The Most Essential Gaming Accessories in 2025

We've tested and reviewed the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless and have long stood behind it as our favorite gaming headset pick. This headset steps away from SteelSeries’ previous designs, opting for telescoping arms on the adjustable headband and slimmer earcups ready to accommodate all head shapes and sizes. A hot-swappable battery system ensures you’re never without charge – an essential feature of the best wireless gaming headsets. Connecting to your gaming PC and consoles is simple thanks to both a 2.4GHz dongle and Bluetooth, which you can use simultaneously.

The hybrid noise-canceling system does a great job of blocking out most distractions, though some of the best noise-canceling headphones are slightly more effective. Spatial audio support means you can hear where enemies may be lurking, and customizating the EQ settings and game chat mix with Sonar and the SteelSeries GG app only amplify the gaming experience.

In our review of the HyperX Quadcast S, we found it to be a stand-out microphone for gaming, even at its price. The Quadcast X is designed specifically with gaming in mind (the RGB lights that shine through the honeycomb body are a dead giveaway). But it's not just about the aesthetics: The build is solid and sturdy, with easy-to-reach controls for mute, mic gain, and pick-up patterns. It uses a USB-C connector, so even novices can get the hang of this mic quickly.

Perhaps most important is how you’ll sound, and the Quadcast S hits. It covers the range of human hearing, delivering warm, thick vocals. It has four pick-up patterns, so whether you’re streaming on Twitch using a cardioid polar pattern or doing interviews for your podcast with a bidirectional pattern, this mic can grab it all.

The Secretlab Titan Evo series has continued to earn top billing on our best gaming chair guide over the years, and the latest model, the Secretlab Titan Evo Nanogen, keeps with tradition. It looks quite similar to the previous model with its bucket-style design and bolstered backrest and seat, but the upgraded leatherette, seat cushions, and armrests make it an even better chair.

In IGN's review of the Secretlab Titan Evo Nanogen, Chris Coke found the material soft and comfortable, beating out the leatherette on every other gaming chair he’s tested. While durability couldn’t be fully tested during the review, the multi-layered leatherette should be more abrasion and stain-resistant, according to Secretlab.

Secretlab heard the criticisms about the seat’s firmness, so it now features a nanofoam layer for extra softness and cushioning while still providing proper support during marathon gaming sessions. Adding to the comfort are velour-wrapped PlushCell foam arm toppers to keep elbows from getting sore. The unique swappable magnetic armrest system is still in place, although you probably won’t want to swap out this ultra-plush option.

Beyond those upgrades, the Secretlab Titan Evo Nanogen still offers a superior build quality, a long, sturdy backrest with adjustable lumbar support, and a spacious seat to finagle your legs in whatever position you prefer. For even deeper relaxation, the Ergonomic Recliner add-on makes this racing-style seat conducive to napping. It’s easy to see why this chair received the coveted and rare 10/10 rating in our review. However, the class-leading design does come at a high premium.

If you’re looking for the best big and tall gaming chair, the Secretlab Titan Evo Nanogen also comes in an XL model.

An essential part of any PC battle station is a sturdy, secure place to rest all your expensive gear. That’s where a gaming desk comes into play. Secretlab’s Magnus Pro delivers everything you need in a desk, plus some unique extras to make it a standout.

IGN expert Mark Knapp reviewed the Magnus Pro, giving it high marks in large part thanks to its innovative magnetic ecosystem. With it, you can easily add accessories, like a desk-size mouse pad, magnetic cable anchors, cable sheaths, and fastening straps. However, keeping a tidy desk setup is already easy, as the desk features a hinged tray in the back that flips up to reveal all the power strips and cords. Making life even easier is an integrated power outlet right next to the cable tray that delivers up to 10 amps of power. Forget about climbing under the desk to make adjustments to cables.

The Secretlab Magnis Pro has a steel chassis and steel-wrapped tabletop. That makes it sturdy and durable, but extremely heavy. Still, the setup is straightforward and relatively easy. Like the best standing desks, height adjustability is built in, with motorized legs that quietly and smoothly raise or lower up to 265lbs. There’s even an under-desk computer mount to ensure cables don’t get snagged when changing the height.

