Do you want to grab shows from Twitch to watch offline or just keep them? If the service does not offer any function to do so, there are free solutions to download videos from the famous streaming platform.
Twitch has established itself in a few years as the absolute reference for live streaming of video content on the web. Initially conceived as a platform to share and comment live a video game, Twitch has however gradually diversified in the content offered. Although video games still play a major role, the platform now hosts a dizzying amount of videos devoted to subjects as diverse as music, science, art and politics. Whatever your tastes or interests, chances are there’s a Twitch channel with streams to match.
Unlike other streaming platforms, such as YouTube or Netflix, which are primarily dedicated to video-on-demand (VOD), Twitch is mainly dedicated to live streaming of content and interaction with viewers. The platform offers many tools to animate and federate a community around the creator, first of all a chat that can be accessed during a live broadcast and through which it is possible to communicate with the streamer and the rest of the audience. However, once the live show is over, the video maker can choose to make his video available in replay for a certain duration (or forever), which is very practical to enjoy a show that you could not attend live or that you could not see the end because of lack of time. These contents become accessible at any time, as on any VOD service, and can be saved on your device.
There are many reasons for wanting to download a video originally broadcast on Twitch: to preserve an anthology show for posterity, to retrieve a particular passage to include in a personal production, or simply to have the videos available for viewing offline. While the platform itself doesn’t offer tools for viewers to record broadcasts, there are several ways to download videos hosted on Twitch, either through an online service or a third-party application to install on your device.
Online services offer the advantage of simplicity: accessible through a simple web browser, they don’t require installation on your device and are cross-platform, which is convenient if you use a Windows computer and an Android phone, for example. On the other hand, they often offer fewer options and features than third-party applications to be installed on your device, and their availability is dependent on the service provider, so they can disappear overnight if development and support are stopped.
In the following article, we propose a selection of some tools available to download videos hosted on Twitch, with a short presentation of how each of them works. There are of course many others that you can easily find via your favorite search engine. A digital best practice reminder: always get software from the developer’s official site or a trusted repository such as Github, as many download sites add adware, unwanted or malicious applications to the desired software installation file.
How to download a Twitch video with Twitch Leecher?
Twitch Leecher is an open-source application dedicated to the recovery of videos hosted on the Twitch platform. It can be downloaded for free on Github but works only on Windows. Light and easy to use, the application has an ergonomic and rather pleasant user interface, although all in English, an integrated search tool, some parameters for the classification and automatic naming of files as well as a clipping function to download a particular segment of a video rather than its entirety. A simple, efficient and ready-to-use tool that will perfectly meet most of the needs in this area.
- Start by downloading the latest available version of Twitch Leecher from its official page.
- Then open the directory where you saved the file and double-click it to start the installation. In the windows that open, simply click the Next button to proceed with the software installation. Apart from the license agreement and the installation location, there are no particular parameters to select. Once the installation is complete, you can launch Twitch Leecher by double-clicking its icon on the desktop or by searching for the application from the Windows taskbar by clicking the magnifying glass icon.
- The application will start and you will then arrive at its homepage. To download your first video on Twitch, start by clicking the orange Search button at the top of the app.
- Then open the web browser of your choice (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari…) and go to Twitch, then to the video you want to download and copy its URL to the clipboard.
- Then come back to the Twitch Leecher app, click on the orange Urls button in the center of the window, and paste the address you just copied into the white area. Then click on the orange Search button that is at the bottom of the application window (not to be confused with the button with the same name that is at the top of the window).
- After a loading time, the video you have chosen appears in Twitch Leecher as a thumbnail. To start its download, click on the orange Download button at the bottom right of the thumbnail.
- In the next window, you can set various download settings for the video, such as its quality, save folder and file name. This is also where you can choose to download only a portion of the video rather than the whole thing, by checking the Start and End boxes and setting a timer for each terminal. Once you’ve set your parameters, start the download by clicking the orange Download button at the bottom of the window.
- To view the list and progress of downloads in progress, click the orange Downloads button at the top of the Twitch Leecher window. Once a download is complete, you can open the folder containing the file directly by clicking the third orange button to the right of the video title.
- All that’s left is to watch your video using your favorite media player, like VLC for example.
How to download a Twitch video with a 4K Video Downloader?
The 4K Video Downloader software is a cross-platform streaming video retriever, which has the advantage of working on Windows as well as MacOS and Linux, and allows you to download videos from different streaming platforms, such as YouTube or Vimeo, and especially Twitch in the case we are currently interested in. The instructions detailed below are carried out on Windows 10, but the installation procedure remains essentially the same on macOS and Linux and the use of the application is identical on all three systems.
- Start by downloading the version of 4K Video Downloader suitable for your operating system.
- Then open the directory where you saved the file and double-click it to start the installation. In the windows that open, simply click the Next button to proceed with the software installation. Apart from the license agreement, there are no special settings to select. Once the installation is complete, you can launch 4K Video Downloader by double-clicking its icon on the desktop or by searching for the application from the Windows taskbar by clicking the magnifying glass icon.
- At the first startup, the application asks you again to accept the terms of the license agreement, just click on the I accept button at the bottom right. You will then arrive at the application’s home screen.
- Then open the web browser of your choice (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari…) and go to Twitch, then to the video you want to download and copy its URL to the clipboard.
- Then come back to the 4K Video Downloader app and click on the green Paste Link button at the top left of the window. After a loading time, several options will appear in the center of the window. You can choose the quality in which to download the video as well as the folder in which to save it, but also extract only the audio if you wish, via the drop-down list titled Download Video. Click the Download button at the bottom right of the window once you have set your options.
- The download will start and you can follow its progress in the application screen. If you right-click on the video being retrieved, you will access a few functions, such as suspending or deleting the download.
- Once the download is complete, simply open the file’s save folder and start playing the video using the media player of your choice.
How to download a Twitch video with an online service?
If you don’t want to install a third-party application, there are many free online services for downloading videos hosted on streaming platforms. These tools offer the advantage of working regardless of your terminal and operating system, because everything happens through your web browser. On the other hand, they often offer fewer options than third-party software and some of them will impose a time limit per download, which will force you to retrieve your video in several times. As an example, we present you the Youtube4KDownloader service, which is easy to use, works both on computer and mobile, and does not impose a time limit for downloaded videos. In addition, the site offers an extension for Chrome, Firefox and Edge browsers.
- Start by going to the Youtube4KDownloader website
- Then go to Twitch, then to the video you want to download, and copy its URL to the clipboard.
- Go back to the Youtube4KDownloader page and copy the URL of the video into the central field above the green Download button. After a loading time, the video’s thumbnail, title and duration will appear on the left side of the page, and a table of download links on the right. To start the download, right-click on the green Download button on the line corresponding to the desired quality, then choose Save As or Save Link Target As (the name depends on your browser). If you click directly on the green Download button, there are two possible scenarios: the video is short and will be opened and played directly in a new browser tab; the video exceeds a certain length and will be downloaded to your device. Note that it is also possible to retrieve only the audio of the video via the audio-only link at the bottom of the page.
- Once the download is complete, go to the file’s save folder and enjoy your video via your favorite media player.