have any people who stop by your stream. So what’s the concern?

Why not increase your chances that someone visits your stream, regardless of the platform?

Also, when you think about it, would anyone really care if you are streaming on Twitch and talking to someone on Youtube or visa versa?

Most of your viewers are watching because they like you and not because they care about chat. If I was watching my favorite streamer I wouldn’t care what chat they were talking to. 

And if your viewers wanted to talk to chat that bad, they could just go to whichever platform your chatters are on. It is really not as big of a deal as people make it seem like.

But with that being said, I can see how that could hinder the community you are trying to build with your stream. Sure you can talk to all the people on the stream, but your viewers can not.

And sometimes it is nice having a bunch of people in there chatting it up.

As a streamer though, it is not difficult to talk to multiple chatters in different streams. In fact, Streamlabs Prime has a multi-stream chat section where you can see who is chatting and on what platform.

So although talking to multiple streams may be a perceived con, it really is not a con in my opinion. 

The next reason given for not multi-streaming is indeed valid, and is something that you will have to consider as you go forward as a streamer. That is the fact that if you are a Twitch affiliate or partner, you are not allowed to multi-stream. 

Now let me clarify that just a bit. If you are a Twitch affiliate as of Feb. 2021, you can stream to another platform besides Twitch, you just can’t stream to Twitch and that other platform simultaneously.

If you are a partner though whether or not you can stream to other platforms will vary from streamer to streamer.

The thing that makes this tricky is that in order to gain subs and bits on Twitch, you have to be an affiliate or partner. Do you see the issue yet? 

This seems like a good idea right? Stop multi-streaming because now that you are an affiliate you will start making that money money. Well not quite. The bar for affiliate is so low (stream a certain amount of time, 50 followers and 3 average viewers) that anyone can hit affiliate. 

So now let’s say you have met the requirements, and all those average viewers are subbed to you, you will now be making a whopping $9 from subs in a month. Ballin!

Throw in some bits here and there and you could be lookin at a cool $12 a month. Money bags! Well not really.

Don’t get me wrong. I know how cool it is making money online. But as a streamer you have to decide if that $9, $12 or whatever low amount is worth getting rid of multi-streaming and therefore decreasing your reach. 

You’ll have to decide if it’s worth cutting your reach and losing your ability to multi-stream. You have to think of the big picture and weather or not it is worth it to cut your reach in order to join partner or affiliate.

Again I totally understand that everyone is in a different situation, and those are just my two cents on the matter. Either way, if you are making any money streaming it is awesome. Just don’t lose sight of the big picture is all I am saying.     

The last con is that streaming on multiple platforms can effect your branding. Again, I don’t agree. If you are a small streamer, you probably don’t have much of a brand or a base to stand on and so you are not really hurting anything. 

If you are worried about this, just push the one platform you want to be known for and anyone who comes over from any other platform you are live streaming to will just be extra toppings on the cake.

Again, as a small streamer your main focus should be reaching as many people as you can and pulling them into your small, but super legit community. As your community grows, so will your brand and I could totally see why streamers feel that not sticking to one platform could effect their brand.

For example, you don’t get any cool emotes for your chat unless you are an affiliate on Twitch. Things such as emotes and channel points really help to build a community and increase your brand recognition.

Should You Multi-Stream?

If you want to increase your reach while you live stream, then you should absolutely multi-stream. Since you are already live streaming, it makes sense to use that time that you are streaming to try and reach as many people as possible. 

I mean it really is just a few extra clicks and you are streaming to multiple platforms. Like I said, I used to not think it was useful, but as I looked more into it I realized that I was wrong and unless you are under some obligation with Twitch, there is really no reason that you should not be multi-streaming. 

You have nothing to lose from it and everything to gain. In fact, knowing what I know now, I am going to start multi-streaming myself so I’ll see you out there!

Does Twitch Allow Multi-Streaming?

Twitch allows multi-streaming, but certain rules apply if you are a Twitch Affiliate or Twitch Partner. If you are a Twitch Affiliate, you can NOT stream to Twitch and another platform simultaneously. As an affiliate you can however stream to Twitch, end your stream, and then start a stream on another platform. As a Twitch Partner, whether or not you can multi-stream will depend on what kind of agreement you have with Twitch.

Also, keep in mind that I am writing this in February of 2021 and the terms and conditions can always change. But if you don’t have any agreement from Twitch i.e. affiliate or partner, then I don’t know how they could ever stop you from streaming to multiple platforms. 

Where Can You Multi-Stream?

The two most common softwares that streamers use to multi-stream are Streamlabs Prime and Restream.io. Both will let you multi-stream to several platforms all at once, but Restream will cost you more if you want to use some of their advanced streaming features. 

Let me breakdown both of the softwares below:

Streamlabs Prime for Multi-Streaming

When it comes to multi-streaming, I think that Streamlabs Prime is by far the superior choice. If you have read any of my previous articles, you will know that I love Streamlabs Prime. It comes with so many amazing features, with multi-stream being one of them.

So if you get Streamlabs Prime not only will you be getting the multi-stream feature, but you will be getting a bunch of free overlays and access to their app store as well. 

If you want even more reasons as to why I love Streamlabs Prime, check out my article here.

I like Streamlabs Prime over Restream.io because you don’t have to pay extra to get the upgraded features such as full HD or 1080p streaming and removal of the Restream watermark.

What’s the watermark? Well unless you go with some of Restream’s paid versions of the software, you will have a Restream watermark (a see through logo) on your streams which isn’t a huge deal, but is just something to be aware of.

I also like the Streamlabs Prime multi-streaming is geared more towards gamers with things like overlays based on certain games and super cool alerts. I feel like you get a lot more for a lot less with Streamlabs Prime.

Yes, Streamlabs Prime is cheaper than the paid versions of restream.io and you can pay monthly with Streamlabs Prime just like you would for Restream.

The paid (standard) version of Restream starts at $16 a month where as the Streamlabs Prime starts at $12 a month. But good news, use my Streamlabs Prime code here and you will get a discount making it even cheaper.

For all these reasons, if I had to choose between Streamlabs Prime and Restream, I would go with Streamlabs Prime. But that is not to say that Restream is a bad software. Let me explain why I like Restream. 

Restream for Multi-Streaming

Restream is another great choice for multi-streaming, and best of all it has a free version. Like I already mentioned, the free version does have some limitations when it comes to video quality and storage, but you really aren’t going to find a better platform that will let you stream to multiple platforms for free. 

Restream: the world's largest distribution service for live video  broadcasts · Showcases · TechUkraine

One neat thing about Restream is their cross-platform chat feature which allows users from multiple platforms to chat to each other. I also like how in-depth their analytics report is. 

If you are just curious about multi-streaming, and want to see what it’s like, then Restream is going to be your best bet. You are not going to find a better multi-streaming platform for free.

But like I said, if I had to choose a platform to multi-stream from, I would go with Streamlabs Prime just because of how it is geared towards gamers. It is what I use to multi-stream from and it is great!  

As always, if you have any questions or just want to hang with me, stop by my Twitch channel here and say what’s up!



For even more streaming tips and how-to content check out my Youtube channel here. And if you want to check out my streams then stop by my Twitch channel here.

In the end, I have totally changed my mind on multi-streaming and think that everyone should do it, as long as they are not an affiliate or a partner. It is a great way to assure that your live streams reach as many people as possible.

Good luck out there my friends!

May all your streams come true!

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[…] to know why you may want to wait before jumping into the Twitch Affiliate Program then check out my article here on multi-streaming. You may learn a few things about the Twitch Affiliate Program that you didn’t […]

👋 Hey There, I'm Eric!

Since 2018, I've been making streams come true.

I like gaming, streaming and watching other people stream. I created this website to help streamers, viewers, and gamers answer questions they have regarding live streaming, gaming, and PCs. I am a Twitch affiliate and currently stream on Twitch 3 days a week. I also have a Youtube channel where I make videos about streaming. I hope you find my content helpful. Feel free to stop by one of my streams to say hi.