Measuring 59.1 x 27.6 inches, Secretlab’s Magnis Pro tabletop isn’t huge, but should be plenty of space for a standard PC setup with a curved monitor. The only major downside is that the cable tray gets in the way of many third-party monitor arms. Plus, if you want to add some flair to the desk, the Nanoleaf-powered MAGRGB light strip will cost extra – luckily, the lighting bundle is often discounted.

No gaming PC setup is complete without a great gaming mouse, and Razer’s flagship mouse, the DeathAdder, continues to bring top-notch performance, solid ergonomics, and excellent value to each model. Our favorite in the lineup is the V3 Hyperspeed, which skips the flash of other mice, opting to focus on accurate tracking and responsive buttons.

This mouse keeps it simple with a black body, no RGB lighting, and just a Razer logo on the palm. In IGN’s review of the Razer DeathAdder V3 Hyperspeed, we found its light 55g weight makes the mouse easy to handle and speedy, while the slightly smaller dimensions are comfortable for both claw and palm grippers. Aiding the grip is a “smooth-touch” texture to keep it secure in heated moments, and a slight hump provides the perfect contour for your hand.

When it’s time to get gaming, left and right clicks will be springy and responsive with tactile feedback, thanks to Razer’s Gen-3 optical switches. The updated positioning of the two side buttons makes them easier to hit, especially when action gets intense. Tracking is equally great with an accurate 26K optical sensor delivering precise aim.

The DeathAdder V3 Hyperspeed provides a 2.4GHz dongle as a link to your PC, which supports a standard 1,000Hz polling rate for smooth, responsive motion. However, ultra-competitive players may want to buy Razer’s Hyperpolling dongle to achieve an 8,000Hz polling rate. Given this is a wireless mouse, the 100-hour rechargeable battery is about as good as it gets. But if you’re after slightly amped up performance chops, the DeathAdder V3 Pro is another great option. Still, the V3 Hyperspeed is our top all-around option.

The SteelSeries Apex Pro (Gen 3) lineup delivers some of our favorite gaming keyboards. Both full-size and tenkeyless models are available, with every iteration offering a sleek, simple design that’s chock-full of everything you could want in a keyboard. IGN expert Michael Higham tested the Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 and was hard-pressed to find an aspect he would change about the high-end keyboard; its gaming and typing experience is hard to beat.

The best feature of the SteelSeries Apex Pro has to be the OmniPoint 3.0 Hall Effect switches. Each keystroke is buttery smooth with consistent actuation force and feedback. Things are taken further, as actuation points on each key can be customized between 0.1mm and 4mm. A shorter actuation could be a boon in shooters, while setting it back a bit might be great for the heavy-handed prone to accidentally tapping keys. A Rapid Tap, Rapid Trigger, and Protection Mode are also available, but their usefulness depends on the games you’re playing.

Changing actuation points, remapping keys, creating profiles, updating RGB lighting, and more can all be done in SteelSeries’ GG app. Admittedly, the app is a little difficult to navigate, but after reaching the keyboard settings, things should be smooth sailing. The good news is that you won’t always need to rely on the app, as an OLED panel on the keyboard can swap profiles, activate modes, adjust actuation, and change other settings using a tiny scroll wheel and button.

The SteelSeries Apex Pro’s design is a bit more subdued than some other gaming keyboards. It features double-shot PBT keycaps with a pleasant grippy texture that allows subtle RGB lighting to shine through. Cables won’t be an issue, as it’s wireless and uses a 2.4GHz dongle for a low-latency connection to your PC, while Bluetooth is available for a simple link to other devices. However, battery life is just average, lasting about 45 hours without RGB backlighting. Still, it’s hard to find any major faults with this brilliant gaming keyboard.

