What's the Best Time To Post Your Streams on YouTube?

You’re a streamer, grinding every week, spending hours and hours going live, creating content for your socials, and growing your platform in any way possible. Props to you! You’re pursuing your dreams and creating content that people love day after day.

If you’re on that grind, you might be thinking about what content to post to YouTube. From clip compilations to tutorials to patch updates, tons of content ideas are out there. One idea that more and more streamers are adding to their content arsenal on YouTube is posting VODs to YouTube.

We’re going to walk through everything you need to know about posting your streams to YouTube, including the best time to post. You’ll be better-equipped to crush your YouTube game, boost your sub-count, and potentially even grow your channel enough to get sponsorships.

How To Post Your Streams to YouTube

First things first, you need to know how to post your streams to YouTube. Because your streams are likely super long, you might need to check a few boxes in order to post your whole stream to YouTube.

Here’s everything you need to know to be able to post your VODs to YouTube:

Connect YouTube and Twitch

To start, you’re going to need to connect your YouTube account to your Twitch account if you haven’t done so already. To do that, open up Twitch and make sure you’re logged in. Look in the top right corner of the screen and click on the profile button. Scroll down through the menu and select the settings button.

With your settings page open, click on the connections tab. Scroll down to YouTube, and click the Connect button. A login window will pop up. Enter your YouTube login info, fill out the prompts, hit enter, and your YouTube will be connected.

Export Your Videos

Now you’re ready to export your videos to YouTube. To do that, head to Twitch and find the video that you want to upload. Simply select the “Export” option on that video, choose YouTube, follow the prompts, and the video posts straight to YouTube.

This process is easy to do, so it’s worth doing. This way, you can get your entire stream in front of an audience that isn’t necessarily on Twitch.

Not to mention, uploading this way means you never have to download your VOD locally to post to YouTube. It can post without ever taking up any space on your hard drive.

Why Post Streams to YouTube?

Posting streams to your YouTube can be a really helpful tactic if you’re trying to grow your platform. It’s a great way to change up your content and add a bit of variety to your channel if you’re a gaming YouTuber.

Before we get into the perks, it’s important to know that posting streams to YouTube might not be the right strategy for everybody. If you’re posting streams that are several hours long, those videos are likely going to have a lower retention rate, meaning that only a few people are actually going to watch the entire video.

If you want to prioritize your audience retention rate on YouTube, this might not be the right move. That said, there are plenty of benefits to posting your streams to YouTube that likely outweigh the downsides.

Increase Overall Watch Time

While your overall audience retention rate might go down since you’ll be posting such long videos, posting VODs is a great way to get your overall watch time to go up considerably.

Say you post a four-hour stream to YouTube and after a few weeks it has about a 10 percent retention rate, meaning that the average viewer only watched about 10 percent of the video. That might seem a little lackluster. But remember, on a four-hour video, that 10 percent equates to about 24 minutes of watch time, which is great for a single video.

The YouTube algorithm is complicated and considers a number of factors when pushing videos to its users. However, watch time is the most important stat! At the end of the day, YouTube wants people to stay on their platform longer, so the algorithm loves channels with higher watch time.

Remember, every channel is different, so posting your streams might not work for you. Keep track of your channel’s overall metrics and post if things are trending upwards.

Give Your Fans Content

Your subs on YouTube likely watch your shorter videos and fall in love with your content. They hit subscribe because they want to see more of you and your gaming prowess. Posting VODs is a great way to give those super fans more of what they want.

If they like your shorter content, they might also like your longer content. Your die-hard fans will watch your streams on YouTube all the way through, and they’ll get to see what your streams are like, even if they’re not on Twitch.

Posting your streams is a great way to give your super fans something that they’ll love and that will increase your watch time on YouTube in the process.

To Mitigate Viewer Retention

If you’re worried about how uploading your VODs might lower your viewer retention, a loophole can still give you some of the benefits without hurting the retention stats.

Simply make a second YouTube channel dedicated to your VODs, and post a link to that channel and its videos on your primary YouTube channel. Link the second channel in the primary channel’s About Page, and link specific videos in the descriptions of your primary channel’s videos.

This way, you can give your die-hard fans the VOD content they want without hurting your retention rate.

What Time Should You Post Your Streams?

If you want to maximize your views on YouTube, you want to give each video its best chance to succeed.

The time of day you post your videos can really make a difference in how much the algorithm pushes your videos. Here’s when to post:

Time of Day

First, we need to consider what time of day is best to post. You want to try to post at times when people are going to be on YouTube, surfing for videos to watch. As a general rule, there are fewer people on YouTube in the morning. That’s when people are at school or work and can’t be perusing YouTube.

Because of this, the best time to post on weekdays is typically between 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm EST. This is right around when people are getting off of school or work and heading to their phones or computers to unwind with some content.

Although that’s the optimal window, your videos will likely do fine if posted before 9:00 pm. After that, people log off and sleep, so you might miss them.

On weekends, the formula is a little bit different. Far more people will be online without work or school, so the best time to post is between 9:00 am and 11:00 am EST.

Time of Week

Remember, posting on YouTube is about reaching people when they’re on the platform, so when picking what day to post, you want to pick the highest traffic days on the platform. Typically, YouTube has its highest viewership on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, so this is the best time to post.

However, the most important factor is consistency. Only post as often as you can make quality content that offers something to your viewers. Once you nail down that number, stick to a specific posting schedule, whether that’s twice a week or twice a month. Consistency and quality are the main factors of success on YouTube.

A Big Caveat

It’s important to know that there is no universal window of time that is best to post. It’s possible that your channel might be the exception to this rule, so make sure you analyze your stats through YouTube Studio to see when people are watching your videos.

Post when you find success. Create your own formula that works for your channel and your audience. These recommendations are just a starting point.

Find Your Schedule, Get Views

Now you’ve got all the info you need to know when to post your streams to YouTube. If you follow these tips, you’ll be setting yourself up for success on YouTube. Now all that’s left is to make quality content and stay diligent. If you keep grinding, you might just become the next big gamer on YouTube.

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