Best gaming microphone 2025

The Elgato Wave:3 is our top choice of gaming microphone for most gamers and streamers thanks to its combination of compact size, stylish design, just enough useful features, and great sound quality. It’s not the most feature rich, the very best-sounding, or the cheapest, but it’s the right balance for most.

At just 153 x 66 x 40mm, the Wave:3 is really compact and includes a compact U-shaped pivot mount that’s easy to fit to microphone arms. You can also buy a petite clip-on pop shield and a compact anti-shock mount for a really tidy setup.

A touch-sensitive mic mute button sits on the top of the mic and there’s a multi-function dial on the front. This controls headphone volume (from the headphone output jack), mic level, and the mix of the mic audio and the audio from your PC (i.e. your game).

You don’t get multiple pickup patterns (just cardioid) or extra connections (just USB-C) but that’s all most gamers and streamers will need. Only if you’re stepping up to a wider range of home recording might you require more. Meanwhile, sound quality is very good, with great clarity and depth.

The Elgato Wave:3 isn’t exactly cheap at around $130 but it offers decent value.

Read our Elgato Wave:3 review.

The Blue Yeti has been around for ages and remains one of the most popular USB microphone options around thanks to its incredible versatility, robust build, and solid sound quality.

Chiefly, it’s this microphone’s ability to offer cardioid, omnidirectional, stereo, and bidirectional pickups patterns from its three condenser capsules that makes it stand out. This combination of patterns means you can stream and record your voice at home with the cardioid pattern, record a face-to-face podcast with the bidirectional pattern, or take in the ambient stereo sound of a concert with the stereo pattern, all from one mic.

All this versatility does come at a price, though, which is bulk. This is a large and heavy microphone with a particularly bulky stand, though the stand does at least raise this microphone higher than most – it sits at a useful nearly 30cm height off your desk, compared to half that for most USB mics.

Blue used to offer the Blue Yeti pro that include an XLR output too but now it’s USB only, though you still get a headphone output with dedicate headphone volume control, along with the mic level and pickup pattern controls.

One thing to note is that Blue is now owned by Logitech, so the Blue Yeti is clumsily known as the Logitech for Creators Blue Yeti, and you’ll find it under the Logitech G section of Logitech’s website. That’s why you also get products like the Logitech G Yeti GX below – it hasn’t been the best-handled rebranding of all time. Thankfully, though, the Blue Yeti remains a fantastic buy that’s stunning value for the versatility it offers.

Read our Blue Yeti review.

On the surface, the Razer Seiren V2 Pro offers a very similar core set of features to the Elgato Wave:3. It has a single pickup pattern mic with a hardware gain/level control, an in-built headphone amp with volume control, and a mic mute button. However, Razer’s option is a little cheaper, a little larger, and incorporates a few extra features.

Those features are that the microphone is internally mounted on a shock-absorbing mount and hidden behind a pop-reduced cover. In practice, neither of these are as accomplished as the sold-separately pop shield and anti-shock mount of the Elgato Wave:3 but they do help reduce the impact of you knocking your table or breathing too heavily into the mic. Considering the Seiren V2 Pro is just $109 right now, that’s a great combination for the price.

An interesting aspect of this model is that is uses a dynamic microphone, rather than a condenser. This means this mic has a slightly warmer, less crisp sound than some others but it copes really well with loud screams. So, if you’re a… shall we say “energetic” gamer, this could be the mic for y0u.

Read our Razer Seiren V2 Pro review.

After buying up the Blue brand, the G Yeti GX is one of Logitech’s first big attempts at making a dedicated gaming microphone bearing the Yeti name, but it’s a very different beast to the original Blue Yeti. Here, you get a much more compact, simple microphone but one that sounds great and it has some prominent and cleverly-integrated RGB for potentially really enhancing your game streams.

