You're sitting on your couch, phone in hand, trying to figure out how to watch two games at once. Or maybe you're a creator wondering why you can't just push your live feed to Twitch, YouTube, and Kick simultaneously without your computer sounding like a jet engine taking off. You've heard the term. You've searched for it. But honestly, finding a straight answer on where is split streaming available—and how to actually use it—is a total headache. It's one of those tech features that everyone wants but the big platforms seem to hate.
Streaming is fragmented. That's the reality.
Back in the day, you watched one thing on one screen. Simple. Now? We have the attention spans of hummingbirds. We want the "Main Feed" on the big TV and the "ManningCast" or a stat-heavy alt-stream on the tablet. This is what people usually mean when they talk about split streaming from a viewer's perspective. But if you're a streamer, "split streaming" (often called multistreaming) is the holy grail of growth. It's the ability to be everywhere at once.
The "where" depends entirely on what side of the glass you're on.
The Viewer’s Struggle: Where Is Split Streaming for Sports and TV?
If you are a sports fan, you probably call this Multiview. It’s the consumer-facing version of split streaming. For the longest time, this was a pipe dream unless you had a wall of physical TVs like a Las Vegas sportsbook.
YouTube TV is currently the king of this space. They leaned hard into it during the NFL Sunday Ticket rollout. If you're looking for where it lives on their interface, you usually find it in the "Home" tab under "Top Picks for You" or within the dedicated sports categories. But here is the catch: you can't always pick your own channels. YouTube TV often forces you into "pre-set" bundles. You might want the Giants and the Jets, but they’ve paired the Giants with a random MLB game. It's annoying. They claim it’s a hardware limitation because your smart TV or Roku isn't powerful enough to decode four separate 4K streams at once, so they do the "splitting" on their servers and send it to you as one feed.
Apple TV does it better for MLS and Friday Night Baseball. If you’re inside the Apple TV app on an actual Apple TV 4K box, you can initiate a split-screen view by long-pressing the remote's center button during a live match. It lets you select up to four streams. It’s fluid. It’s fast. But again, it’s locked inside their walled garden.
FuboTV is another big player here. They’ve had "Multiview" on Apple TV devices for years. You can watch four channels at once, and you can actually choose them yourself. If you’re wondering where is split streaming on a budget, Fubo is usually the answer for the hardcore soccer or niche sports fan, though their subscription prices have crept up to rival cable.
The Creator’s Dilemma: Multistreaming vs. Platform Wars
Now, if you're a content creator, "where is split streaming" refers to something else entirely: simulcasting. This is the act of broadcasting your live video to multiple destinations at the same time.
For a long time, Twitch made this against the rules. If you were an "Affiliate" or "Partner," you signed a contract saying you wouldn't stream to YouTube or Facebook at the same time as Twitch. They wanted exclusivity. They wanted to own your audience.
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That changed recently.
Dan Clancy, the CEO of Twitch, finally relented. In late 2023, Twitch officially announced that creators are allowed to multistream on any service. This blew the doors open. So, where do you go to do it? You don't do it inside the Twitch dashboard. You need a middleman.
The Software Layer
Most people use Restream.io or Melon. These are cloud-based services. You send one stream to them, and they split it and "push" it out to ten different places. It’s heavy lifting done in the cloud so your home internet doesn't choke.
Then there’s OBS Studio. If you have a beefy PC and an incredible upload speed (we’re talking 20+ Mbps of consistent upload), you can use a plugin called "Multiple RTMP outputs." This lets your own computer do the splitting. It’s free. It’s powerful. It’s also a great way to crash your computer if you don't know what you're doing.
Why Isn't It Everywhere?
You’d think in 2026 this would be a standard feature. It isn't.
Bandwidth is expensive. When a company like Netflix or Disney+ sends you a stream, they are paying for that data. If they allow you to split your screen and watch four things, they are potentially quadrupling their delivery costs for one user.
There's also the "Attention Economy" factor. Advertisers want to know exactly what you are looking at. If you have four windows open, which ad are you actually hearing? Which one counts as a "view"? This uncertainty makes the money people nervous.
