How to go live on YouTube from your PC with your phone's game

Streaming your phone's game from your PC gives you everything YouTube's mobile app can't: a facecam, your mic, overlays, scenes, and the PC's internet doing the upload. Here's how to set it up once and go live in a click after that.

1. Turn on live streaming (once)

• To go live, YouTube asks for a verified channel with no live streaming restrictions in the past 90 days, and you must be at least 16.
• The first time, turning on live streaming can take up to 24 hours. Do it a day before your first stream.
• To start: on a computer, open YouTube Studio, then Create → Go live.

YouTube's rules change from time to time; its help page Get started with live streaming has the current ones.

2. Get your game into OBS

Download OBS Studio (30.1 or newer). With Casttit, plug in your phone, press Open OBS preview, and add a Window Capture of Casttit Preview with Capture Audio on. Then add your mic and facecam. Step by step: Set up OBS.

3. Connect OBS to YouTube

The easy way: connect your account.

1. In OBS, open Settings → Stream.
2. For Service, choose YouTube - RTMPS, then Connect Account (recommended), and sign in.
3. Back in OBS, Manage Broadcast sets your title, description and who can watch.

Or use a stream key. In YouTube Studio's Live Control Room, open the Stream tab and copy the Stream key. In OBS, choose Use Stream Key and paste it. Never show your stream key on stream or share it: anyone with it can stream to your channel. If it leaks, reset it in YouTube Studio.

4. Settings that hold up

• Let OBS test your connection. Tools → Auto-Configuration Wizard, choose to optimise for streaming. It measures your upload and picks a resolution and bitrate that fit.
• Use the graphics chip to encode. In Settings → Output, choose a hardware encoder if you have one (NVIDIA NVENC, AMD or Intel QuickSync). The processor then stays free for the rest of your setup.
• Follow YouTube's table. YouTube lists the bitrate for each resolution and frame rate, and asks for a keyframe every 2 seconds and constant bitrate (CBR): live encoder settings.
• Start at 720p. 720p at 60 fps is a safe start on a modest upload. Move up to 1080p once your test streams look clean.
• Use a cable to your router if you can. Wi-Fi works, but it's the first thing to stutter when the house gets busy.

5. Mind the vertical version

YouTube now sends your stream out in two shapes by default: the normal 16:9 one, and a vertical one for viewers in the Shorts feed. The vertical one is a centre crop of your stream, so a landscape phone game loses its sides there.

In the Live Control Room, the vertical preview has Edit layout: Fit to phone width keeps the whole game, and Stacked can put your facecam above it. You can also turn Dual stream off. Set it before you go live: it can't be added once the stream has started.

6. Test privately, then go live

1. Set the stream to Private or Unlisted and stream for five minutes.
2. Watch it back on another device: is the game sharp, is the sound in step with the picture, is your mic loud enough over the game?
3. Check Stream health in the Live Control Room while you test.
4. All good? Switch to Public and press Start Streaming in OBS.

Sound and picture out of step on the replay? Here's how to line them up.

Streaming somewhere else?

Platforms that accept streams from OBS give you a server address and a stream key in their creator settings. In OBS's Settings → Stream, pick the platform if it's in the Service list, or Custom, and paste both. Step by step for Twitch and Kick, and what Loco and Rooter ask: where to stream mobile games.