Cassie 15/04/2025

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8 Best Game Recording Software to Record Gameplay Clips

“What is the best game recording software to record gameplay on PC? Is there any free game recording software to record gameplay for free?” If you are a gaming lover, you must have at least one moment in recording your gameplay for sharing online with others. If you search for game recording software online, you could get quite a big number of options, every of which claims to be the best game recording software. However, the fact is that not all game recorder software tools could record what you want. Some game recording software programs might drop frame, while others might fail in recording gameplay from webcam. In this guide, we would like to recommend some of the best game recording software programs to help you record gameplay on PC.

OutlineCLOSE

8 Best Game Recording Software to Record Gameplay Clips

1. Leawo Free Screen Recorder
2. Windows Game Bar
3. Open Broadcaster Software (OBS)
4. Bandicam
5. NVIDIA ShadowPlay
6. Action!
7. Fraps
8. ManyCam

How to Record Gameplay on PC for Free?

Part 1: 8 Best Game Recording Software to Record Gameplay Clips

The below are the 8 best game recording software programs that have been widely used for recording gameplay on PC. These game recorders have been highly positively reviewed and widely accepted as best PC game recording software.

1. Leawo Free Screen Recorder

Speaking of free game recording software, Leawo Free Screen Recorder is the best. As a 4-in-1 recorder combo, Leawo Free Screen Recorder includes free screen recorder, free webcam recorder, free audio recorder, and free screen capture. It is a totally free game recording software program to record screen activity with/without audio, record webcam content, record audio only, and capture screen to JPG image file for totally free. As for gameplay recording, besides recording gameplay screen, it could even record reaction video via the free webcam recorder module. There will be no limitation like watermark, recording length, recording quality, etc.

Pros	Cons
Support full HD (up to 4K) gameplay recording. Record gameplay with narration at high quality. Create gameplay reaction video from webcam. Draw paintings in real-time upon recording. Provide multiple user-friendly options like mouse effect, shortcuts, etc.	No option to apply personal watermark. Only available for Windows 7/8/8.1/10/11 users.

2. Windows Game Bar

If you don’t want to download and install additional game recording software on Windows 10/11, the Windows Game Bar would be your perfect choice for recording gameplay on PC. This game recorder software could record UWP games, which might not be recordable by other game recording software programs. It could record gameplay at up to 60fps in up to 1080P resolution.

Pros	Cons
No need for extra gameplay recording software download and installation. Fluent and smooth recording with low CPU usage. Record gameplay videos with audio from computer and/or microphone at will.	Quite limited customization features for you during gameplay recording. Only available for Windows 10/11 computers.

3. Open Broadcaster Software (OBS)

OBS, short for Open Broadcaster Software, is one of the best gameplay recording software programs that has been widely used by many gamers in recording gameplay videos. OBS could 1:1 record gameplay to MP4/FLV files at up to 60fps or even higher in full-screen smoothly and fluently by making full use of multi-core CPU processing.

Pros	Cons
Totally free of charge for gameplay recording. Support multiple platforms including Windows, Mac and Linux. High video resolution and FPS gameplay recording.	UI is not quite user friendly. New users might feel complicated to get started.

4. Bandicam

Bandicam is another top choice of best game recording software options for Windows users. It could record screen at up to 4K UHD resolution and high bitrates and frames. Its internal compression feature could record gameplay at high quality and then compress the recording to small file size without losing quality.

Pros	Cons
Freely determine recording area anytime you like. Provide 2 different game recording modes. Support to record webcam content simultaneously.	It is costly. It is only available for Windows users.

5. NVIDIA ShadowPlay

If your computer gets NVIDIA graphics, the NVIDIA ShadowPlay without doubt is a top choice of game recorder software tools. ShadowPlay is a free screen recording software program that could record screen at up to 8K resolution at 30FPS or 4K resolution at 60FPS without lag. Not only recording game, but also could ShadowPlay broadcast and live stream gaming on Facebook Live, YouTube Live and other gaming streaming platforms. You could also create GIF images of up to 15 seconds of captured gaming moments.