In the gaming world, split streaming is also a victim of the move away from "couch co-op." Remember playing Halo or GoldenEye with four friends on one TV? That was original split-screen. Today, developers want every player to buy their own console, their own copy of the game, and their own online subscription. Splitting the screen is bad for the bottom line.
Where to Find Split Streaming on Specific Devices
If you are hunting for this feature right now, here is the short list of where it actually exists and functions well:
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- YouTube TV (Smart TVs/Consoles): Look for the "Multiview" prompts during major sports events or in the "Watch Next" row.
- Apple TV 4K (The Hardware): This is the best device for split streaming. Between Fubo, the Apple TV app, and some third-party CCTV apps, it has the best processing power for multiple feeds.
- Samsung Multi View: If you have a high-end Samsung Neo QLED or OLED, there is a physical button on your remote (or in the settings) that literally lets you split your TV screen. You can have a HDMI input (like a PS5) on one side and a YouTube app on the other. It’s one of the few ways to do "hardware-level" split streaming.
- TikTok Live Studio: Surprisingly, TikTok's desktop software has started experimenting with "dual-streaming" capabilities for gamers, though it's still rolling out to specific regions.
The Technical Reality of "The Split"
When we talk about where is split streaming, we have to acknowledge the "bitrate problem."
A standard high-definition stream needs about 5 to 8 Megabits per second (Mbps). If you want to split that four ways, you aren't just magically dividing one stream. You are either downloading four separate streams or receiving one giant, ultra-high-resolution stream that your device then has to chop up.
This is why your phone usually can't do it. It gets too hot. The battery drains in twenty minutes.
For creators, the "split" happens at the encoder level. If you're using a tool like Streamlabs, you're essentially telling the software to package your video data multiple times. One package for Twitch (which prefers a 6000 kbps bitrate) and one for YouTube (which can handle much higher 4K bitrates).
What People Get Wrong About Multistreaming
A lot of folks think that if they find where split streaming is, they’ll automatically get more views or a better experience. That’s not always true.
For viewers, split streaming often ruins the audio. You can only listen to one feed at a time. If you’re watching four football games, you’re still only hearing the commentary for one. It can feel chaotic. It can feel like work.
For creators, split streaming can actually dilute your community. If you have 10 people chatting on Twitch and 10 people on YouTube, they can't talk to each other. You're effectively running two separate parties in two different rooms. Unless you use a "combined chat" overlay (like the one provided by BotRix or Restream), you're going to feel incredibly overwhelmed trying to keep up.
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Actionable Steps to Get Started
Stop searching and start doing. Here is how you actually implement this based on your needs:
If you want to watch multiple sports games tonight:
Check your subscription. If you have YouTube TV, go to the "Home" screen and look for the "Multiview" icon. If you don't see it, it's likely because there aren't enough "major" live events happening simultaneously that YouTube has pre-packaged. If you’re an Apple TV user, download the Fubo or "Channels" app for more granular control over your split.
If you want to stream to multiple platforms as a creator:
Don't try to do it all on your local machine first. Start with a cloud service. Restream has a free tier that lets you stream to two platforms. It’s the easiest way to test if your audience actually likes you being on multiple sites. Once you’re comfortable, look into the OBS Multiple RTMP plugin to save on monthly subscription costs.
If you want to split your screen for productivity:
On Windows, use "Snap Layouts" (Windows Key + Z). It’s the simplest form of split streaming—taking live browser feeds and pinning them. On Mac, use "Tile Window to Left/Right of Screen" by hovering over the green button on any window.
The tech is finally catching up to our desires. It’s less about "where" it is and more about having the right hardware to handle the load. Whether it’s a Samsung TV, an Apple TV 4K, or a cloud-based RTMP server, the tools are there. You just have to know which specific "split" you're actually looking for.
Keep an eye on the "Multiview" updates for Peacock and Paramount+ later this year; they are reportedly working on their own versions to keep up with the standard YouTube TV has set. The era of the single-stream viewer is dying. We're all multi-taskers now.