Sit in Comfort All Day With These Expert-Recommended Gaming Chairs

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Though it often goes overlooked, your chair is one of the most important aspects of your gaming setup. The best gaming chairs support you in all the right places, ensuring that you sit in comfort no matter how long you play.

Sure, a conventional office chair would work fine, but gaming chairs stand out with bright colors and bold designs, as well as extra features like cooling foam that help you sit comfortably for longer.

Gaming at a desk can be surprisingly hard on your body. A study from the National Institutes of Health found that prolonged sitting can lead to increased exhaustion and health problems throughout the musculoskeletal system, including hypertension. While there’s no substitute for standing up and walking around, gaming chairs offer robust lumbar support and soft yet supportive cushioning to optimize your ergonomics to minimize the impact of playing (or working) for hours.

If you play games sitting in a plain armchair, back and neck pain are almost certainties, and decreased focus can limit your ability to play your best. Top-tier gaming chairs are also built with robust materials to ensure they’ll last for many years.

The best gaming chairs can vary from $100 to more than $1,000. The old axiom, “you get what you pay for,” often proves true with gaming furniture, so it’s important to do your research. That said, you don’t need to break the bank unless you’re looking for absolute perfection. Many of our favorites cost less than $400.

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The Best Gaming Chairs

What to Consider While Buying a Gaming Chair

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How We Selected The Best Gaming Chairs

We used firsthand experience with a range of gaming chairs over the years to determine the best options on the market today. We also researched 15 expert sources such as Digital Trends, PC Gamer, Wirecutter, and Tom’s Hardware, as well as thousands of consumer reviews from Amazon, Walmart, and other retailers to corroborate our research and recommendations. We focused on chairs that offer great support, functionality for all types of gamers and gaming setups, and most of all, comfort.

It’s no secret (pun intended) that Secretlab makes some of the highest-quality gaming chairs out there. The Titan Evo 2022, a more supportive and customizable update to the extremely popular Titan 2020, continues the product line’s trend of adaptability to maximum comfort for gamers of every size.

Offered in small, regular, and extra large, the chair has several adjustable settings like armrest height and lumbar support, which also forms to your back as you use the chair. You can also pick from leatherette, a knit technical fabric, or real leather for your chair, and it comes with a memory-foam pillow for added comfort.

Secretlab offers a slew of pleasing colors and patterns, too, so you can be sure your new gaming throne fits in with the rest of your aesthetic.

Looking for something to use exclusively for gaming that won’t break the bank? The GT099 is a great option. Its flashy gamer aesthetic meets ergonomic support that’s suitable for hours on end.

GTRacing created a cushion support system with adjustable pillows under the head and lumbar region. Standard customization features include adjustable armrests and seat height, and the backrest reclines up to 160 degrees.

The one downside is that synthetic leather fabric isn’t the most breathable material and can easily become sticky if you tend to run hot. In addition to the black-with-white style, it also comes with red, blue, green, pink, or purple accents and in an all-black option, so you can coordinate with your current gaming setup.

The Razer Iskur XL is the big-and-tall version of the company’s best-selling chair. It keeps the same, snake-inspired style and exceptional support, but is made for larger players, including anyone up to 6-feet-10-inches tall and 399 pounds, versus only 6-feet and 299 pounds on the original. It features the same bold adjustable lumbar and thick foam cushions to ensure you can game for hours in comfort.

The Iskur XL comes in three different styles—two in Razer’s custom multi-layered synthetic leather and one with a breathable fabric. For the Razer faithful, the standard version of the chair features black leatherette upholstery with bright green stitching. For a more subdued look, there’s also a fully black leatherette option, as well as a fabric version that comes in dark gray.

No matter which you choose, no one will doubt that this is a chair borne and bred for gaming thanks to a bold “for gamers, by gamers” mantra stitched into the seat and Razer’s classic three-headed snake on the head rest.

With enough adjustment options to find a comfortable, supportive posture in multiple positions, the Razer Iskur XL is built to last with high-quality materials. Best of all, it frequently goes on sale so you should be able to grab one at a steep discount if you play the sales on Amazon and other retailers.

If you’re looking for a gaming chair that’s sleek enough to show up on Zoom or even at the office, the Noblechairs Hero is an excellent choice. It mixes synthetic leather with elegant stitching and fabric lining on the bolsters, giving it a more subtle aesthetic than most bright, bold, racing-inspired gaming seats.

