Thoughtful sound design is a touchstone of modern gaming, and one of the best ways to improve your experience is with a better pair of headphones. Plenty of headsets are designed just for this task, with mics for team chat, wired and wireless options, and comfortable designs for hours of play. We’ve rounded up the best gaming headsets, whether you’re relaxing with a cozy game, crafting your way through space, or clicking heads in multiplayer games.
For the rest of your gaming accessory needs, be sure to check out our other guides, like the Best Gaming Keyboard, Best Gaming Mouse, and Best Game Controllers. We also have console-specific picks for the Best PS5 Accessories and Best Nintendo Switch Accessories.
Updated November 2024: Added the Razer BlackShark V2 Pro, Corsair Virtuoso Max, and HyperX Cloud Mix 2.
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How I Test Gaming Headsets
Testing gaming headsets is like gitting gud: There’s no way to do it besides playing the game. A lot. For every gaming headset I test, I spend at least one week (usually more) using it as my sole headset for every gaming session on every console it’s compatible with. I bounce between the PS5, Xbox Series S, Switch, and Steam Deck, as well as my usual desktop PC, which I use both for work and gaming.
For measurable criteria like battery life and charging time, I use the following tests:
Battery life: On wireless headsets, I’ll charge each device to 100 percent, then use each headset daily for both work and gaming, noting battery level over the amount of time used. This casual test is designed to be reflective of real-world usage. For more outlandish battery claims, I will also conduct a more rigorous test, playing a loop of movies in VLC, with volume set to 50 percent, measuring battery drain over time. Charging time: Similarly, where applicable, I’ll note how long it takes to charge each headset and how quickly it charges. I’ll make notes on how much charge a device gets from 15 minutes of charging, as well as how long it takes to charge from a low battery to 100 percent. Microphone quality: Gaming headsets with mics are designed with team chat in mind, so pure audio quality isn’t a concern quite as much as whether your teammates can hear you. For each gaming headset, I will use it while playing competitive games (most commonly Overwatch 2) with a regular group and poll my teammates on how my comms are perceived, and whether my call-outs come through clear.
Since a lot of factors involved in testing headphones can be subjective, I also consider more nebulous factors, like how a gaming headset feels to wear for long periods of time, audio quality during different types of games, the layout of on-device controls, and what kind of tools are available for customizing the audio experience. No amount of measuring a headset’s frequency response can tell you whether a particular headset “sounds good,” so I rely on my years of experience in video editing and podcasting to offer my best recommendations for every need.
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