The best gaming chair offers the best ergonomics and build quality. Everything else comes second. Luckily, the best gaming chairs today look totally awesome, so you’re not at a loss for comfort or customisation. Getting a chair that meets all of of those requirements can cost a fair wad of cash, however, so it’s important to spend your money wisely.
A good chair might set you back a bit, but it’ll be a great investment in terms of its ergonomic benefits. Your body is a delicate fleshy meatbag that needs some care, and today the best gaming chair is the Secretlab Titan Evo. It’s a combination of Secretlab’s previous chairs, and takes the best from both.
Gaming chairs come in all shapes and sizes: racing car seats, thrones covered in satanic runes, and even gaming chairs that fly the banner of your favorite superhero. For a more reserved option, we’ve made sure to include some low-key yet stylish office chairs such as the Herman Miller X Logitech G Embody. It offers the support you want out of a gaming chair, without all the gamery aesthetics—though all for the money of an actual gaming PC.
We’ve tested dozens of gaming chairs from the most reliable companies out there today, and every single chair in this guide has passed under our collective butts. And while you could always go the cheap office chair route instead, we feel it’s worth investing in your ergonomics. Go on, treat your posterior to something special—your body will thank you.
The quick list
The best chair overall
The Secretlab Titan is the benchmark by which we judge all other gaming chairs. To earn that role it ticked all the boxes you could ask of gaming furniture: it’s comfy, supportive, and importantly looks great too.
Best affordable chair
The insanely comfy T3 Rush has a memory foam lumbar pillow and features a breathable fabric finish. Looking more expensive than it is, it’s ideal for you if you have a smaller frame – it good be too narrow for you otherwise.
The best office chair
A brilliant option if you’re after something more traditional-looking, the NeueChair’s mesh design keeps you cool for long periods and offers elite build quality.
The best luxury chair
The Herman Miller Embody oozes premium- you’d expect nothing less at this price. With superb comfort and a warranty spanning over a decade, it’s absolutely the chair of choice if you’re willing to invest in ergonomics.
The best for back support
If you need supreme lumbar support, Noblechairs has your back. Fully adjustable for your unique skeleton, it’s easy to make it yours and justify the price tag.
The best for larger frames
Coming in two sizes – L and XL – the Kaiser 3 is the best gaming chair for anyone who finds most chairs too tight or too flimsy. It’s big, it’s solid, it’s comfortable – it’s genuinely amazing.
The best gaming chairs 2023
The best gaming chair overall
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The Secretlab Titan is the benchmark by which we judge all other gaming chairs. To earn that role it ticked all the boxes you could ask of gaming furniture: it’s comfy, supportive, and importantly looks great too. None of that has changed with the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022, either, which is the latest chair out of the Secretlab lot (ignore its dated name in 2023).
Rather than tread old ground, let’s get right into the good stuff. Secretlab is posing the Titan Evo to a wide audience, with three available sizes: small, regular, and extra large. The benefit of this being you’ll no longer need to look to a different model of chair to find the right fit—the Titan Evo should cover most bases.
Secretlab has added a minor curve to the seat base that it says is to keep you in a healthy sitting posture. It’s kind of hard to say whether such a gentle curvature is really doing much to keep me locked securely in place throughout the day, though the seat is plenty comfortable all the same with plenty of foam padding.
User-friendly ergonomics make the Titan Evo a great fit for long nights gaming or eight hours tapping away for work, and that comes down to its superb built-in back support. It’s highly adjustable, which means you can nail down a great fit with ease. There’s also something to be said for the 4D armrests and head cushion, both of which are magnetic.
You read that right, a magnetic head cushion. A simple solution to fiddly straps, the Titan Evo does away with all that with a couple of powerful magnets.
You can actually tweak the Titan Evo’s lumbar support while you’re still sat on it.
A big part of the Titan Evo’s high level of comfort is the adjustable lumbar support. It works by extending and retracting an internal support both in and out and up and down, through the use of the two dials on the side. So not only are you not relying on an awkward pillow to prop up your back, you can actually tweak the Titan Evo’s lumbar support while you’re still sat on it. This makes it exceptionally easy to get just right.
The chair is also upholstered immaculately. While there’s still something to be said for the SoftWeave Plus fabric that Secretlab also offers (we tested the hybrid leatherette version), I have to say I’m quite taken with the look of the leatherette, and especially the bright red stitching.
I’ll have to get back to you on actual durability when I’ve had longer with the chair, perhaps when the Titan Evo 2024 comes out I can tell you if it truly stands the test of time. Still, I can note how surprisingly airy and cool the leatherette fabric feels over the course of a day.
