If you’re considering twitch streaming as a career or even just an enthusiastic hobby, then it’s worth getting some kind of stream deck. If you only stream to friends, then you probably won’t need a stream deck as you can tab in and out with reckless abandon, just as long as your friends aren’t too picky. So, let’s have a look at what you need to keep in mind when getting a new stream deck. This irritant makes it even more important to use your money wisely. This is made even more painful when you consider that they are, as we said, just fancy boxes of macros. What to consider when buying the best stream deckĬonsidering the simple job of a stream deck, they can get pretty expensive. The best stream decks out there can even help you diagnose problems if your stream commands are acting wayward. Additionally, as the functions are on a separate dedicated device on your desk, accidentally activating them becomes almost impossible. A dedicated stream deck will be far easier to set up and stream with than a nebulous keyboard macro could ever be.Īside from easier-to-use macros, you’ll also gain speed and efficiency during your stream. Macros continue to present other issues as peripheral software like Corsair iCUE, Razer Synapse, and Asus Armory Crate are famous for being tricky to work with in regard to macros. Let’s take a closer look at what we want from a stream deck below. This means the best stream deck needs to have plentiful inputs, an ergonomic, easy-to-understand interface, and there are some extra creature comforts that we like in addition to this too. Most commonly, they are used to quickly mute, change inputs, start/stop streams, and much much more.

This can have huge productivity and overall stream quality benefits as it helps eliminate the need to tab out of whatever game you’re streaming to do something. Essentially, a stream deck is a self-contained bank of macros, meaning that you can assign any given function to each button to speed up the process.

As with most things gaming-specific, they have a name that isn’t exactly intuitive for the uninitiated. Before telling you which stream decks to buy, we should probably first explain what they are.

Stream deck call of duty