Steam, the popular gaming platform now has the ability to record gameplay directly through the Steam client. Learn how to activate Steam Game Recording on your PC and use it, and whether it’s worth your time.
What Is Steam Game Recording?
Steam Game Recording is a new built-in feature that allows users to capture, review, and share their gameplay moments directly through the Steam client.
If you’re currently relying on third-party recording software, the Game Recording feature allows you to ditch it, thanks to its two main recording modes:
- Background recording: continuously records your gameplay in the background to maintain a buffer of recent footage. It’s perfect for those unexpected moments you wish you had captured.
- On-demand recording: allows you to manually start and stop recordings whenever you choose, such as when playing an important online match.
In addition to its gameplay capture capabilities, the Game Recording feature includes tools for reviewing, clipping, and sharing your footage. For example, you can easily trim your recordings to highlight the best parts, then export the result as a video file.
How to Use Steam Game Recording
Just like other Steam features (Remote Play and Broadcasting, for instance), Game Recording is easy to set up and use, but it’s currently in beta, so there’s one extra hoop to jump through.
How to Turn On Game Recording in Steam
To get started with Steam Game Recording, you’ll need to opt in to the Steam Beta program.
First, open the Steam client, and click on Steam in the top-left corner. From the drop-down menu, select Settings. Navigate to the Interface tab, look for the Client Beta Participation drop-down menu, and select Steam Beta Update.
Steam will prompt you to restart the client. Once it restarts, you’ll have access to the Game Recording feature.
Head back to Settings, and look for the Game Recording option in the left sidebar. Click on it to access the recording settings. You’ll see three main options:
- Off/Don’t Record
- Record in Background
- Record on Demand
If you choose to Record in Background, then, by default, the last 120 minutes of gameplay will be automatically kept for you to replay or save as clips. If you go with the Record on Demand option, Steam will begin recording only after you press Ctrl + F11, and your recordings will be automatically saved as clips.
Regardless of which option you choose, you can adjust the recording quality or balance between video quality and disk space usage. Steam will show you an estimate of how much space your recordings will take up based on your settings.
Tip: you can add markers during gameplay via the Ctrl + F12 keyboard shortcut. These markers will make it easy for you to jump to specific moments in your recording when you replay your footage.
How to Replay Recorded Clips
Once you’ve captured your gameplay, you can review and replay your recorded clips.
To access your recordings, click on View in the Steam client’s top menu bar, then select Recordings & Screenshots. Alternatively, navigate to Steam Overlay by pressing Shift + Tab while in the game, then select the Recordings & Screenshots option to open a new window displaying all your captured content.
In the list of your recent gameplay recordings, double-click on any recording to open it in the Steam media player so that you can replay it.
Each recording has a timeline associated with it to show player-added (manually) and game-added (automatically) markers. The automatically placed markers are created when relevant game events happen (works only in timeline-enhanced games) and when you earn a Steam achievement or take a screenshot.
Saving and Sharing Steam Game Recording Clips
Steam only lets users save and share individual clips. While the Record on Demand mode creates clips automatically, Record in Background doesn’t, so you need to create them manually.
To create a clip, open your recording in the Steam media player. Use the timeline at the bottom to navigate to the section you want to save. Click the Clip button to select your desired start and end points, then click the Save/Share button. This opens up several options:
- Save to your computer: exports the clip as a video file, allowing you to edit it further or share it through other platforms.
- Upload to Steam: saves the clip to your Steam Cloud storage, making it accessible from any device where you’re logged in to Steam.
- Share with friends: similar to sharing games with family on Steam, you can share your clips directly with your Steam friends.
If you want to share your clips on social media or other platforms, first save the clip to your computer, then upload it to YouTube, Twitter, or any other platform of your choice.
Honest Opinion on Steam Game Recording
It’s great that Steam users no longer need to install another software application to record their gaming sessions. Unsurprisingly, Valve’s execution of the new game recording feature is excellent. Steam Game Recording is intuitive, and it doesn’t cause a major decrease in frame rates.
If you own the Steam Deck, you’ll be happy to know that Game Recording is fully compatible with the handheld device, despite its performance limitations.
The biggest missing feature is the ability to customize recording settings on a per-game basis. However, Valve has stated this functionality is on the roadmap for future updates.
But don’t rely on our word alone – try it out with Steam’s best multiplayer games, and see how easy it is to capture and share your gaming moments.
Images and screenshots by David Morelo.
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