As an amalgamation of both of Secretlab’s previous gaming chair models, the Titan and Omega, the Secretlab Titan Evo feels the better of both in every regard. What each chair has done so well, the Titan Evo manages to equal or better. It is slightly pricier than its predecessors at $449 ($499 for the XL model), but I feel that the upgrades it delivers are genuinely worth the higher price tag.
Read our full Secretlab Titan Evo review.
Best gaming keyboard | Best VR headset | Best mechanical keyboard| Best wireless gaming mouse | Best wireless gaming keyboard
The best affordable gaming chair
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Corsair’s latest addition to its lineup of premium gaming chairs, the T3 Rush, has gotten a much-needed facelift. The T3 Rush is an insanely comfy chair thanks to its memory foam lumbar pillow but, more importantly, uses a breathable soft fabric in place of faux leather. This is because it retains less heat, keeping you fresh and comfy instead of sweating in your squeaky pleather.
I don’t have the heart to try it, but my main concern about a fabric gaming chair is how easy it cleans stains compared to leather and faux leather? So, it’s something to consider if you’re a notorious eater of foods and a spiller of liquids at your desk.
Appearance-wise, the Rush leans more towards office-chic than a professional gamer. It comes in gray or black and avoids outrageous design choices that might look a little embarrassing on a work call. It’s a chair that looks more expensive ($300) than it is. If you were looking for a little more personality, DX Racer and Secret Labs have many designs and colors if you’re tired of black or gray.
The Rush also reclines to a ridiculous 180 degrees if you want to lie back and take a comfy cat nap before taking on another marathon streaming session of Apex Legends or CS: GO.
The only major downside of the T3 Rush is for smaller-framed users. If you require a smaller seat, the T3 will be an uncomfortably tight fit. So, if you’re over 6 ft tall or larger than 200lbs, you’ll need to look elsewhere unless you’re buying this for a kid. However, the lack of any fun colors might turn them off.
The best office chair for gaming
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If you’re the sort of person who prioritizes functionality over flash, the NeueChair is an excellent option. This isn’t to say it’s not stylish—quite the opposite; the NeueChair comes in a sleek, muted obsidian or flashy chrome/silver, both with bold, sweet curved supports on the back and an attractive black mesh.
But, more importantly, the NeueChair is built to last, with a heavy, sturdy industrial construction. Even the chair’s weight in the packaging indicates a solid piece of carefully constructed industrial art: it’s heavy and substantial.
Assembling it is a breeze, as it comes in two discrete pieces and is simply a matter of inserting the casters and then pushing the two parts together. Almost every aspect of the seat is adjustable, from the armrests to the lumbar support system that lets you change the height depth of the backrest.
It’s one of the best office chairs I’ve ever had the pleasure to sit in, and if you can afford the admittedly steep price tag, well worth the investment.
The best high end gaming chair
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Perhaps you’ve heard of the Herman Miller Embody. It occupied a top position in our best office chair roundup for a long time, but that has come to an end. Not for lack of comfort or acclaim, simply because the famed chair manufacturer has partnered up with Logitech to create something tailor-made to our gaming rumps.
For the most part, the Herman Miller x Logitech G Embody actually isn’t a complete departure from the Embody of old. A tried, tested, and widely recognized design, the gaming Embody comes in a new black and blue colorway, with plain black also available if you’re going for a more sober/edgelord look. There’s also a small Logitech G brand toggle on the rear, that doesn’t serve any purpose that I know of and a Logitech G logo across the upper band of the backrest.
I’m not sure the Logitech collab is bringing a lot to the party, but the branding is notably light touch next to the racing style gaming chairs that we’re used to as PC gamers, and it feels classy as a result.
It’s not so much the changes that make the Embody stand out as one of the best gaming chairs going. It’s what’s been kept the same. The tried and tested Embody design is simply one of the best chairs for office work or gaming. It’s incredibly comfortable over prolonged use, supports an active and healthy posture, and is easily fitted to your frame.
The chair was fully assembled so there was no fussing with screws or throwaway tools.
Yet I wasn’t sure what to expect of the Embody before it arrived. I certainly hadn’t envisioned such a massive box turning up on my doorstep. First impressions, then, entirely focused on how I was going to get said box up two flights of narrow steps leading up to my apartment.
That massive box hides what is perhaps one of the Herman Miller’s best features. After deciding that I had to cut the chair out of the box with a knife in my hallway, I discovered the chair was fully assembled so there was no fussing with screws or throwaway tools, which is something of a pet peeve of mine. (I’m amassing third-rate Allen keys from cheap flatpack furniture and I can’t help but feel there’s got to be a better way.)
The most immediately noticeable trait of this chair: You can sit in it all day and not feel a moment of discomfort beneath your tush. You may shift around your top half into all sorts of absolutely not ergonomic positions during the day but your bottom half tends to stay stuck in place at a desk, so it’s important to get that just right. Thankfully, the Embody does.