The thick cold cure foam cushioning hides its robust steel frame without looking bulky. (It can feel stiff out of the box, but don’t worry: It will soften a bit.) You can pick your chair from a variety of configurations, including real leather, hybrid leather, fabric, and with five different colors of accent stitching.

The Hero features an adjustable lumbar system that allows you to dial in the curve on the backrest so it perfectly matches your back. The 4D armrests are also adjustable, though the foam is firm, so we recommend avoiding leaning heavily on your elbows with this chair. Add in a deep 125-degree recline, adjustable rock tension, and a breathable perforated backrest and you have a chair that feels as good to sit in as it looks behind your desk.

At $589, the Hero is fairly expensive, but it has similar features to our top pick, and it’s easily one of the most versatile options because of its robust customization options and subdued look.

The X-Rocker Torque 2.1 offers enhanced features that set it apart from other rockers. It features a classic, plush design that you’d expect from a traditional rocker chair, but with padded armrests, wireless 2.1 speakers in the back and headrest (with a transmitter for systems that don’t support it natively), and a trio of vibration motors for body-quaking haptic feedback.

Unlike most rockers, which sit directly on the floor, the Torque 2.1 sits on a 31-inch pedestal, giving you a bit more vertical height for a more comfortable sitting experience and more adjustability. When it’s not in use, the whole thing can be folded down for easier storage.

Some users have reported small gripes, like minor Bluetooth lag or the vibration modules sometimes missing their cues. On the whole, though, it’s an outstanding rocker perfect for gamers young and old.

There are few names bigger than Herman-Miller in the world of office chairs, and thanks to a partnership with Logitech G, it also makes one of the best (and most expensive) gaming chairs you can buy. In truth, the Herman-Miller x Logitech G Embody Gaming Chair is more of a refresh than a completely original product.

It takes the standard Embody chair, which debuted in 2009, and adds a few tweaks catered toward gamers. While we would have appreciated a few more changes and updates, there’s no mistaking that this is one exceptional chair.

The Embody was designed in collaboration with over 20 doctors and PhDs to create a unique pixelated support system that adapts to every shift of your body while gaming. In addition to lumbar support, it also applies thoracic support for your middle-to-upper back, which holds your head in the perfect position once you’ve dialed in its many adjustments.

As a result, the chair does not include a headrest. Though it theoretically doesn’t need one, users have maligned its absence, noting that it would come in handy when you recline. The Embody gaming chair adds additional cooling foam to the seat for improved comfort. It’s also available in additional colors to stand out at your desk.

The Herman-Miller x Logitech G Embody Gaming Chair doesn’t come cheap, but it includes a 10-year warranty to support your investment. And, if the original is any indication, this is a chair that should last for a long time.

Respawn made its name delivering surprisingly high-quality gaming chairs for relatively affordable prices. The Specter Ergonomic Gaming Chair is among its most expensive models, but it’s still well-priced when you look at what it has to offer. Its full mesh design, dynamic lumbar support, and plentiful adjustments are all designed to cushion you in exactly the way you need to work or game through the entire day.

At first glance, you might not guess the Specter was a gaming chair at all, but it has a couple of tricks up its sleeve. Its armrests can flip backward and out of the way, allowing you to kick back with a controller. The seat depth is also adjustable, allowing you to dial in an upright, alert posture when gaming at your desk or a deeper recline when gaming on a console. You can also adjust the headrest to sit perfectly behind your neck for the best support.

The Specter is available in black or gray with stylish leatherette accents on the seat, back, and headrest. It’s worth keeping an eye on the pricing for this one as it goes on sale fairly often.

If you’re looking to beat the heat, the Andaseat Phantom 3 is a sure bet thanks to its stain-resistant fabric upholstery. It’s a mid-sized chair designed for gamers under 200 pounds and is made to last thanks to its durable steel frame and aluminum wheel base. In addition to being breathable, users report that the fabric is also easier to clean than that of most chairs, especially if you have pets.

The Phantom 3 puts the focus on comfort, offering soft yet resilient foam cushioning and two adjustable pillows for additional back and neck support. It also features a deep, 160-degree recline for a midday power nap. It even takes a cue from the Secret Lab Titan EVO and uses magnetic covers to hide the hardware attaching the backrest.

If you’re looking for something more feature-rich, we also love the Andaseat Kaiser 3, which offers a similar set of features as our top picks, including magnetic lumbar and headrest pillows and 4D armrests for even more adjustability. That said, we think the Phantom 3 offers great bang for your buck if you’re interested in a lighter, lower maintenance chair.

Q+A With Our Experts

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