4 Critical Features That Make the Most Comfortable Gaming Chair

Man, we Americans really love our superlatives. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the wacky world of sales and marketing. Anybody hacking anything claims to have the most affordable insurance, the tallest building, the quietest engine, the most whatever. Aaaaand that’s why when you search for the most comfortable gaming chair on The Google, every chair claims to be just that.

Here’s the thing: while price, weight, and dimensions are quantifiable measurements, and features and materials are somewhat verifiably factual, comfort is subjective. To whit: I once stayed in a hotel that advertised “the most comfortable night’s sleep ever.” One tortured night and an aching back later, I can only assume that if there were some sort of satisfaction survey that supported their claim, then it must’ve been completed exclusively by recently released inmates and mountain goats. But I digress.

How does one quantify the unquantifiable? Accepting the infinite existential distances between one person’s comfort and another’s aches, how does one put themselves in a position to actually find the “most comfortable gaming chair?”

Allow me to take you on a journey toward enlightenment with my words. Comfort is indeed a very personal thing that will vary from gamer to non-gamer, from inmate to goat, but there are a precious few features that are absolutely necessary to validate a claim to real comfort. Let us begin.

Posture support

If you’ve read my other posts, you’ll know the hottest word in the field of sitting-and-doing-things is “ergonomics.”  Just so we’re on the same page: your back is your body, or, more precisely, a body without a back isn’t a system. You can lose limbs and still be a whole person, but lose your back and, well...let’s just say your back and spine makes everything else in your muscular and skeletal systems work. 

Chairs that use soft, squishy, plush foam might trick you into saying something absurd like, “this is so comfortable!” You may even believe it’s comfortable because, well, we like soft things. also, when you first sit down, the muscles that control your posture are still mostly able to hold your body in a shape, resisting gravity. Sit there long enough, though, and you’ll sink, slouch, curve and then begin that neverending wiggle and shift looking for a comfortable position because your squishy chair isn’t doing anything to keep you upright, aligned, and in the game. 

Luxe Master gaming chairs utilize the best ergonomic design from high-end commercial furniture and high-performance auto seating. That means the frame and inner structure of our chairs is stiff and durable. Our firm but forgiving foam is molded to the frame (not cut and glued) and won’t warp, shift, or crumple. Our high seatbacks and neck and lumbar pillows ensure that your spine is supported from the base of your skull to your tailbone. Any other company that wants to make a serious claim to the title of “most comfortable gaming chair” needs to talk about frames and skeletons just as much as they talk about fabrics and logos. That’s right. We said it.

Armrest Adjustability

I can’t believe what I’m about to say, but here goes: there are so-called gaming chairs out there that have no armrests. As in none. Not two armrests. Not one armrest. NONE ARMRESTS.  These abominations just need to accept the fact that they are cheap office chairs that bosses buy for employees they hate. Oh, I can hear it now: “What do you mean you feel like your arms are asleep? It’s a gaming chair!”

Gamers that love all of themselves including their arms know that armrests aren’t just nice to have, but essential. Good armrests actually perform a bit of physics magic by magically physically taking the burden of your arms’ weight off your spine. And what does that do for us, my ergonomically enlightened friends? That’s right: it helps our spine stay aligned and improves our posture.

Of course, all armrests aren’t created equal. The mere existence of armrests is an unequivocally good thing, but it isn’t enough to make an outright claim to “most comfortable gaming chair.”  That league is reserved for gaming chairs with adjustable armrests, allowing you to make fine adjustments to armrest position to ensure proper support and true comfort...true comfort, I say!

All Luxe Master gaming chairs include adjustable armrests, and our Ultra Series chairs have cushioned 4D armrests that enable you to adjust each armrest up and down, side to side, forward and backward, and by rotation.

Accommodation

Full disclosure: even though I know that the healthiest way to sit in my gaming chair is with my feet flat on the floor and my knees bent at 90 degrees...I don’t. I cock my hips sideways. I fold my legs. I splay. I lean. Maybe there’s a monk or a nun out there that sits with perfect posture and right-angled legs for hours at a time, but they probably aren’t doing raids at 2:47AM on a work night.

Point is, just like comfort is subjective, sitting position is personal, too. So how does the most comfortable gaming chair give you room to do your own sitting thing while still, you know, being a gaming chair. That’s where the idea of accomodation comes in. Good accommodation means that you can sit how you want in your chair without losing all the ergonomic benefits the chair is supposed to provide. For instance, if I cross my right leg over my left, that force and movement should be accommodated by the foam and underlying frame under my leg, and it shouldn’t cause the chair to twist or lose its geometry. Even awful gaming chairs do an okay job of this at first, but those unnoticeable millimeters of flex on day one lead to warped and useless chairs in the near future.

I hate to sound like a broken record here, but a lot of accommodation comes back to boring old engineering and material quality. If your chair is built well and engineered properly, then it will stay stable as you slouch (for shame!) or sit cross-legged (heresy!). Hate to sound like a second broken record here, but this is another instance where soft, squishy chairs that seem comfortable are actually sabotaging your better self, not to mention your wallet. 

Weak frames and cheap foam will distort as they’re subjected to different forces from different angles. The cheaper your chair—and there are some really cheap gaming chairs out there that are really expensive—the quicker this distortion and deterioration will occur, the less support it will offer, and the more unsteady and ugly your once-awesome gaming chair will become.

Materials and Construction AGAIN

All of the attention paid to ergonomics and adjustability in the design phase would be for naught if chair isn’t made of stuff able to deliver the quality over and over. Gorgeous curves made of cheap cut-foam will turn into something like a veggie burger patty sooner rather than later, sometimes even after a few months of use. 

I know you get it, but really the most important thing is to really really look into how your chair is made. What kind of foam did they use? How thick is the frame? How sturdy is the reclining mechanism? What happens when you sit in it the wrong way? A product worth of being the most comfortable gaming chair won’t conspicuously forget to tell you about all the stuff you can’t see or may not know.

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Here onboard the USS Luxe Master, we’re passionate about quality gaming furniture. Sometimes that means we’re...um...not particularly humble when it comes to talking about our chairs. But look: it would be dishonest to say things like “there are lots of good gaming chairs out there” or “the most comfortable gaming chair is whatever you think the most comfortable gaming chair is.” There’s more to comfort than preference, and you owe it to yourself to get a gaming chair that not only feels good when you sit in it, but one that actually treats you with some respect for your physical health, one that will maintain its shape and structure for a long time...and does it all still looks wicked on a stream.

Peace.