The live vote where every tip moves the bar.

01What is the TipDeck Vote?

A real-time split bar that puts two options in front of your audience and lets them decide - with actual money. Every qualifying tip moves the bar. The whole room watches. The countdown ends. You follow through.

The mechanic is deliberately simple: two options, two tip amounts, one split bar. Option A has a label (say, "SHAVE") and a tip amount (say, 5 tokens / $0.31). Option B has a different label ("NOT SHAVE") and a different tip amount (6 tokens / $0.38). When a viewer tips exactly 5 tokens, their vote registers for SHAVE. When someone tips 6 tokens, it registers for NOT SHAVE. Any other tip amount is a regular tip - it shows up in chat, but the bar doesn't move. The low token amounts keep the barrier to entry minimal - everyone can participate.

What makes it interesting isn't the simplicity - it's what simplicity does to the room. When the bar sits at 50/50 with two minutes left, every viewer who cares about the outcome tips. When one side is at 70%, viewers on the losing side tip to close the gap. The bar is a live scoreboard that tells the story of the vote in real time, and viewers compete to shape that story. The split bar is not decorative - it's the game.

Example: Shave vs Not Shave

A classic use case: Option A "SHAVE" · 5 tokens ($0.31) vs Option B "NOT SHAVE" · 6 tokens ($0.38). At a conversion rate of $0.0625/token, these are very low amounts - barrier to entry is near-zero, which maximises participation. Everyone in the room can afford to vote; the bar moves fast; the drama is real. The asymmetry (5 vs 6 tokens) makes SHAVE the slightly cheaper vote, which can influence which side builds momentum first.

What makes it different from a chat poll

Chat polls are free. Viewers type "A" or "B" with zero friction, zero investment. The results reflect nothing about how much viewers actually care. A viewer who types "A" in chat and a viewer who would pay $3 to vote A are two completely different signals.

A TipDeck Vote captures the second kind of signal. Every vote has a cost, so every vote is a statement of genuine preference. The viewer who tips $3 for DANCE wants DANCE more than they want $3. That changes the weight of the result - and more importantly, it changes the energy of the countdown. A tipped vote isn't just data; it's a financial commitment. The streamer and the whole room know it.

When to run a Vote

Vote works best when the two options are genuinely different and viewers have a clear preference. Outfit choice, activity selection, music pick, challenge decision - any binary with real stakes on both sides. The worst vote is one where 90% of the room prefers one outcome before the countdown even starts: there's no competition, no drama, no reason to tip. Set up the options so both sides have fans in the room, and the bar does the rest.

You can run multiple votes per stream. A vote at the start to set the tone, a vote mid-stream when energy dips, a vote near the end as a finale mechanic. Each vote resets the bar to 0/0 - no carryover from the previous one.

02How the Vote works - the rules

Six things happen from vote setup to streamer delivering the result. Six steps, every time. Knowing them turns the Vote from a simple poll into a tool you can time, extend, and close strategically.

03See the Vote running on a real stream

Sixty seconds of a full vote cycle: options set, countdown running, bar shifting as tips arrive, final result locked. The fastest way to understand the mechanic is to watch it resolve in real time.

Once the video drops, the player above swaps to the embedded clip - same frame, same dimensions, no layout shift.

04Why a tipped vote changes the room

No fake engagement numbers. Here is the precise mechanism - six behavioural reasons why a split-bar vote drives tips that a free chat poll never could.

05Configure your Vote in 1 minute

The Vote has fewer moving parts than any other TipDeck game. Two options, a timer, and a Start button. Below is every setting and what it does - the full reference for when you want to tweak a running vote or set up a new one fast.

Vote options: label, tip amount, color for each side

Each option has three fields: label (displayed on the split bar - keep it under 8 characters for clean readability at 800px), tip_amount (the exact tip that registers as a vote), and color (the bar's accent color for that side). The two tip amounts must be different - identical amounts would make it impossible to assign a vote to a side.

You can also set a currency per option - USD or tokens - independently. Option A can be "50 tokens" while Option B is "$5 USD" if your platform mix warrants it.

Duration: countdown timer and extend options

Set the initial duration in seconds (30 to 3600). Typical votes run 3–10 minutes. Short votes create urgency but reduce total tips; longer votes give viewers more chances to join but can drag. Extend options available mid-vote: +30s, +60s, or a custom number of seconds. Each extension resets the urgency cycle and is reflected instantly on the overlay countdown.

Currency: USD or tokens per option

Each option's tip_amount can be denominated in USD or tokens. TipDeck normalises token amounts to USD using your configured token rate before comparison. Set the currency that matches how your audience thinks about tips on the platform where the vote is running.

Controls: start, pause, resume, extend, and stop

The dashboard vote panel shows five controls in sequence:

• Start - activates the overlay, begins the countdown, opens voting.
• Pause - freezes the countdown. The bar stays visible with the current split. New tips still appear in the feed but are not counted until Resume.
• Resume - restarts the countdown from where it was paused.
• Extend - adds time to the running countdown. Available during active and paused states.
• Stop early - immediately ends the vote and locks the final result. Use if one side reaches an unbeatable lead or the stream needs to move on.

OBS integration: 800×120 banner bar

The Vote overlay is designed as a banner bar, not a full-scene overlay:

• In OBS, right-click your scene → Add → Browser.
• Paste the overlay URL from your TipDeck dashboard.
• Set width 800, height 120, FPS 30.
• Position it at the top or bottom of your scene as a persistent banner.
• The overlay is transparent when no vote is active - it disappears until you hit Start.

Screenshots — configuration view

Vote dashboardOption editor, live split preview as votes arrive, session controls, and result screen.

06FAQ - Vote, answered straight

The questions creators actually ask in our Discord, with straight answers.