Are Gaming Chairs Worth It? Myths & Truths | Ergonomics & Problems | Gaming and Office Chair Comparison

Are gaming chairs worth it? I think that if you are a hardcore gamer and spend more than 3 hours sitting in your chair, it would be wise to invest in this kind of furniture. Why? While no gaming chair is able to make your computer more powerful or make you more skilled in gaming, a good one can definitely help you achieve your gaming goals.

An ergonomic chair with padding, lumbar support, adjustable armrests, neck, and back support reduces the amount of stress on your body during hours-long gaming. Not only will you keep playing for longer, but you will also do it more efficiently. It is pretty obvious that how we feel physically affects our mood, reaction speed, and other abilities that eventually determine the result of a game. That is why a good gaming chair is worth buying.

Indeed, a lot of myths surround gaming chairs and part of them have been created by manufacturers themselves. They do it to boost sales and that is no surprise — we live in an era of marketing. Long story short, there are two most common myths that I am going to bust below. First, no gaming chair will improve your gaming ability, even the most feature-packed one. Secondly, buying from a well-advertised brand does not guarantee quality.

To ensure that you purchase a true gaming chair, you should look for specific features, such as padding, adjustable armrests, back and neck support, etc. For more details, read the article below. But without further ado, here is my personal attitude: yes, there is plenty of myths, but I have learned from my own experience that a decent ergonomic chair is worth spending a couple of hundred bucks.

Ergonomics and Useful Features of Gaming Chairs

A great gaming chair is, at least in theory, an ergonomically-sound chair. The common wisdom states that the chair should be designed in such a way that it causes a minimal amount of stress on your back and joints as you settle in for long play sessions, minimizing the possible complications to your health as you enjoy your various games.

As such, the best chairs out there — the Secretlab or the Noblechairs Hero, for example — are those chairs that are going to offer you the proper amount of support.

Beyond strict ergonomics are also those features that prioritize comfort. There's not a chair out there that doesn't start to get a bit uncomfortable after a sustained session of play, but great gaming chairs keep the experience comfortable for longer.

Whether this is through features like memory foam padding, lumbar support or even neck rests, the goal is to ensure that the player can keep playing without becoming irritated by the chair itself. As such, most of the best chairs on the market try to push for a balance between physical safety and creature comforts in a way that makes them truly stand out from the rest of the pack.

Truth and Myths About Gaming Chairs

There are plenty of myths surrounding gaming chairs, and it's probably best to dismiss them as quickly as possible if you're actually in the market for a new chair. No, these chairs absolutely won't improve your gaming abilities, they don't offer any kind of real competitive edge, and the vast majority aren't even going to have an impact on your experience beyond reducing your lower back pain and keeping your backside comfortable as you sit down to play.

The most insidious myth, though, is that getting a chair from a particular brand is a guarantee of quality. In truth, what you want to look for is the list of features and the build quality before you ever think about the branding. There are a handful of companies that produce what's essentially the same chair at different price points, with the only real difference being the logo on the back. Your goal as a shopper should be to figure out what makes an individual chair different beyond the name on the box.

The truth about good gaming chairs is that ergonomically sound office chairs are typically marketed toward gamers. Most of them have more in common with high-end office chairs than anything you'd find in a video game store, and the best models generally take a number of notes from the business world. If you want to find the right chair, you need to pay more attention to the feature list that's important to you than anything else.

What Brands of Gaming Chairs Are Worth Buying? | Comparison of Ergonomic Features, Comfort Level, and Customization

Below, you will find my comparison of the four most popular gaming chairs on the market. These are ergonomic and adjustable chairs with neck support and armrests. While some of them have the ability to fully recline, others come with built-in speakers and even a built-in cup rest.

In my assessment, AKRacing Masters Series Pro Luxury XL Gaming Chair is the best choice.

As gaming enthusiasts get deeper into their hobby of choice, there can seem to be an almost infinite supply of pricey accessories around. If you've consumed any form of gaming media, you have doubtlessly seen ads for pricey gaming chairs. What's less clear, though, is whether these chairs are actually worth the price. Making that decision means taking a look at what they're meant to do and how they really work.

