Software

7 Best Free Video Game Recording Software for Your PC and Laptop

<p><strong>Here&&num;8217&semi;s a guide that&&num;8217&semi;ll give you the 7 best free Video Game Recording Software for Your PC and Laptop that&&num;8217&semi;ll push you on your way to winning in-game and IRL&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Look&comma; if you want to be the next Ninja on Twitch or Pewdiepie on <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;websites-like-youtube-alternatives&sol;">YouTube<&sol;a>&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re going to need to ensure you have top-quality content&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">And how do you get that great content&quest; By recording it&excl; Regardless of if you have the best FPS skills or a truly lovable persona&comma; you need to capture those moments to share them with others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">But with so many options out there&comma; what is the <strong>best <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;great-information-assist-parents-video-games&sol;">video game<&sol;a> recording software<&sol;strong> for you or how to record Zoom meeting without permission&quest; There is a lot to choose from and each software has pros and cons&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Here&&num;8217&semi;s a guide that&&num;8217&semi;ll give you the seven best options that&&num;8217&semi;ll push you on your way to winning in-game and IRL&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>OBS &lpar;Open Broadcaster Software&rpar;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">OBS is one of the best options for those looking for both streaming and recording footage&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Unlike many other recording software&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;obsproject&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">OBS is free<&sol;a> and open source&period; Huge wins for anyone on a budget&comma; or for those that know a thing or two about programming and want to customize their setup to match their needs perfectly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It can be a tad cumbersome to use and learn&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Pros<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In OBS&comma; you can create several different scenes that you can transition through with keyboard macros&period; That means if you&&num;8217&semi;re in-game&comma; you can tap a button to minimize your cam and maximize the gameplay&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you&&num;8217&semi;re in a lobby waiting for a match to start&comma; you hit another key and wham&period; You&&num;8217&semi;re front and center and the game and music are put into the back row&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Add in some custom transitions&comma; backgrounds&comma; and audio cues and you&&num;8217&semi;ve got yourself a really clean-looking stream&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The fact that you can have multiple different setups means that if you play several games you can create custom scenes for each&period; Just rotate out your macros and you&&num;8217&semi;re good to go&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">OBS also supports a number of plugins and scripts&comma; due to its open-source nature&period; This can help you combine streams with other streamers and enhance your sound or visuals for whatever you need&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It also works on Windows&comma; Linux&comma; and Mac&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Of course&comma; with all this customization comes downsides&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Cons<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">First&comma; OBS has a steep learning curve&period; There are plenty of tutorials that can teach you the ins and outs&comma; but it requires more time than other &&num;8220&semi;plug-and-play&&num;8221&semi; options&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It also doesn&&num;8217&semi;t particularly benefit non-streaming content&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a fair amount of setup required for little reward on the pre-recorded content side&comma; as there&&num;8217&semi;s no editing software included&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">OBS is perfectly functional for recording footage&comma; but other software out there has a far gentler learning curve and doesn&&num;8217&semi;t require the footage to be moved around for editing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>NVIDIA Shadowplay<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;nvidia&period;com&sol;en-us&sol;geforce&sol;geforce-experience&sol;shadowplay&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">NVIDIA Shadowplay<&sol;a> utilizes your computer&&num;8217&semi;s GPU to keep track of recordings&comma; meaning the rest of your computer doesn&&num;8217&semi;t melt under the duress of high-intensity gameplay&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Where Shadowplay really shines is its ease of use&period; Recording&comma; editing&comma; and sharing all can be done with a few button presses making it ideal for YouTubers or those who want to share clips with their friends&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Pros<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">With the press of a button&comma; you can save the last 30 seconds of gameplay and share it instantly to YouTube or social media&period; The quality is fantastic too&comma; at either 8K&comma; 30FPS&comma; or 4K&comma; 60FPS on the new RTX 30 series of GPUs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">For those who love to share on social media&comma; you can easily import&comma; edit&comma; tweak and share these clips in 15-second GIFs with a single click&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">This software is all about ease and not worrying about setting up beforehand&period; It is optimized to work well on NVIDIA&&num;8217&semi;s GPUs and is free to download&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Cons<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Have