The short answer: something that plays the game, an internet connection, an account on the platform, and broadcasting software if they are streaming from a PC. That is the whole list of requirements. Everything else on this page is an upgrade.
Which is awkward if you are trying to buy a present. The person you are shopping for can already go live tonight with the hardware in their room, so there is nothing you can give them that unlocksstreaming. What you can give them is the thing that makes the stream watchable — and there is a clear order to those.
Below: the four upgrades that genuinely change a stream, ranked by how much difference they make per dollar, and the two that are usually bought far too early. Every spec and platform requirement is the manufacturer’s own published figure, linked at the foot of the page.
The order that actually matters
1. Sound. Audio is the thing an audience will not forgive. People will watch a soft, slightly blurry picture for an hour and they will close the tab thirty seconds into muffled, echoing, room-mic sound. A standalone USB microphone on a desk is the single biggest visible-quality jump available to a new streamer, and it is the easiest to set up — it plugs into a USB port and is recognised.
2. Light on the face. Only relevant if they are on camera, but if they are, this outranks the camera itself. A bedroom lit by a monitor produces a grey, grainy picture no sensor can rescue. Logitech’s claim for its Litra Glow is that “TrueSoft delivers balanced, full-spectrum LED light with cinematic color accuracy for a natural, radiant look across all skin tones”, and the practical effect of any decent desk light is the same: the camera stops guessing.
3. The camera. Third, not first. A 1080p webcam with a privacy cover is plenty for a gaming stream where the game fills most of the screen and the person occupies a corner. Spending webcam money before lighting money is the most common mis-order in this hobby.
4. Control hardware. Last. A control deck does not improve how a stream looks or sounds at all — it improves how easily the streamer runs it, which only becomes a problem once they have a routine worth automating.
The two things people buy too early
A control deck, for somebody on their fifth stream. Elgato prices the Stream Deck MK.2 at $149.99 for “15 customizable LCD keys” that “Trigger actions, launch apps, and control your entire setup”, using the free Stream Deck software on “Windows 11 or newer” or “macOS 13 or newer” over USB-C. For an established streamer that is a genuinely great present. For a beginner it is $150 of buttons with nothing to assign to them yet.
It is also worth noting what Elgato’s page does not say: there is no claim of console compatibility. If they stream from a console rather than a PC, this is the wrong gift.
A capture card. Not in our registry and deliberately so, because it is the most commonly mis-bought streaming item there is. A capture card exists to get video out of one machine and into another. Somebody streaming a PC game from the PC they are playing it on does not need one at all, and buying one for them is a present that goes back in the box.
What to buy for which kind of streamer
Somebody who has said they want to start. A microphone. It is the one purchase that is right regardless of platform, game, camera-shyness or budget, and it is useful for voice chat, school calls and recording even if the streaming never happens.
Somebody already streaming to a handful of viewers. A light. They have almost certainly bought a microphone and a camera themselves and almost certainly not bought lighting, because it does not feel like gaming equipment. Our gaming room lights roundup covers the face lights and the ambient strips side by side.
A child or young teenager. A microphone, and nothing on camera. Audio gear is useful for every part of their life; a webcam raises a conversation that belongs to their parents rather than to a gift buyer. If the streaming is about Roblox or Minecraft specifically, our guide to what age Roblox is for sets out the chat and account rules that are the real issue at that age.
Somebody who streams from a console. A microphone or a light, since both sit outside the console entirely. Skip the deck, as above. A headset that matches their console is the other reliable choice.
Somebody who does not actually want to stream. Worth checking. “I should stream” is said much more often than it is meant, and a $150 control deck is a conspicuous reminder of an abandoned plan. Our gifts for streamers list is for the confirmed case, and the gaming gift mistakes guide covers this one and four others.
The thing you cannot buy them
Upload speed. Streaming sends video out of the house, which uses the upload half of a broadband connection — and broadband is advertised on the download half, so a connection that feels fast can still struggle to broadcast.
There is no universal number to quote, because it depends on the platform and the settings, and we are not going to invent one. The useful advice is procedural: have them run a short private or unlisted broadcast before anybody spends money on gear. If that holds up, the gear is worth buying. If it does not, no microphone will fix it.