9 Best Game Recording Software of 2026

The NVIDIA App is the driver and settings hub for GeForce cards, and its ShadowPlay recorder is the reason many PC players never install anything else. Recording happens on the GPU's own encoder, and NVIDIA states it runs with minimal impact to performance, which matters most when you care about frame rate. Instant Replay works like a DVR, so one hotkey saves the last 30 seconds you just played. Manual recording goes up to 8K HDR at 30 fps or 4K HDR at 120 fps, and RTX 40 Series owners can record in AV1, which NVIDIA says gives higher fidelity with less disk space. NVIDIA Highlights can save clutch kills and match-winning plays automatically in supported games. The redesigned overlay also shows FPS, 1% lows and latency, handy for checking that capture is not costing frames. The limits are clear: you need NVIDIA hardware, and there are no scenes, layouts or editing beyond the basics.

Medal is built for the moment right after a good play. It runs in the background, and a hotkey saves the last 15 seconds, 60 seconds, 10 minutes or the full session, then gives you a link you can paste anywhere. Auto clipping detects events in games such as Fortnite, Valorant, League of Legends, Apex Legends and Counter-Strike. Medal says it uses 100 to 400MB of RAM and supports GPU encoding on NVIDIA, AMD and Intel hardware, so it suits low-spec PCs as well. Recording goes up to 4K at 144 fps with H.264, H.265 and AV1, and multi-track audio keeps game, mic and Discord separate for later editing. The free plan is generous, but uploads stop at 20 minutes and 1080p, and removing watermarks and ads needs Premium. We could not confirm a USD Premium price on the vendor's page, so that price is marked pending.

OBS Studio is the open-source recorder and encoder that much of the streaming world is built on, and it is just as capable when you only want local recordings. You build scenes from window captures, webcams, images, text, browser windows and capture cards, and switch between an unlimited number of them with custom transitions. The audio mixer gives each source its own filters, including noise gate, noise suppression and gain, and VST plugins add more. The settings panel exposes every encoding option, so you can match bitrate and encoder to your hardware and keep the game's frame rate where you want it. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux and works with NVIDIA, AMD or Intel graphics. The cost is time: a GPU vendor's recorder is ready in a click, while OBS asks you to set up scenes, outputs and hotkeys yourself before the first clip.

Record & Stream is AMD's answer to ShadowPlay, built into the Adrenalin driver package that most Radeon owners already have. AMD says it captures gameplay with minimal impact to in-game frame rate, and a setup wizard picks sensible defaults. Instant Replay keeps a rolling buffer of up to the last 20 minutes, adjustable in 15 second steps, which is a much longer window than the 30 seconds NVIDIA documents. You can choose AV1, HEVC or AVC, and AMD notes AV1 offers the highest quality while HEVC gives smaller files than AVC. Profiles run from Low at 720p and 5 Mb/s to High at in-game resolution and 30 Mb/s, or you set custom values. Instant GIF, hotkeys and live streaming sit in the same menu. The trade-offs are hardware lock-in to Radeon cards, a requirement for the full driver install, and AMD's note that OpenGL games are not supported.

Steam Game Recording turns the Steam overlay into a rewindable recorder. In background mode it captures all gameplay within a disk space limit you set, overwriting old footage as you play, so you can go back and clip a moment you never planned to save. Record on demand works like a normal start and stop button. A timeline shows markers from achievements, screenshots, your own bookmarks and, in timeline-enhanced games, events sent by the game itself. Valve says it uses the dedicated video encoding hardware on AMD and NVIDIA cards to keep CPU use low. Clips can be exported to MP4, sent to your phone through the Steam Mobile App or shared with a temporary link. It works with non-Steam games as long as the overlay runs. It records only games, not the desktop, and there are no webcam or scene tools, so it is a clipping tool rather than a production recorder.

Outplayed is a capture app from Overwolf that runs inside the Overwolf Client. While you play, it records your best moments and biggest plays automatically, and you can also record manually. After a match, a timeline lets you flip through every captured clip, review APM speed and pick the ones worth keeping. A built-in editor trims clips or combines them into a montage, and sharing to social networks is a click away. Outplayed lists support for over 5000 games, with an in-game overlay and second monitor support. Overwolf states that app creators must meet its performance standards so they do not hurt FPS. The free version shows ads, and Premium removes them, but we could not find a USD Premium price on the vendor's page, so it is marked pending. Installing it also installs the Overwolf Client, and some users note large file sizes over time.

Bandicam is a long-running Windows recorder with a separate Game Recording mode: launch a game, wait for Bandicam to detect it, and press F12 to start or stop. It handles DirectX, OpenGL and Vulkan titles and records at up to 4K UHD and 480 FPS, compressing as it goes to save space. Hardware-accelerated H.264 and HEVC encoding on NVIDIA, Intel and AMD hardware keeps the load on the CPU down. Audio is a strength: it can record game sound, music, your voice and Discord at the same time and save tracks as separate WAV files. A webcam overlay with chroma key covers facecam needs, and finished files can go straight to YouTube. The free version is useful for a trial, but you need a license to remove the watermark and recording limit. The personal license is $33.26 per year, and a perpetual license costs $53.90 at the time we checked.

Mirillis Action is a Windows recorder aimed squarely at gameplay. Time-Shift keeps recent footage ready so one hotkey saves a moment you just played, and the main recorder writes straight to MP4 using NVIDIA NVENC, AMD APP or Intel Quick Sync hardware encoding. It records DirectX 8 through 12, OpenGL and Vulkan games, supports up to 120 fps for slow motion, and handles 4K on a single display. A built-in counter shows current and average FPS and saves benchmark results, which helps when you are checking whether capture costs frames. Webcam overlay with greenscreen mode, live streaming and direct export to YouTube and Facebook round it out. The 30-day trial adds a watermark. The home license is a one-time $29.95, and it was on sale for $19.77 when we checked. Commercial use needs the $49.95 license.

Streamlabs Desktop is a streaming app first, but it records too, and it suits players who do both. You capture the game, webcam, desktop, music and microphone in one place and build custom scenes for starting soon, BRB and ending screens. Dual Output records or streams horizontal and vertical layouts at once, useful if you post to TikTok or Shorts. The Replay tool pulls clips for social media, and Cross Clip reformats them for vertical platforms. The free plan includes the core app with limited themes, while Ultra, starting at $15.75 per month, opens thousands of themes, every App Store app and multistreaming. For recording alone, it carries more features than you need, and the free GPU recorders above are lighter. Streamlabs makes sense when the same layouts and widgets you use on stream should also appear in your recordings.