The fourth zone is closed. Time has run out. You’ve just rezed your teammate as an enemy closes in. You both take cover, but you’re hopelessly outmanned, you’re out of mats, and you aren’t in a position to control the high ground. If there’s ever a time to pull off a miracle move, it’s now. Your heart pumps through your chest as your headset erupts with your teammates’ cheers and the Twitch comments pouring in. It’s times like these when heroes are made. A come-from-behind victory against a well-known opponent would elevate you to the next level—and with it, a growing, passionate fan base.
Twitch streaming is critical for advancing in the eSports world. A passionate fan base can propel you to elite tournaments, win you sponsorships, and build credibility. It all starts with providing a high-quality streaming experience. A fast internet connection is not good enough: Twitch broadcasting requires a best-in-class internet plan that ensures fast, seamless gameplay with no lag or jitter as well as the bandwidth and upload speed to broadcast your victories to fans in real-time. Professional Twitch streamers deserve professional-grade internet service they can rely on.
What kind of internet service do I need for professional Twitch streaming?
This article will discuss:
- What internet speed is required for professional Twitch streaming?
- What are symmetric upload and download speeds and why does it matter for streaming?
- What is latency and ping rate, and how does AT&T Dedicated Internet help?
- Why is AT&T Dedicated Internet service ideal for Twitch?
- How else does AT&T support the eSports community?
What internet speed is required for professional Twitch streaming?
As you can imagine, the minimum internet speeds for Twitch streaming are quite high since gamers are effectively broadcasting high-resolution live video to the internet. In order to make a splash in the eSports world, professional gamers need to go beyond pulling off the most epic move and claiming victory. They need to provide a high-quality streaming experience for fans.
You’re effectively running a business—and like every business, you need to meet rising customer expectations. Broadcasting at a higher bitrate—up to 6,000 bits per second for regular Twitch users and 8,000 bits per second for Twitch Partners—ensures smooth gameplay and sharper video quality, giving fans the streaming experience they expect from a professional gamer. This, of course, requires a much faster internet connection. While most experts recommend at least 3 Mbps, professional gamers who count on viewership and clean sponsor presentations in their streams will want plans that provide at least 6-8 Mbps for 720p broadcasts. For broadcasts of 1080p 60 frames per second, a 12 Mbps upload speed is considered the minimum bandwidth needed to support the higher bitrates Twitch provides. It’s considered best practice to also budget bandwidth overhead of 30-40 percent to accommodate spikes in your usage while guaranteeing smooth broadcasting. Of course, if you’re running other programs in the background like Discord for team communications or uploading batches of previously recorded content to YouTube on another machine, you’ll want an even higher upload speed to ensure consistently smooth broadcasting. Our Dedicated Internet plans provide guaranteed bandwidth for both download speeds and upload speeds, no matter the time of day or who else is on in your area—giving you the advantage you need to stay competitive.
You’re effectively running a business—and like every business, you need to meet rising customer expectations. Broadcasting at a higher bitrate—up to 6,000 bits per second for regular Twitch users and 8,000 bits per second for Twitch Partners—ensures smooth gameplay and sharper video quality, giving fans the streaming experience they expect from a professional gamer. This, of course, requires a much faster internet connection. While most experts recommend at least 3 Mbps, professional gamers who count on viewership and clean sponsor presentations in their streams will want plans that provide at least 6-8 Mbps for 720p broadcasts. For broadcasts of 1080p 60 frames per second, a 12 Mbps upload speed is considered the minimum bandwidth needed to support the higher bitrates Twitch provides. It’s considered best practice to also budget bandwidth overhead of 30-40 percent to accommodate spikes in your usage while guaranteeing smooth broadcasting. Of course, if you’re running other programs in the background like Discord for team communications or uploading batches of previously recorded content to YouTube on another machine, you’ll want an even higher upload speed to ensure consistently smooth broadcasting. Our Dedicated Internet plans provide guaranteed bandwidth for both download speeds and upload speeds, no matter the time of day or who else is on in your area—giving you the advantage you need to stay competitive.
What is symmetric upload and download speed and why does it matter for streaming?
Professional-grade AT&T Dedicated Internet plans provide symmetric connection speeds, giving you the same fast upload speed as the download speed you choose. This is important because fast download speeds allow you to download games more quickly and improve in-game play while faster upload speeds are good for streaming, in-game communication, hosting tournaments, and sending large assets like graphics and video files between multiple locations or studios. Twitch affiliates and other professional streamers need symmetric upload and download speeds to provide viewers with a powerful streaming experience.
