Best Gaming Chair Reviews 2021
The gaming revolution in the last 8-10 years has spawned an industry that requires specialized equipment, from consoles to high end gaming PC’s, and, with equal importance, the ultimate chair.
Early on, gamers simply commandeered office chairs, sofas, their beds, even drum stools, spending long hours in one position with little options for protecting body posture and reducing pain.
The biggest complaint from gamers is pain caused by extended sitting, so the first wave of gaming chairs that caught on in the community were high backed office chairs with well padded or mesh style seat cushioning, but as time went on, the need to develop better seating and “backs” was increasingly in demand.
The gaming community is highly networked, and soon office chairs using memory foam cushions in the seat became really hot. And, since memory foam has been used in mattress making for the last 20 years or so, it’s only natural that suppliers who were fabricating memory foam mattresses also got into the seating game.
Today’s archetypal gaming chairs is built on an office chair chassis and is designed to enhance visual acuity and to increase precision with hand movements, body stabilization, while at the same time, improving on the overall comfort and endurance capacity for sitting.
If you are a serious gamer, investing $200-300 in a great gaming chair will improve scores, reduce pain and inflammation, and give you longer lifespan online.
Many conventional office settings actually prefer a form of gaming chair for long haul sitters (8-10 hours daily) to improve productivity, and reduce risk of injury.
By about 2000 or so, almost every mattress company was also pimping their own brand of seat cushions, may of which were being used by gamers, e-sport enthusiasts, and then became really refined when pro-gaming really caught on. Soon, the office chair industry began to focus on both the seat cushion element of their designs, and the lower back, or lumbar areas, to improve the comfort of endurance sitting, meaning 8 hours or more.
Improvements included adding lumbar roll cushions which pushed back against the lower spine to maintain proper support, enhanced arm rest support to minimize fatigue and wrist and hand issues like carpal tunnel syndrome, now notorious amongst the gaming community.
The racing back chair design, for example, refers to a bucket seat design used in Formula One cars that embraces the entire spinal column including the neck and head, another ear where gamers often experience pain. It’s fairly typical in most upright gaming chairs with casters.
The racing style gaming chair is also highly mobile, unlike pedestal or rocker chair designs.
Professional gamers spend a lot of time researching and trying out game chair options, and the gaming chair industry is largely influenced now by the community providing feedback that allows manufacturers to improve and morph their designs. The main purpose: reduce pain and fatigue.
Even the ability to precisely adjust the height of a chair, the kind of casters, and shock absorbing features like pistons and advanced hydraulics, all became integrated into the quintessential office chair design, largely driven by the gaming industry.
Long haul office workers and gamers mirror each other when it comes to seating needs, and both suffer from the same generalized conditions such as numbness in the legs, joint pain, buttock and hamstring pain caused by compression, not to mention wrist pain and hand pain.
On this page, I’ll walk you through the different kinds of gaming chairs that are out there, give you the pros and cons, and then narrow down the options for a lineup of awesome gaming chairs based on design elements, particular features and components, and owner and user feedback, just like we do on our mattress review pages.
Gaming Chair Basics
A widespread option, the PC gaming chair is much like a swiveling office chair. If you’re a gamer who’s spending a lot of time playing PC games, it’s a known fact that having a really good gaming chair not only reduces pain and discomfort, but it also powers you up, helping to improve scores and ranking, too.
Gaming chairs are specifically designed to improve your performance while enhancing your gaming experience. The technology used is a kind of hybrid between office chair and automotive racing chair technology.
A well designed gaming chair is typically taller than most office chairs, has smooth running casters, often made of nylon, is totally adjustable for height, recline features, and is padded with an innovative material.
The padding material is likely to be a premium grade high density polyurethane foam, typically like memory foam or what is called beaded gel foam.
The technology used in the padded seat, backrest, and arm rest is virtually identical to that used in mattress design. When weight is applied to the padded seat rest and back rest elements, pressure is distribute sideways rather than down, which reduces painful pinpoint pressure.
If memory foam is used in the seat padding, it is also temperature sensitive, and tends to mold up around your hips and butt, contouring your body so that weight is evenly distributed.
As in automotive car racing seats, the padding is also designed to absorb shock, though in gaming this is not as large concern, but vigorous play can cause you to move and shift quite a bit, and the need for pressure point reduction adds up even over brief periods of time.
Adjustability of the ideal gaming chair is critical, and tweaking the setup to match your body type will greatly increase use how long you can last for a session in your chair. We’re going to talk about the different options for PC gaming chairs you can choose from.
First, let’s look at the categories of e-sports that requires the best possible seating, and for which most of the gaming chairs we recommend, are designed for.
Gaming Chairs By Type
Choosing the right kind of gaming chair is actually not complicated. By far, the most popular are racer style chairs on casters, because of their flexibility in design, mobility, storability (under desk placement) and easy integration into media rooms, offices, bedrooms, and other typically used areas for gaming.
We’ll discuss the top three most popular options, and the features and benefits associated with each. Note that we stick with Amazon options, so you can easily access reviews by owners, and get free shipping with Amazon Prime, too. Virtually all gaming chair retailers in the U.S.A. sell their chairs on Amazon, so we’ve ruled out sending you to free standing web sites for ease of shopping.
1. Racer Gaming Chair
These game chairs were originally designed for gamers who like playing racing games, though they are now popular across many gaming platforms and considered the most versatile. Mounted on casters to allow for mobility, this style follows the typical bucket style chair that works for most gamers.
