The best gaming chairs 2023

The Secretlab Titan Evo (2022) is the combination of Secretlab’s previous Titan and Omega lines, bringing the best design elements from the two together in one neat package, sprinkled with new design elements not seen on any other gaming chair.

The Secretlab Titan Evo forgoes the traditional bucket seat design employed by many gaming chairs, with a new pebble seat design with a smoother incline than previous Secretlab models that helps guide your body to the middle of the chair for maximum support.

It’s clad in either Neo Hybrid faux leather or SoftWeave fabric, depending on your style, with various colour options available for both materials.  The seat itself is available in XS, R and XL to suit just about every body type too.

Beneath the material you’ll find Secretlab’s signature cold-cure memory foam, arguably some of the best you’ll find in a gaming chair. It’s supportive without being too firm, slowly moulding to the shape of your body as you sit, with no noticeably thin areas anywhere on the chair. 

It offers height adjustment, 85-165 degree recline, rocking and 4D adjustable armrests with metal buttons that add to the premium feel of the chair.

Those 4D armrest cushions, along with the soft memory foam head pillow and other elements of the chair, are armed with magnets – a first in the gaming chair industry. This makes setup easier, with fewer small screws to fiddle with, and allows you to swap out the armrest cushioning when the first signs of wear and tear appear. 

The integrated adjustable lumbar support is back, so no need for those annoying lumbar pillows. The mechanism is built directly into the backrest of the chair, and a simple turn of the knob on the side of the chair provides granular control over the level of support you feel, while a second dial lets you adjust the height of the lumbar support too. 

The only real downside to the Secretlab Titan Evo (2022) is its price, coming in at around £77/$150 more expensive than the previous Titan. It’s still worth the money, but it’ll likely push some towards cheaper options in our chart. 

The UK-manufactured Edge GX1 is a unique entry in our chart. Rather than sporting the racing chair-esque design of most other gaming chairs, the GX1 offers a bespoke design with parts not found on any other product on the market.

The Edge GX1 was designed with comfort in mind, and with comfort comes customisation. As well as offering standard seat adjustments like 4D armrests and adjustable seat height, the GX1 offers the ability to adjust the seat depth by up to 65mm and independently adjust the backrest height with a simple lift. This is combined with a memory foam-moulded seat base designed to relieve pressure on the tailbone to provide the highest level of comfort possible.

There’s also a unique asynchronous gravity-driven tilt mechanism that allows gamers to frequently change position without the need to use controls. You can go from leaning back to sitting forward in a single motion while still feeling supported – and it’s a game changer for those that work and play on a single PC. You’ll also find an inflatable lumbar support built into the backrest, pumped via a handpump tucked into the base of the bottom of the chair.

Even the material is unique; the GX1 is covered in a material made from a combination of polyurethane, polyester, and cotton. As well as being soft to the touch, the material stays cool in the summer and warm in the winter, and the high breathability of the material means you can wave goodbye to sticky backs during intense gaming sessions.

In terms of comfort and support, the Edge GX1 is unbeaten, but it’s not the perfect gaming chair – not yet, anyway. The various levers you use to adjust the seat are missing labels, making the process of adjusting the chair a confusing and tiresome process – especially with a setup so radically different to others in our chart.

The difference between gaming and office chairs is often hard to discern, so if you’re after a quality chair you can use to work in your home office as well as some after-hours gaming, the Icon should appeal.

The style is inspired by luxury sports car interiors, says Noblechairs, and it’s certainly much more refined than others here. There’s less obvious branding which, along with the absence of unnecessary openings for a racing harness, makes it suitable for the more mature gamer.

To this end, the colour option (for the synthetic leather models) applies only to the stitching, and you can opt for black stitching if you prefer.

The 1.5mm PU fabric is thicker than you’ll find on most chairs, though the Icon is proportionally more expensive for it. The TX fabric option is the same price, but oozes quality, while there are synthetic and real leather options too.

The Icon’s internal steel frame is 2mm thick, whereas most rivals use 1-1.5mm. As with the Epic, the foam is cold cured and not recycled. The 55 percent density may feel initially hard, but this also means it retains its shape and doesn’t sag after months (or years) of use.

So if you want a comfortable chair for working as well as gaming, this is certainly one of the best we’ve seen yet.

British firm Dualhawk is the latest player to enter the gaming chair market, and it has come out swinging with the high-end Dualhawk Ultra – a direct competitor to premium chairs from the likes of Secretlab and Noblechairs.

Available in three finishes – black PU leather, or fabric in either light or dark grey – the design is understated. Yes, it still sports the typical bucket chair seat design, but the minimalist blue accents aren’t too in-your-face compared to bright chairs like the Nitro Concepts S300. 

The dense, firm foam found beneath the material isn’t quite as mouldable as some memory foam alternatives, and you won’t quite sink into the chair over time, but that’s actually better for back support. 

The chair is designed to be a one-size-fits-all affair, with the Ultra able to support anyone from 5’3″ to 6’3″ and up to 135kg.

Customisability is another strength, offering a wide 85-175 degree tilt, adjustable height, and 4D armrests that are smooth, subtly contoured, and wide enough to comfortably rest on. 

Lumbar support is a particularly strong point with the Nighthawk Ultra. It’s ditched the traditional back pillow for a more intricate built-in lumbar support system, with a crank on the side to adjust the level of support. 

It is quite pricy, coming in at a more premium price point than the Secretlab Titan Evo without the more advanced lumbar support and magnetic connectivity, but it’s still a great quality high-end gaming chair. 

Germany-based Noblechairs offers our favourite vegan leather finish around. It looks and feels (but does not smell) like napa leather and thanks to micro-pores, it has great air and water permeability which means you don’t feel hot or sweaty after long gaming sessions.

