Twitch is not the only streaming platform anymore. Kick is growing fast. YouTube Live has more infrastructure than any of them. Facebook Gaming still exists. Each of these platforms has different bitrate limits, different codec preferences, and different upload requirements — and picking the right one starts with knowing your own bandwidth.
Twitch caps non-partner bitrate at 6,000 Kbps, which means the practical ceiling is 1080p 60 fps and you need about 10 Mbps of stable upload. Kick allows higher bitrates for non-partners, which is one reason many streamers migrated there — but that only matters if you actually have the upload to use it. YouTube Live supports 4K streaming, but you need 50 Mbps or more sustained upload to reliably hit it.
Before choosing a platform based on hype, check what your current upload can actually support. Migrating from Twitch to a higher-cap platform does nothing if your ISP tops you out at 6,000 Kbps anyway. For a full breakdown of every major platform's real bandwidth requirements, this Streamersize guide to streaming bandwidth requirements across every platform is comprehensive.