The warranty, too, is a standout feature. At 12 years, including labor, and rated for 24-hour use over that time, it’s a chair that is guaranteed to last you over a decade, if not longer. So while the initial price tag may seem steep, and that it is, the reality is you’re certain to get your money’s worth in the long run. And your back will be thankful for it, too.
Read our full Herman Miller Logitech G Embody review.
The best gaming chair for back support
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When buying a gaming chair, it’s easy to forget your health. After all, most are advertised as luxurious, cushioned thrones that soothe your every ache as you smash the crap out of your foes in Apex Legends. But that isn’t true, and for some, it’s important to pick a chair that takes back support seriously.
With some of the team having used it daily for almost a year, we can thoroughly recommend the Noblechairs Hero in uPVC leather. While not the most exciting of chairs, or the sportiest, it certainly does a good job of taking care of your back.
The Hero is easy to assemble, except for the bit where you attach the back to the seat, so make sure you have a buddy for that. It’s firm and supportive, and extremely sturdy. As a word of warning: it is substantial, so if you prefer a softer chair that isn’t as good for your lumbar, this maybe isn’t for you.
The sheer presence of the Hero gaming chair is staggering.
Honestly, the sheer presence of the Hero gaming chair is staggering. The seat’s cold-cure pressed foam means it’s firm yet comfortable. You don’t sink right into it, which helps with posture, and it will soften over time, but it certainly complements the aesthetic (hard look = brutal). But that base support means it’s still good for long gaming sessions—or working from home in your heathen temple. Either way, what it lacks in softness, it makes up for in support.
I love the pivoting armrests, so you can jimmy them out of the way when you want to use a gamepad, and they’re fully height and width adjustable too, which is great for us little people. Also having such a wide armrest is great, but I find myself leaning on the corner a lot, not making full use of them, and at the same time tiring my elbow out. I’d personally prefer padded armrests, but at least they don’t get sticky or slippery when you’re attempting to flex on your favorite horror FPS franchise.
The chair is height adjustable (as should all chairs be), and the backrest has a ‘rake mechanism’ so you can adjust the angle with its handbrake lookin’ contraption, and a completely independent ‘lock tilt’ mechanism so you can rock freely, or lock yourself almost horizontally for a good nap if all that hardcore gaming has tired you out. It also doesn’t spring forward and crushes you when unlocked, which is always nice.
Read our full Noblechairs Hero Doom Edition review.
The best gaming chair for a larger frame
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The Kaiser 3 XL is a fantastic chair for anyone looking for a little more wiggle room than your usual gaming seat. The Kaiser 3 comes in two sizes: large and extra large. The large accommodate gamers 4’11 to 6’2’’ (150-190cm) and the extra large is for gamers 5’11” to 6’9” (181-210cm). The one I have the pleasure of experiencing is an extra large.
The width of the extra large is for medium to XXXL, so whether you have a gluteus maximus or a gluteus minimus this chair will fit.
The Kaiser 3 is really into giving options. This chair is available in two types of materials, premium PVC leather and linen fabric. The premium leather comes in seven different colors, including orange, pink and blue. The linen fabric comes in two colors; carbon black and ash gray. The chair I’ve been testing is the premium PVC leather elegant black which resembles the Jungle 2. The Jungle 2 is seen with orange accents.
All of these things are cool, right? It’s great that the Kaiser 3 reclines to 165 degrees, it has two levers, one controls the tilt, the other controls the height of the chair raising it about three inches. These things are all great for comfort.
The armrests are magnetic and are made of a PU foam that makes them easy to lean on.
What I really want to get into is the Kaiser 3’s really cool features that add to maximum comfort like the 4D armrests. Much like the Secretlab Titan Evo chair we love, the armrests are magnetic and are made of a PU foam that makes them easy to lean on. There are three buttons on the armrest, the one placed on the outside of the armrest controls the height of it. The button on the inside of the chair near the tip of the armrest allows it to go forward and backward and pivot left to right. The last one located underneath the armrest moves it left to right.
I love a 4D armrest, especially when the chair reclines backward and tilts forward because it allows me to adjust the armrest for the position I’m sitting in. Nothing makes me more nervous than dangling elbows. It’s like leaving your foot hanging off the bed at night.
You just know something is going to grab it.
Continuing with the magnetic theme is the neck pillow, another stellar feature. This one is a game changer, I can’t even lie. I am amazed at this magnetic neck pillow. That means no straps, no struggling to clip it through the backrest. BAM! Slap that baby on the chair like you’re in a Flex Tape commercial and it stays. Beyond it being a really cool feature, its helpful if you are shorter than the 5’11” that’s recommended for this chair because it’s easily adjustable further up or down on the chair.
It being magnetic doesn’t take away from its comfort, either. The neck pillow is made with memory foam and has cooling technology to maintain comfort.