you been looking at the GPU market lately&quest; RTX 30 graphics cards of any kind and caliber are nowhere to be found&period; So unless you managed to get yourself a powerful GPU already&comma; your performance mileage will vary&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Streaming options&comma; while there&comma; are also limited&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">And the NIVIDA GPU benefits are a double-edged sword&period; Even the Xbox Game Bar &lpar;pre-installed on PCs running Windows 10&rpar; can handle screenshots and clipping adequately&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Bandicam<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;bandicam&period;com&sol;game-recorder&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Bandicam Game Recorder<&sol;a> is overall a great editor for both streaming and screen recording&period; It has a breadth of options&comma; works on both old and new Windows platforms&comma; and has been around for quite some time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">As a result&comma; there are a lot of tutorials on the software&comma; and they have some of the sharpest user UI in the business&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Pros<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Bandicam is a <strong>free video game recording software<&sol;strong> that works on Windows 7&comma; 8&comma; and 10&period; You can record 4K UHD footage with up to a ludicrous 480FPS and offers a hardware-accelerated H&period;264 encoder &lpar;key for those uploading to YouTube&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">As mentioned&comma; the UI is very user-friendly&comma; with clear tabs and labels for what everything does&period; It can be easily used and learned in a day&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Finally&comma; for recordings&comma; it has a compression algorithm that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t lower visual quality but keeps file sizes low&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re putting your footage directly online&comma; this can be great&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you plan to edit the footage first&comma; well&comma; not so much&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Cons<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The compression used does mean that the footage you edit won&&num;8217&semi;t be &&num;8220&semi;raw&&num;8221&semi; meaning visual tweaks&comma; such as coloring and effects&comma; will be harder to mask or pull off&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">For gaming footage&comma; this isn&&num;8217&semi;t typically an issue&comma; but it is something to note&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Bandicam also only comes with two sound mixing options&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s basic&comma; allowing users to record both game and microphone audio simultaneously&comma; but what recording software doesn&&num;8217&semi;t do that&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Other software allows for more audio inputs&comma; such as Twitch cues&comma; other friends&&num;8217&semi; or player&&num;8217&semi;s microphones&comma; and more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">There also is no built-in video editor&comma; like OBS&comma; and the unregistered Bandicam version records game footage with a watermark over it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Camtasia<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;camtasia-alternatives-free-mac-windows&sol;">Camtasia<&sol;a> is the first &&num;8216&semi;premium&&num;8217&semi; video recording software on our list&period; That doesn&&num;8217&semi;t mean it&&num;8217&semi;s better&comma; per se&comma; than the others listed&comma; but it does come with a meatier price tag&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">A meatier price tag includes some features&comma; and customer support if that&&num;8217&semi;s important to you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Pros<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It&&num;8217&semi;s got it all&comma; and a reputation to boot&period; Included in a Camtasia are templates for your footage or your camera feed&period; here&&num;8217&semi;s a simplified editor that makes moving things around simple&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Audio recording works with external devices&period; You can import media from other devices&comma; use iOS capture to connect your devices&comma; and add green screen effects and transitions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It&&num;8217&semi;s a solid recording software&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Cons<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Holy space-cow&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s pricey&period; A one-time purchase fee of &dollar;249&period;99 gets you a Mac and PC download key for Camtasia&comma; which allows you to install and use the software on up to two devices&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">There is a free trial with no watermark&comma; however&comma; it does end after 30 days&period; Give it a try and you decide if it&&num;8217&semi;s worth your money&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Other than that&comma; nothing to complain about&period; It works well and is a solid choice for recording gameplay&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Movavi<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Movavi is a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;movavi-video-editor&sol;">premium screen recording software<&sol;a>&period; It offers both Windows and PC versions and comes with built-in editing software&comma; making it a solid all-around pick&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Pros<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">This is a versatile program that works well for gaming and for life&period; It can automatically capture recordings based on a schedule you set&comma; it can operate on a timer and it can hide your mouse and keyboard strokes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">On top of that&comma; it does the due diligence of recording