Underneath the black covers is cold foam which noticeably firmer than on most chairs, and some might find it a little hard. However, it is very durable and does ‘wear in’ like a pair of shoes.

The Epic is, like the Secretlab Titan, a large chair that’s best suited to taller gamers. The seat base is wide and accommodating, while the gas strut raises the chair nice and high. At its minimum setting, it’s around 50cm from the floor, meaning you may want to use a footrest if you’re shorter than around 5ft7.

In addition to height adjustment, the Epic also tilts back up to 140 degrees and has a lever to lock it in position. The Black Edition’s new 4D armrests have metal buttons and softer padding (though still firm). They’re more customisable than most with height, sideways and forward-backwards adjustments. They also swivel in and out.

Where cheaper chairs use plastic, the Epic has a metal base and quiet 60mm castors.

Unfortunately, lumbar support is provided by a pillow which is likely too thick to be much use: we prefer the in-built, automotive-style adjustment in the Hero chair (and in Secretlab’s Titan Evo).

Available in either black and red or all-black (which we tested), the Dark Demon is a bucket gaming chair that could pass in an office environment. 

Sporting a bucket seat design with a thick lower cushion and wing support on either side, AndaSeat utilised its car seat experience designing the Dark Demon. Coming in at size L, the Dark Demon is recommended for those up to 6ft6in and up to 170kg. 

When it comes to materials, the chair is clad in durable synthetic PVC leather, with a layer of memory foam to keep you comfortable. Although the plastic fittings do let the overall build down, there’s a reassuring steel framework and a five-legged aluminium base to keep you sturdy during your gaming sessions. 

As you’d expect from a gaming chair, the Dark Demon is customisable, not only in terms of its seat recline, but height adjustment, 4D armrests and lumbar support (in the form of pillows), but one area where it’s not quite up to scratch is in the tilt department; when in an upright position, it’s almost impossible to rock. It’s only when you recline – nearly to a horizontal level – that the tilt becomes more noticeable.

The Dark Demon has three things going for it: the muted design, the price, and its ability to cater for larger gamers – although not quite to the extent of some other chairs in this chart.

The Mavix M7 is a unique entry in the gaming chair market from a relatively new player in the game. It has a totally different design to any other gaming chairs featured here, perfect if you’re not a fan of the generic bucket seat-style gaming chair or if you want something that won’t draw too much attention in an open-plan office.

Its focus on supporting the curves of the spine provides a superbly comfortable experience, further enhanced by the dynamic lumbar support that moves with your body. That’s down in part to just how adjustable the chair is, with users able to tweak everything including the headrest, armrests, seat depth, chair recline, recline tension, lumbar support and backrest height.

The latter is a little finicky, relying on you lifting the backrest yourself, with clicky feedback noises to let you know that it’s locked into one of four preset heights. The fifth acts as a reset, taking you back to the bottom. The issue is that it’s difficult to adjust the height without accidentally hitting the reset notch, and we found it’d also reset occasionally when trying to move the chair holding the backrest.

The armrests, while able to go forwards, backwards, left, right, up and down, don’t lock into place like other premium options in the chart, making it easy to knock them out of place as you get up out of the chair.

Small issues aside, it’s a phenomenal breathable mesh gaming chair that’ll keep you cool in the summer months – it’s just very expensive compared to most options in our chart.

The first thing you’ll notice about the S300 is how flexible it is: it’s available in seven colours, with a choice of leather or fabric, and the embroidery will even match the strips on the chair’s base. It’s the little details that make the S300 shine.

Beneath the upholstery you’ll find moulded cold foam, which is softer, more breathable and should be much more durable than the foam scraps used in budget gaming chairs from the likes of Amazon.

The S300 offers 130mm of height adjustment along with 14 degrees of rocking, allowing you to rock gently in the chair using your body weight. It can also recline to 135 degrees, providing an easy way to have a quick nap during lengthy gaming sessions.

It features 3D armrests that, as the name suggests, allows them to be moved in three directions – up and down, forwards and backwards and inwards and outwards. While it allows you to find the perfect position for your setup, the arms don’t lock into place and will often slide forwards/backwards with a bit of pressure from leaning.

It comes with two ergonomic supporting cushions for the neck and lumbar regions, but we found the chair to be much more comfortable without the latter.

Overall build quality is decent, although the arm rests do rattle a bit when knocked. Oh, and beware of the white colour option as, being fabric, it’ll get dirty fairly quickly.

Vertagear’s PL4800 is a gaming chair built for people 5ft 9in (1.75m) and over, for whom it’s a great option.

Undoubtedly its most impressive feature is the custom HygennX fabric, which does a great job of preventing build-up of heat, moisture or strong smells. It combines with PU leather, UPHR foam and memory foam for a comfortable, supportive experience.

The adaptive lumbar support is another key feature, but it won’t be right for everyone. If you’d rather adjust its position manually, the PL4800 isn’t for you.

Combined with expensive RGB light add-ons and an already high price tag, this gaming chair will only be right for a specific type of person. If that’s you, this will be hard to beat.

The ADX Race19 chair aims to provide an authentic gaming experience without breaking the bank.

Perhaps understandable given the name, the design is reminiscent of what you might find behind the wheel of a sports car. In particular, the patterned fabric and eye-catching orange trim really help it to stand out.

However, comfort is still very much a priority, with the PU leather and moulded foam design providing plenty of support. While more expensive chairs might provide a slightly more luxurious experience, we had no problem using the ADX Race19 for extended periods of time.

However, while it can support users up to 130kg, height might be more of a restriction. Some of the taller members of our team found the back slightly too short for their frame. The detachable neck rest became more of an upper back support, but it is easy to excuse at this price point.

It also includes adjustable levers for height and tilt, as well as the ability to rotate 360 degrees.