Best Chairs for Gaming Under $200

Homall is a well-known name in gaming chairs; they’re aware that you’ve likely spent considerable cash on your gaming setup, so most of their products aim to soften the blow to your wallet as much as possible.

Their Ergonomic High-Back Racing Chair is our top all-around pick for chairs under $200. If you want the most balanced list of pros and cons in a budget chair, this one deserves serious consideration.

Homall Ergonomic High-Back Racing Chair Review

For $115, you’re right to be suspicious. Many chairs at this price point are made of particle board, light plastic, and not much else—they’re liable to fall apart before too long. While this Homall chair is no 75-pound Steelcase behemoth, it does have a steel frame and decently thick PVC leather upholstery. As long as you’re reasonably gentle to it, it should last for a number of years.

It’s pretty hard to gauge how a gaming chair feels without sitting in it yourself, but this Homall chair is praised far and wide for comfort. The seat cushion is firm and supportive, yet also somewhat cushy. The back is similarly supportive but springy. It’s easy to spend several hours in this chair without feeling a pressing need to get up and stretch (but you definitely still should).

This chair also boasts a pretty hard-to-find feature: a foldable footrest. While it’s not exactly flimsy, it doesn’t seem capable of withstanding a great deal of weight or abuse, and users over 6’ tall may find that it doesn’t extend far enough to be very useful. Nonetheless, a footrest is a pretty cool bonus that at least some users will appreciate.

No chair is perfect, and the Homall Ergonomic High-Back model is no exception. If you have wide hips, or if you like to sit with your legs far apart, this chair may feel a little constricting, width-wise. The sharp upward angles on the outer edges of some bucket seats can be truly obnoxious; these aren’t as bad as some others, but at just a hair under 21” wide, this seat will definitely not please everyone.

Getting your arms comfortable may be equally challenging. The armrests can only be adjusted to a few static positions, which may or may not work for you. Since keeping your arms pretty close to level with your keyboard is super important for good posture, you may have to mess with the seat height to keep your wrists happy—but having to sit higher or lower than you’d like can cause its own problems, too.

All in all, if you’re determined to stay under $200 for your next gaming chair, you’d be hard pressed to find a better candidate, as long as you’re not super tall or overly concerned about fine-tuning your posture with a high degree of precision.

GTRACING chairs are popular with streamers for a reason: they can handle a fair amount of abuse, but don’t come with a hefty price tag.

The GTRACING GT099 is ideal for gamers who prefer a firmer seat with a good deal of support. This chair retails for about $160 and can be an especially good choice for tall people who find many other gaming chairs uncomfortable.

GTRACING GT099 Review

You’d have to try pretty hard to deal any serious damage to this chair. Almost every part of it feels heavy and solid, and the armrests click firmly into place when adjusted without feeling loose or wobbly. The bicast leather upholstery is surprisingly resistant to cat claws, and it’s easy to clean as well. It does get a little warm during the summer (or if the air conditioner is off), but never intolerably so.

While the back does recline almost 90 degrees, it’s hard to imagine why you’d want to be in that position in a chair that has wheels. Nonetheless, the large range of movement means that you can surely find an angle that feels good to you. The armrests have six vertical positions but don’t rotate.

The bucket seat is on the narrow side and can’t be adjusted (except vertically), so it may be uncomfortable for some. Finally, the lumbar and head pillows are both detachable if you don’t want them, but they do help you maintain good posture.

In its default position, the headrest is a moderate hassle—it will likely be uncomfortable for most people, and it never stays put when adjusted. However, by removing it entirely and placing it higher up on the chair (as opposed to snaking the straps through their intended holes), tall people will find that it works quite nicely—but if you’re under about 5’10”, you may find it impossible to get the headrest to feel comfortable.

GTRACING offers an okay warranty for the GT099, with no-questions-asked replacement or repair on most (but not all) parts within one year. In the sub-$200 range, you’re unlikely to find better warranties, but that’s okay—warranties are most useful for really cheap or really expensive chairs. If your GT099 is still in good shape after a year, it will probably stay that way for some time, and if it does break after that, being out $160 isn’t the end of the world.

Maintaining healthy posture while gaming is really important, especially if you’re past your early 20s and no longer invincible. While the GT099 certainly isn’t uncomfortable, it does prioritize ergonomics over maximum comfort. Its dense foam and reasonably thick upholstery atop a heavy metal frame do an excellent job of keeping your back and wrists in healthy positions, provided you adjust it correctly.

I’m sitting in one of these chairs right now; I’ve owned it for about a year, and I plan to hang on to it as long as it stays in good condition. I actually consider the narrow bucket seat to be a pro, not a con—it starts to get slightly uncomfortable after sitting for about two hours, which essentially forces me to get up and take a stretch break.

Once I’ve limbered up a bit, the chair feels just fine for another few hours. 😊

The GTRACING GT099 won’t be perfect for everyone, but it will be great for many people. It’s a solid all-purpose chair, equally suited for gaming or working, and it should last many years with proper care. Few other gaming chairs under $200 will even compare to this one.

If you need to stretch every dollar as far as possible, it can be hard to find an affordable gaming chair that isn’t a complete piece of trash. Devoko has you covered with their Executive Gaming Chair, which you can pick up for about $99.

The Devoko Executive Gaming Chair isn’t especially fancy, but it’s quite gentle on your wallet. It’s not as durable as our other two top picks for chairs under $200, but it wouldn’t be fair to call it flimsy. If you’re looking for something nicer than a bottom-of-the-barrel office chair, but still need to keep it under $100, Devoko deserves serious consideration.

This chair is warrantied for only one year, but if nothing else, you can feel confident that it will last at least that long. Devoko is known for consistently upholding its warranties and for communicating transparently with customers. (If you buy the chair on Amazon, you can also drop another $15 or so for a third-party 5-year warranty—$115 for a guaranteed half-decade of chair life is a pretty good deal.)

The chair’s PVC leather is a little thinner than comparable upholstery found on similar chairs in this price range. That means it’s a bit less durable, but also more breathable, and somewhat better suited to warm environments. A decently wide gap between the lower section of the back and the edges of the bucket seat also helps with airflow.

Of the three chairs on this list, the Devoko is the least durable. Upon sitting on it, it’s immediately clear that its frame is lighter than those of both the GTR099 and the Homall High-Back Racing Chair, and it’s not assembled quite as sturdily. The casters also feel lighter and thinner—more cheaply made. You are buying a budget chair, after all; it’s got to save you money somehow. There are certainly flimsier chairs out there, but you’ll nonetheless want to be extra gentle with this one.

The Devoko’s adjustment options are also limited, compared to the Homall and GTRACING chairs. The armrests and back only offer a few different positions to choose from. You may find it hard to get comfortable if you happen to be taller, shorter, wider, or thinner than the sparse adjustments allow for.

Even though the Devoko Executive Gaming Chair is by no means a top-tier piece of furniture, it’s still light years ahead of most cheap general purpose office chairs. If nothing else, it should serve you well until you’re ready to upgrade, as long as you take good care of it.