The best games to play with your Twitch chat, sorted by how viewers take part

Who this list is for, and how we made it

This list is for streamers who want their chat to do more than watch, from small channels to chats of several hundred people.

Every game here has a chat integration we could confirm on an official page: the developer's site, the store page or official patch notes. Each card shows the date we checked it and the link we used. Where we have a doubt (an old integration, a feature we could not see described), the card says so. There are no affiliate links, no scores and no ranking: the order inside each section means nothing.

One more thing up front: we make Records, a free browser game about world records with a streamer mode. It has its own labelled section below, it is not ranked. The rest of the list is useful whether or not you ever open it.

Four ways a chat can take part

“Twitch integration” covers very different things, and each kind suits a different chat size.

• The whole chat answers or votes together. The game reads chat messages and treats the chat as one opponent or one team: viewers type a word, a number or an option, and the game counts them. This works with three chatters as well as with three hundred.
• Viewers join as players. A viewer types a command such as !play and gets a place in the game: a marble in a race, a contestant in a mini-game, a follower in your cult. Each viewer has something on screen that is theirs.
• Viewers trigger events. The chat spends coins, points or commands to change your game while you play it: spawn an enemy, add an obstacle, help or hinder you. You stay the player, the chat becomes the game master.
• Viewers play on a phone with a room code. You show a code on stream, viewers open a page on their phone and play there. This gives each player a real interface, but it asks them to leave the chat and use a second screen.

Twitch also has its own tools, which work with any game or with none at all.

All the games at a glance

Games where the whole chat answers

The easiest to start: viewers only type in the chat they already have open.

Games where the chat votes on your run

You play a regular game and the chat decides things for you at set moments.

Games where viewers join as players

Each viewer gets their own piece of the game, with their name on screen.

Games where viewers trigger events

The chat becomes your opponent. These make lively streams, but plan for moderation: a viewer who sends enemies at you is having fun until it is the tenth time in a minute.

Games where viewers play on their phone

Our game: Records

Which game for your chat?

2 to 10 chatters

Pick a game where the whole chat answers together. With Words On Stream, Gartic On Stream, ChatGames or a guessing game like ours, two regulars are enough for a real match. Games where viewers join as players also work, but a marble race with three marbles is short. Room code games ask each viewer to pick up a phone, which is a lot to ask of someone who dropped by.

10 to 100 chatters

Most formats work here. Join games like Marbles on Stream and Kukoro start to feel full, and chat votes in Noita or Dead Cells get real swings. In games that reward the fastest answer, expect the same few fast typists at the top. Games that score every answer, such as ChatGuessr or a guessing game with a median, give slower viewers a chance too.

More than 100 chatters

Look for games that handle a crowd by design: Marbles on Stream lets everyone race, Vs Chat Pack states up to 5,000 viewers in Predicting, Jackbox Party Pack 12 takes up to 10,000 in its audience, and in chat answer games, typing is all it takes to join in. In a big chat, formats that summarise the votes (a majority, a median, a histogram) read better than a scrolling list of names.

Free, or nothing to install

Free and in the browser: Words On Stream, Gartic On Stream, ChatGames, the core games of GameBuddies, and our own Records. Free but installed: Marbles on Stream (Steam) and the ChatGuessr app (check GeoGuessr's side). Crowd Control is free to start, but every effect costs viewers coins, so tell your chat about the free coins before you begin. The others are paid games: one copy on your side is enough, viewers never need to buy anything.

Setup tips for any chat game

• Match the vote time to your stream delay. Your viewers see your stream several seconds late. If a vote lasts 15 seconds and your delay is 8, they really have about 7 seconds. Start with long vote times and shorten them once you know your chat.
• Keep bots out of the count. Nightbot, StreamElements and similar bots post in the chat on a timer. Ignore them in the game if it allows it, or pause timed messages while you play.
• Tell the chat the format before the first round. Say what to type and how (a number, a letter, !play), and pin it or have a mod repeat it.
• Give your mods a role. Some games have mod commands (ChatGames uses !start and !skip).
• Test before going live. Run the game once on a private test or an empty stream, and check the capture and that the chat is actually read. For older integrations, this test tells you if they still connect.
• Mind what the screen gives away. If you type your own answer on screen while the chat votes, the chat can copy it. Answer after the vote, or hide your answer if the game lets you.

If you only need a quick quiz with a few people on phones, a general quiz tool such as Kahoot! works too, though its free tier is limited to 10 players and it has nothing specific to Twitch.

Games often listed that we left out, and why

• Streets of Rogue: often named for its Twitch mode, but we could not confirm on an official page that this mode still works.
• Phasmophobia: often found in these lists, but we found no chat integration on its official pages.

More generally, any game whose chat integration we could not confirm on an official page is not in this list, even if other lists include it.

When this list was last checked

Each card shows the date its facts were checked, on the official pages linked.