Mounted on a peculiar single-armed stand, the G Yeti GX is a surprisingly compact option, that neatly integrates a large pop-shielding foam cover. The stand isn’t all that clever but combined with a mic arm, this is a really slick, compact mic option and its RGB lighting faces right back at your camera.

Output is via USB-C and you get convenient mic level and mute controls on the mic itself. However, there isn’t an integrated headphone amp here, which somewhat explains the small size of this mic. While that dents the sense of value of this mic, it’s actually a fairly sensible omission as most gamers will have another headphone/headset output option.

Like the Razer Seiren V2 Pro, the Logitech G Yeti GX has a single cardioid pickup pattern and uses a dynamic mic. Its audio quality is very good, providing smooth, clear audio with a wide frequency range. It’s not the last word in crystal clear clarity but it’s use of a dynamic mic means it holds up well to explosive gamer outbursts, avoiding distortion in these situations.

As to what you’ll do with the lighting on this mic, it can be integrated with Logitech’s G Hub software that can dynamically control your system’s RGB lighting in accordance with the games your playing.

Read our Logitech G Yeti GX review.

Rode is one of the most well-known and respected names in general microphone production, and the X XDM-100 brings that expertise to bear on the PC market.

As you might expect, that pedigree doesn’t come cheap but the Rode X XDM-100 includes several features that simply no other competitors can match. For instance, it includes a proper recording-grade anti-shock mount and a removable pop shield to immediately up the production quality of your setup.

Along similar lines, it also houses a really prominent red LED to indicate when the mic is live while convenient additions include a volume control and headphone output, along with the main USB-C output. It’s somewhat surprising a company such as Rode hasn’t included an XLR output on this mic, especially at this price, but quality from the onboard mic amp is superb anyway.

With a single cardioid pickup pattern from its dynamic mic, the Rode X XDM-100 is among the best-sounding mics on this list but it is a bulkier and more expensive option too.

Read our Rode X XDM-100 review.

The Razer V3 Chroma is a step up from the cheap Razer Seiren Mini but cheaper than the Razer V2 Pro. Its main selling point is stunning RGB lighting – customizable, of course – running around the main body. Like all the mics in this guide, operation is plug-and-play which means it works as soon as it’s plugged into your PC via a USB port. To customize and control audio options you’ll need Razer’s Synapse software, but this is free and intuitive to use.

The design is simple but attractive. There’s a gain/volume dial at the front for tweaking headphone or microphone levels, and the mute button can be found on the top – simply press it once to cut your audio.

This mic is for gamers and streamers who want another way to incorporate RGB lighting into their setup. Our reviewer said it was the brightest, most dynamic microphone RGB they’d ever seen, but also praised the Chroma’s ability to cut out unwanted background noise.

Read our Razer V3 Chroma review.

After a day of gaming with your friends, you may decide to create a podcast to spread your love of playing videogames. Fortunately, this microphone offers one of the best affordable options on the market, letting you craft compelling podcasts without breaking the bank.

Despite the plug-and-play setup, this is a great microphone that offers solid, warm, and crisp vocals, perfect for creating podcasts or streaming your favorite games. The design may be bland, but the build quality is excellent, delivering a premium microphone on a budget.

Unfortunately, you’ll likely need a decent stand, which means an extra expense. However, we strongly suggest picking this up if you want some brilliant recording quality.

Read our Audio Technica AT2040USB review.

Sennheiser is an instantly recognizable name in the audio industry, producing high-quality products across a range of hardware. The Sennheiser Profile USB delivers the same top performance that the company is known for, but without breaking the bank.

Delivering great vocals with great build quality, the Sennheiser Profile USB is the perfect starting microphone for those looking to get into streaming. It’s practically plug-and-play, with very little set up required, and the physical controls are impressive.

While it only offers Cardioid, that doesn’t negate how amazing the Sennheiser Profile USB is. It’s simply fantastic, and that’s a great thing for budding streamers or podcast creators.

Read our Sennheiser Profile review.