The best PC game recording software: 5 freeware capture tools compared

Whether you’re an emerging Twitch broadcaster or simply a gamer who wants to share your epic gaming highlights with pals, recording your video gameplay is all the rage these days. But which recording software should you use if you’re just dipping your toes into capturing gaming videos? There’s no shortage of free video recording tools out there vying for your attention, many with unique hooks or features.

We played with five of the most popular freeware gameplay capture tools around— Open Broadcast Software Studio, Nvidia ShadowPlay, AMD ReLive, MSI Afterburner, and Plays.tv—to answer that question. Each serves a different purpose, such as recording and sharing highlight clips, broadcasting your gameplay to the world, or creating a complete archive of your favorite game.

This guide will point you to the best recording software for your needs. (If you’re looking to start livestreaming specifically, be sure to check out PCWorld’s guide to game streaming with Twitch.)

Let’s start with an overview of each of the five featured programs in no particular order, followed by a look at what sort of performance hit each program inflicts on games. If you don’t like any of the five tools we look at, we’ve also added two video capture alternatives—though one isn’t free.

PLAYS.TV

Of the five game recording programs we’re covering, Plays.tv is by far the easiest to use. Plays.tv makes it really simple—and fun—to post short gaming clips online.

But Plays.tv isn’t just a video capture tool; it’s hooked into a website that’s sort of like an . When you first boot up Plays.tv, the program features three options on