Studio style condenser microphones have been the popular choice in streaming for awhile, but they are usually a pretty bad choice in a home office gaming setup.
They can sound amazing in a treated sound booth, but they will just pick up every little flaw in your room.
For most people sitting at a computer, (who don't mind seeing the microphone in the video) you want to be using a dynamic microphone about 1 inch from your mouth, and do not spend over $300 for the entire setup ($100 microphone with $200 for interface, cable, stand)
If you want to hide the microphone out of the video, you'll want a Small Diaphragm Condenser microphone like a pencil mic or a shotgun mic, and the microphone itself will cost more like $200. Because any < $100 SDC or shotgun mic isn't good enough to be worth it.
You could also use a lav mic, but any affordable (as in below $200) lav mic you find is not really going to sound much better than a decent gaming headset (preferably plugged into an audio interface to avoid PC noise)
If you have less money, pretty much any $50+ USB condenser mic kit will sound as good as a Yeti (Sometimes a little better), while being smaller. Similarly any $200+ fancy RGB USB gamer mic will also sound about the same. Yeti was one of the best options when they were new, but they haven't kept up with an absurdly comparative market. Plus they've had bad QC lately.
These USB mics are all built in similar ways out of the same parts. Bad microphones DO exist. But if it comes from a real company then you'll probably be fine.
Either way, try to get one that comes with a decent stand or even better a mic arm.
A USB dynamic microphone would still be better, but good luck finding one for $50. There's some pretty good ones for $200, but you'll be better off buying into an XLR/interface setup for that kind of budget.
It doesn't help that it's almost impossible to find good reviews of microphones right now, thanks to the Amazon affiliate program. Everybody has a pretty strong motivation to be overly positive and to convince you to buy the wrong stuff.
At the end of the day, trying to collect microphones is expensive, and an absolute nightmare. Microphone selection is only about 20% of sounding good. Most of the rest of that equation is room treatment, mic technique, and mixing/post processing technique (all of which require years of experience to get right). Audio is a learned skill. It takes practice.
You can't compete with [big streamer you've heard of] because they have unlimited money, and a team of experienced professionals dedicated to making them look and sound good (even if they pretend to be some random person in a bedroom).
So don't worry about competing. Don't waste a ton of money on overpriced plastic crap marketed to gamers. You don't need it.
Just use whatever you have to get started and do your best. Start doing it for fun, and you'll get better eventually. If your channel isn't making enough money to pay for new gear (and it definitely won't make money for several years), then you probably don't need new gear.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram