The embodiments of the present application disclose a method and an apparatus for switching a bit stream type of a video presentation. The method comprises: determining a plurality of video presentations that have been started; determining a current split screen mode according to the number of the started video presentations; determining a bit stream type corresponding to the current split screen mode according to a preset correspondence between split screen modes and bit stream types; and switching a bit stream type of each started video presentation according to the determined bit stream type or bit stream types. The embodiments of the present application avoid a client from running out of memory and crashing.