For shooter games, strategy and any game technique requiring precision maneuvers, they have the benefit of keeping you fairly immobile while in the chair, ramping up scores and increasing endurance. Often crafted from genuine leather or simulated leather made using PVC (actually, pretty similar in feel and quality), they typically have a lot more cushion and padding in comparison to other styles of gaming chairs.
A racer gaming chair typically offers a lower positioned design loaded with adjustable features. The look and feel is very similar to that of an automotive racing bucket seat. It’s the best choice for you if you frequently spend long hours playing games, due to the comfort and endurance it offers.
You typically get higher quality casters, backrests and armrests, and easily controllable tilting, reclining, swiveling, and height adjustment features.
If you choose higher end performance models, you can also include steering wheels, gas/brake foot pedals, and wheel/pedal support framework, also. These elements of course would be best used for gamers who spend the vast amount of their time in racing games, and not games requiring a lot of physical mobility and movement.
One thing to consider, though, especially if extended sitting bothers you, is that the racing gamer seat is often more heavily padded and are generally regarded as one of the most comfortable seating options.
2. Pedestal Gaming Chair
Looking a bit like a typical office chair, but with a round pedestal base (like a barber or beauty salon chair?) these types of gaming chairs are often closer to the ground and designed to remain stationary, and typically do not have casters.
A pedestal gaming chair is really a hybrid version of three types of chairs: a swivel chair, a rocker chair, and a recliner.The seat of this chair rests on a pedestal base instead of legs, giving you the flexibility to teeter, or rock, as well as rotate- if the seat is mounted on a 360 pedestal. It’s also slightly raised and can be tilted and lounged, just like a recliner.
A pedestal chair is ideal for distributing body weight, too. If your butt gets sore in conventional upright seating, a pedestal chair, because your are reclining on it a bit more, shares some of your body weight across all surfaces, creating a bit of a zero gravity effect, found in many adjustable mattress options.
There is better range of motion in a pedestal chair, allowing for complete freedom to position the gaming chair according to your sitting style.
A pedestal gaming chair generally has a bit more comfortable cushioning on the armrest, backrest, and headrest. Several brands incorporate speakers in the headrest area of the seat, gaming accessory stands, and even racing accessories.
A lot of gamers who play shooter games, specifically sniper games, like these options as well, as it allows you the versatility of precise control when engaging in precision maneuvers that require absolute stillness. I recommend a pedestal gaming chair for its overall comfort and flexibility of customization.
It can rotate smoothly, giving you better access to different gaming equipment. However, these options lack casters, which restricts your movement a bit, and may require you to physically move what are generally fairly heavy chairs.
3. Rocker Gaming Chair
For console gaming, being seated on or near the floor is often the best way to improve performance in this venue. These options do not include legs or swivels, and are simply to be positioned on the floor and rocked in one forward/backward motion only.
Generally, they have an L-shaped design with extremely well-padded headrests and backrests, giving you what I’d describe as a more luxurious and cloud like sensation when you’re seated.
You can choose from a basic rocker chair option, or opt for an advanced structure, which we include below in our curated list of dealers.
A rocker gaming chair can be customized to suit a variety of gaming needs, and it can be adjusted according to your optimal settings for recline and tilt.
One thing a rocker gaming chair will not do, though, is give you optimal sitting support, and if you have lower spine issues, and can increase pressure on this area since you are distributing weight beyond the scope of your rear end.
Our Recommendations For Best Gaming Chairs 2021
The GoPlus Gaming Chair: 249 Ratings, 4.7 Stars
Ergonomic design with detachable lumbar and head cushion, advanced foam cushion technology.
High loadbearing capacity, steel superstructure.
Lumbar massage feature.
Durable and smooth caster system.
Breathable mesh polyurethane fabric covering.
$154.99 with free Amazon Prime shipping.
Four color schemes
Rocking function, 360 rotation, extreme recline
The Brazen Stage Bluetooth Pedestal Gaming Chair: 874 Ratings, 4.5 Stars
Features 2.1 Surround Sound speakers with built-in subwoofer. Bluetooth or hardwire. Total multi-media pedestal style chair.
Can be connected to almost any device with an audio out such as PS4, PS3, Wii, Xbox One, Xbox 360, TVs, and more
Memory foam and premium high density foam chassis.
2 Year warranty and 100% satisfaction guarantee.
Free Amazon Prime shipping.
Just $212.35 with free return shipping if you don’t love it.
X Rocker Pro Series H3 Black Leather Vibrating Floor Video Gaming Chair with Headrest: 2,267 ratings with 4.5 stars
ALL PURPOSE GAMING CHAIR: Leather lounging game chair can be used for playing video games, watching movies and TV, listening to music, reading, and relaxing.
COMPLETE MEDIA EXPERIENCE: Chair incorporates four forward facing speakers, audio force modulation technology, and ported power subwoofers into the open space inside the chair for full immersion in your game, movie, or music.
ADDITIONAL VIBRATION MOTORS: The Pro Series H3 includes additional vibration motors that sync with your audio’s bass tones to create an even more powerful full-body sensation keeping you comfortable and entertained for hours.
COMPATIBILITY: Compatible with Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Wii, MP3s, DVDs and most other gaming systems. Weight capacity 275 lbs.
CONNECTS WITH MULTIPLE CHAIRS: Control panel includes separate volume and bass controls, and input and output jacks for connecting to your audio source so other X-Rocker chairs can join in multi-game mode.
Super high tech and just $249.99 with Amazon Prime free shipping.