Your first stream checklist

Almost every first-stream disaster is preventable, and almost all of them fall into four buckets: nobody could hear you, the stream stuttered, you accidentally showed something private, or nobody could find you. Run this list before you hit Go Live.

The day before

• ☐Two-Factor Authentication is on. Required for monetization later, and it protects the account you are about to put work into.
• ☐Email is verified on your platform account.
• ☐You have done a private test broadcast. On Twitch, stream to an unlisted category or simply go live for two minutes at an off hour, then watch the VOD back.
• ☐You watched that test back with headphones. This is how you catch hum, echo, and a mic that is far too quiet.
• ☐Your title and category are set, with relevant tags.

Audio — check this first, always

Audio is the most common reason a new viewer leaves within seconds, and it is the thing most likely to be broken without you noticing, because you cannot hear your own stream while you are on it.

• ☐The right microphone is selected in OBS. Laptops love to default to the built-in mic even when a headset is plugged in.
• ☐Your levels bounce in green-to-yellow, only rarely touching red. Red is clipping — permanent distortion.
• ☐Game and music are quieter than your voice. If a viewer has to strain to hear you over gameplay, your mix is wrong.
• ☐Desktop audio is actually captured — test by playing something and watching the meter move.
• ☐Music is stream-safe. Regular Spotify tracks will get your VOD muted or your channel a DMCA strike. Use a licensed source like StreamBeats or Pretzel.
• ☐Push-to-talk is configured if you are in a Discord call, so private side-conversations do not hit your stream.

Video and performance

• ☐Your settings came from the [calculator](/obs-settings), not from a random YouTube tutorial recorded three years ago on different hardware.
• ☐Dropped frames are at zero. Watch the OBS status bar during your test. Dropped frames mean your bitrate is too high for your upload — lower it.
• ☐You are on a wired connection if possible. Wi-Fi is the most common cause of unexplained stream instability.
• ☐Your webcam is framed and lit. A window or a cheap lamp in front of you beats an expensive camera in the dark.
• ☐Nothing important is cut off by the stream's edges — check your alerts and overlays are inside frame.

Privacy — the one that actually hurts

This section exists because these mistakes are common, public, and permanent. VODs and clips live forever.

• ☐Use Game Capture, not Display Capture. Display Capture broadcasts your entire screen, including every notification, DM, and tab you switch to.
• ☐Close or mute anything private — email, messages, banking, anything with your real name or address.
• ☐Notifications are off. Windows Focus Assist or macOS Do Not Disturb. A Discord DM preview appearing on stream has ended friendships.
• ☐Your stream key has never been shown on screen. If it has, reset it right now in your dashboard.
• ☐You know what is behind you on camera — mail, packages, and documents all carry your address.
• ☐AutoMod is enabled and set to a level you are comfortable with, so your very first raid does not become a moderation crisis.

Discoverability

• ☐The category is correct. An uncategorized stream is invisible on browse pages.
• ☐Tags are set and actually relevant.
• ☐Your title says something specific. "Playing some games" tells nobody anything. "First playthrough — no spoilers please" gives a browsing viewer a reason to click.
• ☐Your About panel is filled in, so someone who clicks your channel later knows what you do and when you stream.
• ☐You have posted that you are live wherever your friends already are.

During the stream

• ☐Talk, even to an empty chat. Silence gives an arriving viewer nothing to walk into.
• ☐Greet people by name when they say hello. It is the single highest-value thing you can do for retention.
• ☐Do not stare at your viewer count. It will be low. That is normal and it is not information you can act on mid-stream.
• ☐Use your Be Right Back scene for breaks instead of ending the broadcast.
• ☐Stream long enough to be found. Very short streams give the browse page almost no chance to surface you — two hours or more gives people time to arrive.

After the stream

• ☐Watch the VOD back. Uncomfortable, and the fastest way to improve.
• ☐Clip anything good — clips are shareable in a way that a three-hour VOD is not.
• ☐Note what broke so you can fix it before next time.
• ☐Say when you are streaming next, on stream and wherever you post.

Next: how to get your first 10 viewers, which is a harder problem than any of the technical ones above.