your footage and different sections of the screen based on your preference&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">There is a free version to trial run the software&comma; however&comma; it does include a watermark over any footage you record&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Cons<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The big one&quest; It&&num;8217&semi;s not free&period; The 2021 Movavi Screen recorder costs &dollar;49&period;95&comma; and the Video Editor Plus costs an additional &dollar;59&period;95&period; To bundle them you can save some money&comma; as the MSRP is &dollar;79&period;95&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">That&&num;8217&semi;s money that could be spent on games&excl; You can find solid discounts hovering around the web&comma; but that&&num;8217&semi;s still more than the free options&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In terms of functionality&comma; though&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a well-rounded package&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>FRAPs<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">One of the classics&comma; and for good reason&period; It does what many of the softwares now do&comma; but without any additional frills&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Pros<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Your recording options are straightforward from the get-go&period; The UI&comma; while archaic&comma; is simple enough to work with&period; It can record your audio from an external input device while playing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">And <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;fraps&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">FRAPs is free<&sol;a>&period; <strong>Free video game recording software<&sol;strong> is good and lets you try different setups till you&&num;8217&semi;ve found what works&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Cons<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The UI is DATED&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re talking Windows XP dated&period; Functionally&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s all there&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s not aesthetically pleasing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In fact&comma; the last Fraps update came out in early 2013&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s pre-Windows 10&comma; and while the software still works on Windows 10&&num;8230&semi; There are other options with more modern features available&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It also produces massive video files&period; This isn&&num;8217&semi;t because of compression issues either&comma; it simply produces video files way larger than its contemporaries and the visual fidelity is completely identical&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">And like many of the other <strong>video game recording software<&sol;strong>&comma; it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t come with editing tools&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Xbox Game Bar<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You don&&num;8217&semi;t need a console to benefit from Microsoft&&num;8217&semi;s Xbox platform&period; This pre-installed recording software on Windows 10 is designed for recording clips in games&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s easy to use albeit it has its limits&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Pros<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Easy&period; Free&period; You likely already have it installed and updated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In fact&comma; all Windows 10 laptops come installed with this easy-to-use software&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Hard to beat that&comma; right&quest; It&&num;8217&semi;s great for recording clips and can record the previous 30 seconds&comma; to two minutes&comma; depending on your recording settings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It has no watermark&comma; there are no ads&comma; and it can be opened and closed quickly&comma; making it a convenient option to capture what you want and leave out the filler&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Cons<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">As mentioned&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a bit basic&period; It has trouble recording audio over multiple apps &lpar;say&comma; Discord with your friends&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Another sticking point is that it only records games and apps&period; That means you can&&num;8217&semi;t record react videos efficiently&comma; nor can you include your own camera footage&comma; which would need to be added in later&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">And finally&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s no pause functionality when recording&period; You can do quick recap recordings&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s not recommended to use this software for streaming&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;"><strong>The Best Video Game Recording Software<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">This is our list of the <strong>best video game recording software<&sol;strong>&period; If you can&&num;8217&semi;t decide which works best for you&comma; try out the freebies&period; Give them a shot&comma; test which works best for you&comma; and go from there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If none of the free software works for you&comma; you can look into purchasing one that might better fit the bill&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you like this content and want to learn more about games&comma; recording software&comma; and more&comma; check out some of our other blog posts here&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Hardik Patel

Hardik Patel is a Digital Marketing Consultant and professional Blogger. He has 16+ years experience in SEO, SMO, SEM, Online reputation management, Affiliated Marketing and Content Marketing.

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