Sure, a controller may be sacrilege to accuracy-focused keyboard and mouse enthusiasts, but there are more than a few cases where a controller amplifies your gaming experience. The best PC controllers put all the buttons in an easy-to-reach location and provide an ergonomic hold, letting you play for hours without fatigue. An option that delivers all of this and more without any gimmicks is the budget-friendly Xbox Core Controller.

Given the name, this controller features the familiar Xbox controller layout with asymmetrical sticks and a tactile D-pad. Plus, most of the controls are remappable. Grips on the side, rear, and triggers keep the gamepad from slipping out of your hand during heated moments in the action, while the quality build means it should hold up great over time.

Like many of the best Xbox controllers, the Core Controller makes pairing with your PC a breeze. A wired USB-C provides a stable, lag-free connection, and Bluetooth is baked in for a wireless option. If you have an Xbox Wireless adapter for PC, you can take advantage of the Xbox’s wireless protocol that offers less latency and fewer mispresses. The only place we can really fault this controller – and it is a big ding – is the somewhat archaic use of AA batteries when playing wirelessly.

If you’ve invested in a top-quality graphics card, CPU, and other components for your PC build, a great gaming monitor is the last piece of the puzzle in taking full advantage of an epic setup. Enter the absolutely stunning Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2 Pro. With it comes a 32-inch 4K OLED display with an ultra-thin panel that delivers a crisp resolution, bright picture, and speedy refresh rate.

This OLED monitor might have more graphical capabilities than most PC battlestations can handle, delivering a 240Hz refresh rate in 4K. Still, there’s nothing wrong with grabbing a future-proof option. Plus, the monitor’s DisplayPort 2.1 technology unlocks the full 80Gbps bandwidth – a rarity in current-gen monitors. So, it should be with you through several PC upgrades. Luckily, FreeSync Premium Pro is even baked in, ensuring the display plays nicely with your current setup for butter-smooth, stutter-free action.

An IGN expert got a chance to do hands-on testing of the Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2 Pro and found the picture “amazing.” The colors are accurate, with support for up to 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, putting it on the level of the best monitors for creatives. When you add that color performance on top of the peak brightness of 1,000 nits in HDR and a contrast ratio of 1.5M:1 for deep blacks and brilliant highlights, the visuals just pop off the screen. Anyone who lays eyes on it will be in awe, especially coming from an LCD.

Of course, this display is also full of great gaming features. Beyond the 240Hz refresh rate and FreeSync support, it has fast response times for minimal ghosting, and the KVM makes swapping controls to another console simple. And there are plenty of connectivity options for other gaming devices, with two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DP 2.1 and one DP 1.4, and a mini DP 2.1. Although all of this comes at a premium, it’s easy to see why the Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2 Pro is our favorite gaming monitor.

Gaming headsets are great and all, but sometimes we'd prefer a more convenient option that's lighter on the head and easier to take on the go. Gaming earbuds are the best solution, keeping the gaming features you love intact while offering a much more compact design. Sure, they inevitably come with compromises to the driver size, sound quality, and battery life, but the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds keep those sacrifices to a minimum.

The biggest way gaming earbuds differentiate themselves from more traditional wireless earbuds is often how they connect. Like many of the best gaming earbuds, SteelSeries’ buds offer Bluetooth alongside a 2.4GHz wireless USB-C dongle for a more reliable, low-latency connection to gaming devices. The dongle easily slots into everything from the Switch to a gaming PC, although the L-shaped design may occasionally block some ports.

We reviewed the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds and found “few earbuds are able to cover every base as competently” as these. They provide a full, spacious, and well-balanced audio experience across all frequencies, even picking up audio cues like footsteps – positional audio in earbuds still lags behind gaming headsets, though. ANC is also pretty decent, keeping focus on the action. However, if you're not a fan of the out-of-the-box setting, SteelSeries' robust software suite makes tweaking EQ profiles simple.

Even when not gaming, the Arctis GameBuds make a great everyday earbud option, too. The tiny buds fit securely and comfortably in the ear for hours, while the 10 hours of battery life is nothing to scoff at. Just be prepared for some minor issues with autoplay when taking the earbuds in and out of your ears and occasional Bluetooth connectivity problems.

