As you tabbed the keyboard repeatedly, a fierce game competition ended up with a great triumph. And then, an idea sprung to your mind that you want to record steam game and share your killstreaks with others. But what is the best recorder for games? And how to record games on Steam?
Most recommended Steam screen recorders usually feature smooth operation, ease of use, and flexible customization settings. What’s more, they can help you record Steam videos without lag, and export HD videos with no watermark. It would be better if they could support webcam recording.
Given that, 4 Steam video recording software will be recommended to you and you can learn the tutorials on how to record Steam game videos easily.
How to Record Videos on Steam without Lag with FonePaw Game Recorder
✨Best for: All users who want to record high-quality gameplay with both external & internal sound
Instead of introducing common methods such as leveraging the built-in screen recorder on your computer, we recommend FonePaw Game Recorder as the reliable option. It boasts the most all-around functions to be one of the top game recorders for Steam. By enabling hardware acceleration, FonePaw Game Recorder can record Steam gameplay with little impact on the overall performance so that it won’t slow down the game.
This game recorder is specially designed for gaming video recording on PC. Considering your experiences and suggestions, Game Recorder will automatically locate and lock your game windows to prevent mistakenly recording other pages.
- Multiple video recording modes, supporting browser overlay, system information overlay, and more.
- Start and stop recording games with hotkeys, or schedule a gameplay recording at a specific time.
- Support webcam overlay so that you can record your face along with the gameplay.
- Record game audio even if you wear earphones as well as your commentary through the microphone.
- Support annotating in videos with texts, circles, arrows, lines, and more.
- Record videos on Steam to MP4, WMV, AVI, GIF, TS, MOV, and F4V files.
- Take screenshots of wonderful game moments.
- Restore the unsaved gameplay videos.
As you can see from the YouTube video, not only is it fully featured, but the recorder is also well-designed with a user-friendly interface to start screen recording without extra instruction.
Here comes a detailed tutorial on how to screen record on Steam using FonePaw Screen Recorder.
Step 1. Download FonePaw Game Recorder
Download and install the FonePaw Game Recorder on your Windows or Mac computer.
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Step 2. Choose the Game Recorder Feature
Click the gamepad icon in the main interface to launch Game Recorder feature
Step 3. Change Settings Before Recording
On the setting page of Game Recorder, you can select the game you want to record. The program will automatically locate the game without being interfered with by the other programs.
Then, you need to customize the audio settings like turning on/off the system sound or microphone and adjusting the sound volume. Also, it’s suggested that you have a soundcheck beforehand in case you have to adjust the volume while recording.
Click REC to start recording your Steam video.
- The webcam can be turned on/off during the recording. The volume of the sound can also be adjusted.
- It is recommended to turn on Microphone noise cancellation and Microphone enhancement in the drop-down menu of the microphone setting to make the voice clearer. Having a sound check beforehand is also highly recommended.
Step 4. Take Screenshots, Add Annotation/Texts (Optional)
While recording, you are free to take screenshots, but adding annotations and texts is not supported.
- Press F12, the screenshot shortcut key of Steam by default. If you want to change the shortcut, you can set it in Settings-In-Game. After gaming, the screenshots will be shown at your Screenshot Uploader.
- Press PrtSc on your keyboard, and then paste it to Microsoft Paint. The drawback is that you can only take one screenshot at a time, or the new capture.
Step 5. Save the Game Video
Now that the video of the Steam game is recorded, you can preview the recorded video. With a built-in advanced trimmer, you can trim the recordings to get the most amazing clip. After saving the game video locally, if you want to share it with others, there is a Share button for you. Just click it to upload the video to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, or other social media.
After you have posted your recorded highlights to YouTube, you can also repost it to your Steam account. Click here to learn how to do it.
Advantages and Disadvantages of FonePaw Game Recorder
🙆♀️Advantages
- FonePaw Game Recorder recognizes and captures your game windows only and automatically starts and ends up recording videos along with your game running.
- It enables you to customize the screen and do real-time editing.
- It can export HD videos at 60fps with no watermark.
- It supports recording your gameplay with a face cam.
🤷♀️Disdvantages
- It is not free.
- Trial version supports recording 3 min videos.
How to Record Steam Games with OBS
✨Best for: Users who can handle complex recording process and don’t want to pay the money
On the internet, OBS is highly recommended because it is free and works well. Not only it can record videos on Steam, but it can also stream your gameplay to Twitch, YouTube, and more. It can record Steam DirectX 8/9/10/11/12, and OpenGL games on Steam at up to 60 fps. Games, webcam overlay, and audio can all be recorded.
Since OBS is multi-functional with various complex settings, you may not know how to use OBS to record gameplay on Steam immediately. So, follow these steps and you can record and create a stunning gameplay video with OBS.
Step 1. Download and install OBS on your computer. To install OBS, you need to run its Auto-Configuration Wizard, which may change your computer's settings of recording, resolution, bitrate, encoder, and more.
Step 2. To record game audio on Steam, make sure you have selected the right audio devices. And you can adjust volume levels in the mixer section of its main window.
Step 3. Sources are what you are going to record with OBS. To record games on Steam, click Game Capture. If you need to add a webcam, click Video Capture Device.
Step 4. Open the game on Steam and click Start Recording on OBS to start recording your gameplay.
Advantages and Disadvantages of OBS
🙆♀️Advantages
- OBS Studio is a free, open-source platform.