1. AKRacing Masters Series | Review

If you were to conjure an image of a professional gaming chair, you'd probably come up with something that's rather close to the AKRacing Masters Series Pro. Clearly influenced by the world of race cars, it's undoubtedly a pretty piece of work that makes some fairly strong boasts about its level of comfort. This isn't just a chair - it's a device that's meant to keep you as comfortable as possible while you're playing the game that you love the most.

Aesthetics aside, this chair does hit a lot of the right notes. It is incredibly adjustable, with the ability to almost fully recline the chair and a number of different ways to adjust the lumbar support, neck support, and armrests. It's perfectly suitable for gamers of all sizes and the chair seems to be well-engineered. If you're looking at the features list alone, you're going to find everything that you'd want.

The downside to this chair is that there's a lot of smoke and mirrors when it comes to the actual ergonomics of the design. It certainly looks quite nice, but some issues with how the chair is adjusted and how the neck pillow sits mean that it doesn't quite live up to the hype. It's not a bad chair by any means, but it's a chair that has some very real shortcomings.

AKRacing: Check the current price

2. X Rocker Pro Series Vibrating Video Gaming Chair

The X Rocker Pro Series is the type of gaming chair that you likely saw as a kid, scaled up to an adult level. This isn't necessarily a chair that's about the ergonomics of gaming insomuch as it is about making an attempt to add something unique to the experience. While most gaming chairs try to work to keep your body happy as you're playing, this chair seeks to put you more directly in the game.

The feature list here is impressive, with a lot of work clearly gone into making this a cool piece of technology. The built-in speakers make players feel like they're closer to the action, while the vibration motors add a sense of immersion to almost any game. There are also some small nods towards ergonomic design principles here, with a good headrest and some minor lumbar support.

This one differs from a lot of models by being an entertainment-first model. You can't quite customize this one to your body shape like you can so many others, nor are there the little ergonomic touches that will keep you from experiencing back or neck pain if you have extended play sessions. This is a chair that's meant to make you part of the game, not necessarily one that's meant to take care of you during marathon gaming sessions.

X Rocker: Check the current price

3. DXRacer Racing Series 

This is the kind of chair that you get when you strip away all of the extras from a gaming chair. That doesn't mean that this is a bad chair by any means, though - it's simply one of the simpler gaming chairs on the market today. There's not a lot of bells and whistles here - instead, there's the kind of solid construction that you would want from something in which you are going to spend a lot of time. The price point is still high compared to a standard office chair, but it comfortably sits in the mid-range of a dedicated gaming chair.

Like the chair from AKRacing, the DXRacer takes a lot of its design cues from the world of racing. But unlike that chair, it embraces a certain level of design simplicity. It is certainly quite flexible and adjustable, but there's not a lot here that feels like it's an 'extra'. If you were going to design a gaming chair from the ground up without worrying about things like marketing buzzwords or even extra accessories, this feels like the kind of chair that most people would design.

That isn't, however, to say that this chair is perfect. Some of those extras are nice to have, and this chair does lack some of the comfort factor that you would get from a more expensive gaming chair. This is a chair that feels ergonomically on point, but even the race-inspired design doesn't quite bring the 'cool' factor that's needed to really set it apart from the rest of the market.

DXRacer: Check the current price

4. Racing Style Gaming Recliner

If the chair from DXRacer is all about function, this one is all about comfort. This isn't a chair that you would expect to see in an office or even on the stage at a major gaming competition. It is, however, a chair that you'd expect to see in someone's media room. Everything about the chair seems like it was designed with relaxation in mind, eschewing some of the more common design features in order to really push the level of comfort off the charts.

This seat is a recliner. Designed to allow players to fully relax while still enjoying their favorite games, it's the kind of chair that's got a built-in cup-rest but a removable headrest. Really designed with console gaming in mind, it's got a spot to store controllers, a single continuous surface to ensure that cords don't get tangled up, and the type of design that's perfect for sitting back and playing on the big screen.

The shortcoming here is, of course, that there's not a lot of ergonomic design work done here. Playing in a recliner can be fun, but it's more likely to result in neck and back pain after a long session. That doesn't make it a bad choice by any means, but it does make it less attractive to those players who are looking for something that will help them to avoid those problems. If you're looking for simple comfort, though, there's still a lot to love here.

RESPAWN: Check the current price