How to Add a Spinning Wheel to OBS

Why streamers use a wheel

A wheel gives your audience something to watch and something to influence. Viewers can enter their names for a giveaway, vote on the next game, pick a challenge, or decide your loadout. Because the spin happens live, chat sees the result at the same moment you do. That creates a shared moment of suspense, and it's a far better clip than "I picked a random winner off-stream". This guide shows how to add a clean, transparent wheel to OBS Studio and similar streaming software, and how to run it smoothly during a broadcast.

What overlay mode does

A normal web page has a background, menus and other parts you don't want on stream. Overlay mode hides all of that. Add ?obs=1 to the wheel's address and the page shows only the wheel and the winner banner, on a fully transparent background. In OBS, that means the wheel floats over your gameplay or camera without a green screen or chroma key, which keeps edges sharp and saves processing power.

The OBS wheel page builds this link for you. Enter your entries, choose colours, then copy the overlay link. Your settings are stored in the link, so the overlay shows the same wheel you designed.

Step 1: build your wheel

Start on the OBS wheel page or the main wheel. Add entries one per line: viewer names, game titles, challenges or prizes. Choose a theme that suits your channel; high-contrast colours read best on stream, because video compression can blur thin text. Keep labels short so they stay legible at small sizes. If some outcomes should be rarer, such as a "free sub" slice, set weights and check the percentages.

Step 2: add a browser source

In OBS Studio, click the plus button under Sources and choose Browser. Name it "Wheel". Paste the overlay link into the URL field. Set the width and height to a square such as 800 × 800 so the wheel isn't stretched. Leave "Shutdown source when not visible" unticked if you want the wheel to keep its state between scenes. Tick "Control audio via OBS" if you want the spin sounds to go through your stream mixer.

Click OK, then drag and resize the source in your scene. Because the background is transparent, you can place it over anything. Many streamers put it in a corner during normal play and use a separate scene with a large, centred wheel for big moments like giveaways.

Step 3: control the spin

There are two common ways to spin. The simplest is to interact with the source: right-click it, choose Interact, and click Spin in the window that opens. The other is to keep the full wheel page open in a normal browser on a second monitor for editing and spinning. Then capture only the overlay in OBS from the same saved wheel. Editing the full page updates your saved wheel; refresh the browser source (right-click, Refresh) to load the changes.

If you use a stream deck or hotkeys, set a hotkey in OBS to show and hide the wheel source. That way it appears only when you're about to spin and disappears once the winner has been announced.

Step 4: sound

The spin ticks and winner fanfare can add a lot of energy, but they should be balanced with your microphone and game audio. With "Control audio via OBS" ticked, the wheel gets its own channel in the audio mixer. Lower it so it sits under your voice. If you prefer silence, mute the channel or turn off sound in the wheel's Sound Lab before copying the overlay link. Some streamers add their own sound effect with a separate media source triggered by a hotkey, which also works well.

Step 5: get chat involved

For giveaways, collect entries from chat with a keyword, such as everyone who types !enter during a set window. Copy the chat log or your bot's list into the entries box, run Dedupe so each viewer counts once, and refresh the overlay. The comment picker can help pull usernames out of messy pasted chat. Announce the number of entries on screen so viewers know they're included.

For votes, put the options on the wheel and give each a weight equal to the number of votes it received. The most popular option has the best chance without being guaranteed, which keeps things exciting. For challenge wheels, let chat suggest slices beforehand and pick the best ones yourself to keep the content appropriate.

Step 6: announce the winner

The overlay shows a winner banner when the spin finishes. Pause for a moment so viewers can read it, then say the name out loud. If a viewer wins a prize, ask them to message you through the platform's official channel. Never ask winners to click links in chat, because scammers sometimes copy streamers' names to target viewers. If the winner isn't present, have a rule ready, such as a redraw after two minutes.

Layout tips

Keep the wheel away from areas that your other overlays cover, such as alerts and chat boxes. On a 1080p canvas, a wheel around 500 to 700 pixels across is readable without hiding gameplay. Add a short text label above it ("Spin for the next challenge!") with a normal text source, so new viewers understand what's happening. If the stream is vertical for short-form platforms, use a square source and position it in the upper half of the frame.

Performance and reliability

Browser sources use some CPU and GPU, especially with animations. The wheel is lightweight, but if your machine is already busy, close the source when you're not using it, or set a lower frame rate in the browser source properties. Test before going live: add the source, spin a few times, and check that the sound, size and transparency look right in a local recording. If the wheel looks blurry, make sure the browser source size matches the size you display it at, rather than scaling a small source up.

Troubleshooting

The background isn't transparent: check that the link includes ?obs=1 and that no custom CSS in the browser source sets a background colour. The wheel doesn't update: right-click the source and choose Refresh, or clear its cache in properties. No sound: tick "Control audio via OBS" and check the mixer channel isn't muted. Text is hard to read: choose a high-contrast theme and shorten labels. The spin doesn't start: use Interact on the source, or spin from the full page if you're mirroring the same saved wheel.

Keeping it fair on stream

Your audience will trust the wheel more if they can see the full process. Show the entry list before spinning, keep the settings visible, and let every spin finish on camera. For bigger giveaways, save a receipt and post it with the VOD. Fair, visible draws keep viewers coming back, and that matters more to your channel than any single prize.

Try it now

Put these ideas into practice with the OBS Wheel Overlay, Comment Picker, Transparent Giveaway Draws, or open the main spin the wheel tool.