What is latency and ping rate, and how does AT&T Dedicated Internet help?
Latency is the time it takes for the system to respond to an action (such as pressing a button or moving a joystick). In internet and networking, this is the time it takes for a data packet (your in-game actions like movement or attacks) to send to the server, and then for the server to process that request. At the same time, the server must also process other gamers’ actions towards you and send that information back to your system for a roundtrip. In the gaming world, this is called ping rate, and it’s measured in milliseconds. The lower the number, the faster the connection. A lot of factors can impact ping rates—including distance to the server, connection speed, networking equipment connected to the internet, the number of devices sharing the connection, and traffic loads from nearby customers on the network. Yes, that’s right: on consumer shared internet plans, a neighbor’s internet traffic can slow down your connection. For advertised download speeds, there’s no guarantee that you’ll actually get that speed—especially during peak times. A dedicated internet connection, however, gives professional streamers consistent speeds at all times—guaranteed. And dedicated fiber connections provide lower latency and better network ping than shared connections—critical when your career and reputation are on the line.
Why is AT&T Dedicated Internet service ideal for Twitch?
Building a fan base isn’t all about victories and dominating your opponents. Giving viewers a high-quality experience is just as important to your business. It’s important to pick an internet service that can handle the high bitrates that enable smooth gameplay and sharp video quality. For eSports professionals and game broadcasters, guaranteed upload speeds and low latency are as important as download speeds.
Guaranteeing speeds up to 1,000 Mbps over a lightning-fast fiber-optic network, AT&T Dedicated Internet is ideal for eSports pros who stream on Twitch and Mixer, upload clips and commentary to YouTube, or work between a dedicated studio and their home. It includes the high bandwidth, low ping rate, and symmetrical download and upload speeds that professionals rely on—all guaranteed on America’s best network.
Rather than sharing a connection to the network with neighboring businesses and consumers, AT&T Dedicated Internet allows eSports professionals to purchase their own private lane that connects them directly to AT&T’s broadband network. This private connection eliminates the need to worry about bandwidth constraints due to other accounts on the shared connection and allows you to focus on your core business—entertaining fans.
Plans are backed up by service level agreements (SLAs) that guarantee speed levels and uptime—both of which are superior to those offered on shared business or consumer plans. This guarantee comes with 24-hour support and service monitoring. If something does go wrong, customers have immediate access to technical support to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
Guaranteeing speeds up to 1,000 Mbps over a lightning-fast fiber-optic network, AT&T Dedicated Internet is ideal for eSports pros who stream on Twitch and Mixer, upload clips and commentary to YouTube, or work between a dedicated studio and their home. It includes the high bandwidth, low ping rate, and symmetrical download and upload speeds that professionals rely on—all guaranteed on America’s best network.
Rather than sharing a connection to the network with neighboring businesses and consumers, AT&T Dedicated Internet allows eSports professionals to purchase their own private lane that connects them directly to AT&T’s broadband network. This private connection eliminates the need to worry about bandwidth constraints due to other accounts on the shared connection and allows you to focus on your core business—entertaining fans.
Plans are backed up by service level agreements (SLAs) that guarantee speed levels and uptime—both of which are superior to those offered on shared business or consumer plans. This guarantee comes with 24-hour support and service monitoring. If something does go wrong, customers have immediate access to technical support to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
How else does AT&T support the eSports community?
AT&T has supported the gaming community for years. We’ve sponsored teams, tournaments, and entire leagues and brought our game-changing internet connectivity and technology to events around the world. This includes the official telecom partner of ESL North America, the official mobile partner of ESL globally and partnerships with DreamHack and QuakeCon. AT&T was instrumental in creating North America’s first 5G enabled eSports event live stream at DreamHack Atlanta. We’ve also been a long-term sponsor for QuakeCon in Dallas, and even supplied two-gigabit fiber-optic lines for the event.
The bottom line
- Professional gamers need an internet connection that guarantees speeds at least 6-8 Mbps to give fans a high-quality streaming experience on Twitch, with higher speeds recommended for higher quality settings and bandwidth overhead.
- AT&T Dedicated Internet delivers up to 1,000 Mbps on a private connection that you don’t share with other customers. This provides the speed and reliability professional gamers need to build and delight a passionate fan base.
- Plans are backed by SLAs that guarantee speed levels and uptime and come with 24-hour support and service monitoring.