Twitch Streaming Equipment for Beginners
Shared on 05 May 2022, by Rowan
So, you’re interested in becoming a streamer… Twitch has become incredibly popular over the past few years. From Youtubers moving platforms onto Twitch and focusing solely on streaming, to streamers like CorpseHusband, Dream, and Sykkuno becoming recognizable names even to people who haven’t watched a single Twitch stream, the proof is in the pudding. Twitch streaming can also seem a lot less intimidating than creating edited gameplay videos, and it can feel a lot more interactive to creators.
Whether you just want to chat with an audience, show off your gameplay skills, or expand your own content platform, you may be struggling to know where to start with equipment. Streaming on any platform can be really fun, but it can also be difficult to know where to start (especially without breaking the bank)! If you want to up your game and start streaming confidently, we have put together a list of the basic equipment you will need to start.
In order to keep this article from getting too long, we have specifically listed the base items you will need if you’re doing “Just Chatting” or single PC gameplay streams. We have also made sure to focus on quality items that are still budget-friendly because we know how intimidating it can be to feel like you need to sink hundreds of dollars into supplies just to start. Keep in mind that if you’re interested in dedicating yourself fully to streaming and maybe even making it into a profession, this may not be the list for you! But, if you’re just looking to learn how to stream and what equipment you will need without spending a thousand dollars, then we are here to help you have a strong start.
We’ve put together a list of the bare necessities to help you make great quality streams because no one wants to watch a stream where they can barely see or hear you. Having high-quality items also means you can focus exclusively on chatting with your audience and actually streaming. So if you’re new to twitch streaming and looking for the right video game streaming equipment, here’s exactly what you’ll need.
You can buy all of our recommended streaming equipment for beginners. This list has been created with the help of Share-A-Cart. Share-A-Cart is a free tool that helps you share the entire cart with anyone else with only a single click on dozens of online retailers and millions of web stores. Simple. Easy. Faster shopping for all.
Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty details of what you’ll need on your Twitch journey!
1080p Webcam
The better quality your video is, the better your streams will be. Videos are a highly emotional platform for human connection. If you’re pixelated and your movement is cutting in and out, your viewers can get frustrated watching you. You want them to be able to easily see your movements and reactions, and it’s also just a little weird to see someone’s mouth moving but only have the audio actually come in a minute later.
Unfortunately, even if you think you’ve got the best webcam quality out of everyone in your Zoom meetings, it might not cut it for Twitch. Built-in cameras are known for not having the best quality. The last thing you want is to start streaming and find out you show up on your streams looking more like Steve from Minecraft or a bad camera spotting of a cryptid than a real human person.
This is why you should invest in a high-quality external webcam. A lot of webcams today are actually built and created with streaming taken into consideration. We recommend a 1080p NexiGo web camera with 30 fps if you’re a beginner streamer. At its price and quality, it’s almost unbeatable.
A High-Quality Microphone with a Pop Filter
The same issues with bad quality video on a Twitch stream can pop up with poor audio quality. Built-in microphones tend to be fairly poor in their quality. They’re not great at filtering out background noise, and if you aren’t consistently super close to them, you can sound like you’re a million miles away! No one wants to watch a stream where they are straining to hear the creator.
Thankfully, modern-day external microphones with high-quality, professional sound don’t have to break the bank and can actually be very affordable. They are also easy to set up, with many coming specifically to connect to a computer through your USB port.
If you’ve ever seen a creator use a microphone with some odd mesh panel in front of it, these are also known as pop filters. You can buy them separately, but many streaming microphones today come with one built-in. Pop filters prevent unwelcome recording volume spikes that cause low-quality sounds, which often happen when people use bare microphones.
Our recommended FIFINE microphone is budget-friendly, easy to use, comes with a built-in pop filter, and the angle of it can also easily be adjusted. It’s also got a colorful setup that you can adjust, but that pop of color can make your video look more engaging.
Lighting
You might think your overhead lighting and your computer screen’s resultant lighting are enough when you’re on a video chat with your family, but for streaming, you’ll want something more professional. Good lighting is the difference between looking washed out or even covered in odd shadows. It can make you appear much more natural, and therefore more relatable to your audience in turn.
We recommend a lighting setup that has adjustable levels of brightness and different types of settings. This Obeamiu LED Lighting setup comes with three fully adjustable video lights, all with their own tripods. At its price, it’s almost unbeatable for its quality. This setup will give you a great chance to explore your best lighting setup for streaming.
Headphones
You don’t necessarily need headphones when you are streaming, but they are very highly recommended. They can make it a lot easier to keep track of the audio in a game you’re playing, but also much easier to listen to updates from your stream so you can notice what’s going on without looking over at the chat every half second.
Some headphones can certainly come with a high asking price, even if they are worth the quality, like these famous Razen Kraken Kitty headphones. However, if your budget isn’t expansive, we recommend starting off with an affordable pair that is just as high-quality pair (even if it is less recognizable)! Alternatively, if you are dead set on a pair of these famous kitten headphones but you don’t have a spare hundred dollars, we recommend the SOMIC gaming headset instead.