- It offers many configuration options.
- It streams to most live streaming video platforms.
- It owns over 20 plugins that enhance functionality.
🤷♀️Disadvantages
- OBS is complicated with a daunting interface.
- It can’t link to an audio file as a source.
- It sometimes shows the black screen.
- If OBS shows a black screen in Game Capture, read How to Fix OBS Black Screen.
How to Record on Steam with Xbox Game Bar
✨Best for: Users who don’t want to download third-party software
Xbox Game Bar is a built-in game recorder for Windows 10. That is, you don’t need to download it or download other software. By pressing Win + G buttons, you can initiate the Xbox Game Bar, which can record gameplay on Steam with audio, microphone, and webcam.
Step 1. Click the Start menu to find Xbox Game Bar or use the default keyboard shortcut Windows + G to launch it.
Step 2. Before recording, you can reset the recording setting, such as “General”, “Broadcasting”, “Audio”, and other settings. And then, you can open a game to record.
Step 3. After the recording is done, you click Stop to end the game recording, and the Steam recording video is saved on your computer.
- Windows + G: Open this software
- Windows + Alt + R: Start/stop recording
- Windows + Alt + T: Show/hide recording timer
Advantages and Disadvantages
🙆♀️Advantages
- It is free.
- It requires no steep learning curve to create screen recordings.
- It will save your recorded videos in MP4 format, so you can share them.
🤷♀️Disadvantages
- It is only available on Windows 10 and later.
- The recording ceiling is 2 hours.
- It will cause lags or frame drops sometimes.
How to Record Video on Steam with Fraps
✨Best for: Users who are using older Windows OS like Windows 7 or Vista
Though the 3 tools introduced above can all record Steam gameplay for you, some of them like Xbox Game Bar is only available on Windows 10. Therefore, if you are using the older version of Windows especially Windows Vista, Fraps is a good choice. It’s never difficult to use, but you may find its interface a bit outdated. Another shortcoming is that its free version offers limited features which may not give you an enjoyable Steam recording experience.
Anyway, if you are using Windows Vista and choose to try Fraps and record Steam gameplay, you can follow the steps:
STEP 1. Download and launch Fraps. You can see its interface, and before you begin recording, you need to adjust some settings.
STEP 2. First, click "Movies" to adjust the video setting. Here, you can set the folder to save your Steam gameplay recordings, the Video Capture Hotkey to help you start and end a recoding, the Video Capture Settings to choose the framerate and size of the recording. Besides, you can also adjust other settings on the tab.
STEP 3. Next, in the same tab, you can adjust the audio settings. Fraps enables you to record both internal sound and external sound, which is useful if you want to make video and upload to YouTube or other platforms.
STEP 4. Fraps will display the frame counter window if you don’t choose to hide it. So, to record the complete Steam gameplay without distracting by Fraps, you can click “FPS” and choose the “Hide Overlay” option.
STEP 5. When you finish everything, you can start record Steam gameplay now. Just tap the hotkey you’ve just set to begin.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Fraps
🙆♀️Advantages
- It is compatible with older version of Windows.
- It is easy to use.
- It can track the framerate while recording.
🤷♀️Disadvantages
- The free version only offers 30-second recording length.
- The interface is a bit outdated.
- It haven't updated for nearly 10 years.
Extra Tip: How to Post a Video on Steam
Sometimes when you record your highlights, you may want to post them on Steam and share them with others. Just read the following tutorial and learn to post a video on the Steam badge with your Youtube account.
Step 1. Upload a recording to YouTube.
Don't forget to check that the video's embedding settings are set to Public.
Step 2. Launch Steam and sign into your account. Click Videos, then Link YouTube account.
Step 3. To link the account to your Steam page, click Access your YouTube videos on the next screen. After that, you may browse your public Youtube videos and choose the one you wish to submit on Steam. Then click Add Video, and the videos will be added to your Steam profile.
FAQs About How to Record Games on Steam
If you still have some puzzles of record Steam gameplay or record other games on PC/Mac, you can check this part to find the answers.
Q1. Does Steam has Screen Capture?
Yes. You can set the screen capture hotkeys in Settings -> In-Game. F12 is the default one. When you want to take a snapshot in Steam, you can press F12 or the other keys you’ve set.
Q2. How to Record Yourself When Playing a Game on PC/Mac?
If you use FonePaw Game Recorder, it’s just a piece of cake. After you choose Game Recorder, simply enable the webcam option, and you can record yourself when record gameplay on PC or Mac, no matter with Steam or other game platforms.
Q3. How to Record Gameplay on PC?
The 4 tools mentioned above can all handle it for you. If you want to know more details about it, you can check this post for more information: How to Record Gameplay on PC.
Wrap Up
Above all, you can see that each recorder has its features. FonePaw Game Recorder is versatile and records Steam videos on Windows/Mac in high quality. For those who like to explore software, OBS is a good choice. If you don’t want to download other applications, you can just record Steam with Xbox Game Bar.
To sum up, the 4 recorders mentioned above are all professional. However, in comparison, Xbox Game Bar is like a green hand; OBS is truly powerful, but it is a little complicated for persons who are not tech-savvy. In terms of the FonePaw Screen Recorder, though it is not 100% perfect, it is easy for beginners to get started and owns multiple functions that can meet gamers’ demands. Right now, you must have made up your own decision, and you can use one of the 4 recorders to record any highlighted moments on steam and share them with everyone.