Pros	Cons
Totally free to use. User friendly UI for game recording. Very low usage of CPU storage.	Only work on devices that have NVIDIA graphics. Quite limited features.

6. Action!

With Action!, you could easily record gameplay with a webcam overlay. During recording, you could freely switch between full-screen gameplay recording and region recording without any interruption. With the support of GPU hardware acceleration, Action! enables you to record gameplay without any lag. This game recorder supports up to 4K video recording at high frame rate. It even provides a mobile app for you to record gameplay.

Pros	Cons
Rich and practical features to let you record gameplay at high quality. Easy to use interface makes it extremely easy to use. GPU hardware acceleration for smooth and fluent recording.	Occupy CPU memory at higher frame recording. No option to adjust frame rate.

7. Fraps

Fraps is one of the best gaming recording software that have been available over 20 years. It is a Windows only game recorder that enables you to record entire gameplay and take screenshots. This game recorder allows you to freely adjust recording frame rate from 30 to 120FPS for various qualities.

Pros	Cons
Very lightweight to install and easy to use. Support up to 129FPS recording. Support to record gameplay with microphone audio.	There is no option to add title. No pause option.

8. ManyCam

ManyCam is another feature-rich gaming recorder software program available for Windows and Mac users to record game easily. It is actually a game recorder and game streaming combo tool. You could stream gameplay with it on Facebook Live and YouTube Live.

Pros	Cons
A combo suite of both game recording and streaming. Wonderfully integrated with YouTube and Facebook. Multiple features are available.	Quite expensive. Only available in Windows.

Part 2: How to Record Gameplay on PC for Free?

With the above recommendations, you must have learned what are the best game recording software options to use according to your own real needs. Here in the below content, you will learn how to record gameplay on PC for free by making use of the best free game recorder – Leawo Free Screen Recorder. Beforehand, you need to download and install it on your computer. Then, follow the below guide to learn how to record gameplay on PC.

Leawo Free Screen Recorder

– Provide various doodle and annotation tools for free.
– Support to record online class, PowerPoint presentation, and zoom meeting.
– Smoothly record gameplay in high quality without watermark.
– Add background music or voiceover to video.
– Integrate more advanced functions like real-time drawing, scheduled recording, shortcut controls, etc.

Free Download

Step 1: Set recording preferences

You need to specify recording settings first. On Leawo Free Screen Recorder, click the “Menu” button at the top-right corner to call out the Settings panel. Set output file location, video format, video encoder, video quality, frame rate, audio format, audio quality, sample rate, etc.

Step 2: Set recording area

After recording setting, on the home interface, click the “Screen Recorder” module to select recording area on the drop-down menu. You could record full-screen, certain region/window, or fixed region according to your needs.

Step 3: Configure audio source

Once you have set the recording area, Leawo Free Screen Recorder would then ask you to set audio source. You could record gameplay with system sound, microphone audio, and/or webcam audio. Make sure you have connected related audio hardware to your computer.

Step 4: Start recording gameplay

Then, click the red REC button to start recording game. Leawo Free Screen Recorder will start gameplay recording instantly. Click the red Stop button anytime you want to stop recording gameplay on PC.

Step 5: View gameplay recordings

All recordings will be saved automatically and viewed on the “Record History” interface, where you could rename recording, play back recording, edit recording, open recording file folder, and directly delete recording.

That is how to record gameplay on PC. If you want to create a reaction video for gameplay, you could make use of the internal webcam recorder. Just check how to record video with webcam for detailed steps.

Conclusion

Through the above content, we have shared the best game recording software programs for you to record gameplay on PC and Mac, and delivered a detailed guide on how to record gameplay on PC with the best free game recorder software. All of these top game recording software programs come with their own unique features and functions. We hope you could get the best option according to your own real requirements.