Notice anything missing? Maybe a lumbar support pillow. That’s the cool thing! There is no lumbar support pillow, but there is lumbar support—it’s built into the chair. And controlled by two knobs placed on the left and right sides of the chair.
As far as accessibility goes, they’re not placed in the best positions. But the knob on the left controls the lumbar support moving up and down. Which is, again, a great function depending on your height. The knob on the right side of the chair determines the firmness of the lumbar support and how much it protrudes out of the chair. When I turn the knob toward me I get more lumbar support. The lumbar support recedes into the chair when I turn it away from me. Neat.
Seriously, I can sit in this all day. Plus there’s a feature being released in June, a magnetic tray table panel that snaps into the armrest. A portable desk sounds dope, well a lot more dope than a gaming high chair, which it also looks like.
Read our full Andaseat Kaiser 3 XL review.
How we test gaming chairs
Let’s face it, we spend a lot of time here at PC Gamer sitting on our butts. And that makes us perfect candidates for testing gaming chairs. We will dedicate a significant amount of time to parking our posteriors in a variety of gaming and office chairs when it comes to testing them out, because it’s only really by using a chair over an extended period that you get to know where it supports you and where it might be lacking.
So, we’ll use each of the gaming chairs we test as our main working seat for the time that we are testing a chair. That way we can get a feel for what it would be like to actually live with a particular piece of gaming furniture, as we would if we’d purchased it ourselves.
It also means that we can test the longevity of things like the different levers and controls over time, too. We’ve had issues where some cheaper brands had plastic levers that just wouldn’t last.
The subjective sitting experience is the most important factor when we test gaming chairs, but the actual build experience is important, too. We don’t want to have a chair that tries to take a bite out of us when we come to install the back rest, or has poorly machined screw holes that don’t line up.
And value is key to us as well. A chair doesn’t have to be cheap, but so long as it feels like it’s worth the money you’re being expected to pay then it has value.
Best gaming chairs FAQ
Are gaming chairs actually bad?
Between recent articles about the effects of sitting down on your body and our experimentation with standing desks, you might think PC Gamer has fallen out of love with the humble chair.
That could not be further from the truth.
As gamers and office workers, we spend a significant chunk of each day sitting on our money makers in front of screens. Given that most of us don’t plan to change that anytime soon, it only makes sense to do so in a great chair. So that’s what I set out to find.
We wanted to find chairs that maximized comfort, support, and value. We spoke with Melissa Afterman, MS CPE, a Senior Principal Ergonomist with VSI Risk Management & Ergonomics, Inc., who specializes in workstation setups.
“Absolutely, chairs are still okay,” she told me. “Yes, we know that sitting too long is bad for you. The reality is that standing too long is just as bad for you, so the answer is movement. Taking breaks, getting up at least every hour and moving, or changing your position from standing to sitting every hour so that you’re not standing too long either.”
“If you’re typing and working at the computer, you really want more upright support so that you can maintain neutral spine posture and let the chair hold you up,” she said. “But when you switch to a gaming mode, you may want to recline a little bit to relax your lower back while still having good support in that position. So a locking backrest and/or some tension control is important.”
Another feature to look for, though it tends to be found on more expensive models, is a seat pan slider. This enables you to slide the positioning of your butt forwards or backward relative to the backrest.
Are gaming chairs really worth it?
The best gaming chairs will complete your PC setup, not just from an aesthetic point of view, but because you will likely be spending hours sat in front of your machine, they will give you the support needed to keep your spine healthy too.
Is a gaming chair better than an office chair?
Nope! You can find good or bad examples of both, and believe us there are plenty. That said, some office chairs are great for gaming and vice versa, and there are ‘office chairs’, like the Herman Miller Embody, that blend the line between both.
Really it’s about finding what’s right for you, and a lot of the time that’s a gaming chair because, let’s be honest, you like the look of it. That’s a perfectly good reason to make that decision, just make sure you’re not sacrificing comfort and ergonomics for style and flair.
A cheap office chair can be a great pick if you want to save cash and be comfy.
Are gaming chairs good for your posture?
The best gaming chairs look out for you and your back. When it comes to chair design, lumbar support is vital. The first thing you should look for in a new gaming chair is whether it has any built-in support to help your body maintain an ideal posture. Some even come with lumbar support pillows that work to some extent. Multi-adjustable arm-rests, upholstery, and general style are also important; note these features aren’t cheap.
That said, a gaming chair can’t do everything. The best gaming chairs encourage good posture, but the other half of the equation is on you to stick to it.
Does every gaming chair fit every body type?
Different chair models accommodate different heights and weights, so make sure to check your fit. Look at the width and depth of the seat, too. Some chairs claim that you should sit cross-legged, but that depends on your size and legs’ length.
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