Twitch began as the discarded half of something else. Justin.tv launched in 2007 as a single man broadcasting his life continuously, and the gaming section of that site grew so much faster than everything around it that in 2011 it was spun out under its own name. Three years later Amazon bought it for just under a billion dollars.
It invented most of the conventions that live streaming now takes for granted: the chat running alongside the video, subscriptions and bit donations, raids passing an audience from one channel to another. The format it settled on is unusually long, with broadcasts of six or eight hours being entirely ordinary, which makes it quite unlike any video platform built around short uploads.
The thing that surprises people is how temporary it all is. Past broadcasts are deleted automatically after fourteen days on most accounts and sixty for partners and subscribers. A stream is not archived unless somebody deliberately saves it, so the great majority of what has ever been broadcast there no longer exists at all.
Saving a clip or past broadcast
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1
Copy the Twitch address
For a clip, use the share button beneath it and copy the link. For a past broadcast, take the twitch.tv/videos address from your browser. Both clips.twitch.tv and the ordinary twitch.tv form are accepted.
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2
Put the link in the box above
Paste it into the field at the top of the page, which begins reading it immediately.
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3
Choose the Twitch quality
The qualities that broadcast was streamed at are listed with file sizes. Long broadcasts produce very large files, so it is worth looking at the number before starting on a phone.
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4
Keep the broadcast
Tap the row when it turns blue. It goes to Downloads on Android or the Files app on an iPhone.
How long Twitch keeps things
Almost everything on Twitch has an expiry date, and the dates are shorter than most people assume. This is the part worth understanding before you decide something can wait.
| What it is | How long it survives | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Past broadcast, ordinary account | 14 days | Then deleted automatically, with no recovery |
| Past broadcast, Partner or Turbo | 60 days | Still deleted at the end of it |
| Clip | Indefinitely, in principle | But it dies with the channel it came from |
| Highlight | Kept until removed | The streamer must create these deliberately |
| Live stream in progress | No file yet | Wait for it to finish and be published |
This is why downloading from Twitch is less about convenience than about whether something continues to exist. A memorable moment from a broadcast three weeks ago has, for most channels, already gone.
Why people save from Twitch
Streamers themselves are the biggest group. Broadcasts have to be pulled down before the automatic deletion if any of it is going to become a video elsewhere, and an eight-hour session might contain twenty minutes worth keeping.
Editors and clippers follow the same clock. Compilations, highlight reels and community montages are all assembled from source material that is actively counting down, and losing the original means the edit can never be remade.
Then there is simple watching. Long broadcasts are miserable to stream on an unreliable connection, and a saved file lets someone catch up on a commute without burning several gigabytes of mobile data in the process.
Twitch download questions
How long do I have before a broadcast is deleted?
Fourteen days on a standard account, sixty for Partners, Turbo and Prime subscribers. After that it is gone for good, so it is worth acting early.
Can I save a stream while it is still live?
No. There is no finished file until the broadcast ends and Twitch publishes the recording.
Do clips.twitch.tv links work?
Yes, along with the ordinary twitch.tv clip and video addresses.
Can I download Twitch subscriber-only content?
No. That requires an account with an active subscription, and nothing here logs in.
Why is the file so large on Twitch?
Because Twitch broadcasts are long. Several hours at 1080p produces several gigabytes, which is simply the size of that much video.
Can I save just part of a broadcast?
Not here — you get the whole video and trim it afterwards in any editor. Clips, being short by nature, are the easier route if someone has already made one.
Does downloading show up in the streamer's stats?
No. Nothing is reported to their channel and no account is involved.
Where does the broadcast save to?
Downloads on Android, the Files app on an iPhone. For multi-gigabyte broadcasts a computer is usually the better choice.
My VOD link no longer works.
It has very likely passed its expiry and been deleted automatically, which is the normal fate of Twitch broadcasts rather than an error.
Is saving Twitch content acceptable?
Your own broadcasts are plainly yours. Somebody else's stream is their work, and the community norm is clear: clip it, credit it, and do not pass it off as your own. Compilation channels that ignore that tend not to last.