With the rise of esports and livestreaming, gaming has evolved from a popular recreational hobby to a potential profitable career. According to Statista, the worldwide gaming industry reached nearly $455 billion in 2025. Meanwhile, some gamers make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year streaming on platforms like Twitch. A Montana State University student and longtime gamer, Nolan Rosen global explorer has followed the growth of esports and streaming and is interested in what makes the most popular streamers so successful.
While a strong personality and marketing skills are vital to grow one’s streaming audience, it also helps to have quality equipment. Here’s a look at some must-have items to take your livestreaming setup to the next level.
Streaming PC
A lot of avid gamers use gaming PCs, which include high-powered graphics processing units (GPUs) to render quality images without disruption. These are fine for streaming, but a dedicated streaming PC is preferable because they have stronger central processing units (CPUs), allowing for optimal gaming quality while broadcasting gameplay and yourself to the audience. Look for a PC with at least eight cores.
To ensure optimal content delivery, your streaming PC should also have at least 16GB of RAM and SSD storage. A capture card can also be useful if you intend to stream gameplay from a console, like Xbox or PS5. Moreover, you should look for a high-end processor, like AMD Ryzen 5 or higher, and have a power supply of at least 500W. The display monitor should support 1080p resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate.
Microphone
You need to think about more than just the quality of the video being streamed. A good microphone goes a long way toward enhancing the overall presentation for the viewer, providing clear audio capturing. USB compatible and XLR mics will both suffice, although you’ll have to buy a mixer with the latter. The mic should be capable of picking up frequencies ranging from 20-20,000 Hz and have standard Cardioid Polar Pattern.
The Blue Yeti Nano USB microphone from Logitech is a popular option among streamers, podcasters, and content creators, and is available for around $100. It offers both Cardioid and Omni pickup patterns, advanced modulation, enhanced effects, and no-latency monitoring.
Obviously, you’ll also need a webcam to record yourself while playing the games. A standalone microphone is generally preferable for audio quality, but there are some webcams, albeit a bit expensive, that boast impressive audio capture capacity.
Audio Mixer
With a quality audio mixer, you can elevate your streaming sessions by giving yourself complete creative control over all sounds. You can change the background music and sound levels as needed and program different sound effects. You can also mix multiple sources, blending music, voice chat, in-game audio, and microphone input. Depending on your available space and preference, you can opt for a full-featured mixing board or a smaller USB interface mixer.
The RodeCaster Pro is one of the many streaming audio mixers that is widely recommended. It has four XLR inputs, a large touchscreen, and automatic level setting. Other solid options include the Razer Stream Controller X and Elgato Stream Deck+.
Prompter/Chat Reader
While most streaming sessions involve spontaneous reactions to gameplay, some people might prefer to be a little more polished in their presentation. Others might have certain messages they want to deliver to their audience or enhance their ability to interact with viewers while keeping an eye on their game.
Prompters, like the 9-inch, 1024x600p display from Elgato, allow streamers to deliver information in a well-presented manner. It also has a chat mode, which can integrate with Twitch and display all messages from your audience.
Lynn Martelli is an editor at Readability. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University and has worked as an editor for over 10 years. Lynn has edited a wide variety of books, including fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and more. In her free time, Lynn enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her family and friends.
