How to Live Stream Nintendo Switch Games (Complete Guide)(Video)

Video game streaming is huge. And it’s easy really, you can easily connect your computer to a streaming service, boot up your game and a mic, and you’re on your way to Twitch stardom.

But what if you really want to stream games from a device that isn’t your computer? What if you want to stream from a Nintendo Switch, for example? (ZELDA?? MARIO KART??)

Well, so long as you have the right equipment, it’s not as hard as it might sound. Here’s how to stream games from the Nintendo Switch.

Things You’ll Need

• Switch and its dock.
• Capture card –in this case, I’m using the Razer Ripsaw (you can check it out here).
• PC connected to the internet to stream from.
• External monitor/TV to see what you are playing.

Setup the Nintendo Switch to Stream

1. Connect the Dock to a power source and pop your Switch into it.
2. Plug the Dock’s HDMI cable to capture card HDMI in.
3. Take the Ripsaw’s HDMI cable and plug that into an external monitor.
4. Using the USB cable from the Ripsaw, plug it into the computer.
5. If using the Ripsaw, download and install Razer Synapse and make sure it can see the Ripsaw.
6. Download Open Broadcaster Studio from their site (it’s free) and once installed, open it.
7. Under sources right click and hit Add Video Capture Device.
8. Select Create New and name the device whatever you want.
9. Under the Device dropdown select ‘Razer Ripsaw’.
10. Turn on the Nintendo Switch and open the game you want to stream.
11. If no image appears on the screen change the Resolution/FPS Type to Custom in the OBS program and set the resolution to 1920×1080 and the FPS to 60.

Stream a Game

After that, you should be seeing the game on both your monitor/TV and the computer screen. To stream it we then need to decide where we’re streaming it to and put in the right settings for each of those in order to get it to send it to the right service. Here’s the most popular streaming services:

Twitch

1. Go to Twitch.tv and login.
2. Head to your Dashboard by clicking on your name at the top right then Dashboard.
3. Click on Settings > Stream Key. Click show Stream key and copy it.
4. Open OBS Studio and click on File > Settings.
5. Click on Stream and select Twitch as the Service and choose the closest Server to you in terms of location.
6. Copy your Stream Key from Twitch and put it into the field for it here and click Apply.
7. Click Start Streaming and check Twitch for the preview.

YouTube

1. Go to YouTube.com and login > go to your Creator Studio > Click on Live Streaming in the menu on the left.
2. Put in all of the info you need on that page (i.e. Title, Description, Thumbnail, etc.)
3. Scroll down to Encoder Settings and click reveal on the stream key.
4. Open OBS Studio and click on File > Settings.
5. Click on Stream and select YouTube as the Service, YouTube Primary for the server, and add the Stream Key from YouTube and put it into the field for it here and click Apply.
6. Click Start Streaming and check YouTube (fair warning it’ll automatically notify everyone if you have it set to public, I figured this out the hard way. SORRY GUYS!)

Facebook

1. Login to Facebook.com, click on your Page you want to stream from and click on Publishing Tools at the top, then Videos on the left.
2. Click on Live at the top right and a popup will appear, copy the stream key from there.
3. Open OBS Studio and click on File > Settings.
4. Click on Stream and select Facebook Live as the Service, default for Server, and Stream Key from Facebook and put it into the field for it here and click Apply.
5. Click Next in Facebook and add in all of the details for your stream (title, description, etc.) and click Start Streaming and go through the prompts on Facebook until you see your preview. Click Go Live when ready.

And there you go, enjoying streaming from your Nintendo Switch. Beyond that this will also work on any other device that can be plugged into the the Ripsaw or other capture card (i.e. Playstation, Xbox, etc.).

GIVEAWAY ALERT: I’m going to be giving away the Razer Ripsaw I used in the video ($180 value) to you guys! Simply like the YouTube video, comment saying what you’d use it for (either here or on the YouTube channel) and make sure you are subscribed to the channel and have push notifications turned on. Once the video gets to 1,000 likes I’ll pick a random winner and give it away (and it is an international giveaway). Thank you guys for your support!

Let me know how it worked for you in the comments below! Thanks for reading!