The best SSDs live inside your gaming PC or console and are perfect boot drives with their impressive speeds. But they can be a pain to install, expensive, and difficult or impossible to move between devices. That’s why you need one of the best external hard drives to store your precious library of games and other important files for easy movement wherever you need them.

The WD_Black P40 Game Drive is perfect for gaming, and it’s actually an external SSD rather than your typical hard drive. You get a whopping 1TB of storage space ready to house a sizable gaming library on this compact drive while blistering 2,000Mb/s read speeds when using the USB 3.2 Gen2x2 interface. That means you can play or transfer your games quickly. There’s even a touch of RGB lighting, playing into the gamer aesthetic.

Whether you’re using a gaming PC, PS5, or Xbox Series X/S, you can take advantage of this speedy drive. Though you won’t be able to play PS5 or Xbox Series games directly, it will save you the trouble of redownloading massive 100GB titles. It’s also perfect for transferring data from older consoles to the new ones.

If you’ve got all the gaming accessories you need, own all the consoles you could want, and are wondering what else you can possibly invest in, the PlayStation VR2 should be your next consideration. Of course, you’ll need to fork out over $500, but if you can, it’s so worth it. Featuring a 4K OLED screen, 110-degree field of view, and incredible tracking, this VR headset is hands-down the biggest improvement over its predecessor we’ve ever seen.

This is an immersive experience like no other. Every action is incredibly detailed, with the PSVR2’s camera tracking your eye movement and the Sense controllers detecting your hand movement, you’ll feel like you’re actually in the game, rather than simply playing it.

The PSVR2 now supports PC gaming when you grab an adapter for an additional $59.99, adding even more value to the VR headset. Setup with PC is straightforward, as long as your machine meets the minimal requirements. Sure, you don't get every feature available on PS5 when gaming with a PC. Still, it’s a great PC VR headset that gives you access to your Steam account’s library of games.

Boasting Wi-Fi 7 technology, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Pro is the best gaming router if you’re serious about online gaming. With speeds of up to 1376Mbps on the 2.4GHz band, 5,764Mbps on the 5GHz band, and 11,529Mbs on the 6GHz band, this is one of the fastest routers on the market today. Of course, there’s a bunch of top-shelf tech in there too, like 4K QAM, beamforming, MU-MIMO, and OFDMA. It also supports AiMesh-compatible devices.

If you’re considering investing in a gaming router and have children in your household, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Pro comes with Trend Micro-powered AiProtection Pro software – essentially top-level parental controls to keep your little ones safe. And it wouldn’t be a gaming accessory without RGB lighting, which you can configure in the router’s settings.

A great racing wheel is the ideal way to hit the virtual open road in racing sims, providing a deeper level of immersion and even a bit more control than your typical controller or keyboard/mouse combo. One manufacturer that knows a thing or two about hitting the track is Moza, and its entry-level option, the R3, is ready to pair with your Xbox Series X/S and PC.

IGN tested out the Moza R3, and while it doesn’t pack as much power as higher-end wheels, this direct drive bundle is far quieter, smoother, and sturdier than non-direct drive systems in a similar class, like the Thrustmaster T300 RS GT or the Logitech G923 we reviewed. Sure, the 3.9Nm of peak torque won’t be the most serious arm workout, but it lets you feel every turn and bump in the road and is in line with other entry-level kits. Once you get a taste of the whisper-quiet and instant force feedback, it will be hard to return to belt- and gear-driven systems.

The Moza R3 features a 280mm, D-shaped steering with a polyurethane wrapping that slightly cheapens it but still provides proper grip and comfort. Luckily, the brushed metal face looks great and features reliable Xbox controls. Two pedals also come bundled with the system, and while they’re sturdy and all-metal, springs cause the resistance and Hall effect sensors detect the position, instead of the force of your foot. Luckily, if the wheel, pedal set, or even wheel base isn’t your favorite, Moza makes upgrading every component a breeze.