Why Are Gaming Chairs So Expensive?
Life as we know it might be more expensive these days, but it’s not just in your head that the cost of gaming chairs has gone up. Today, higher and higher-end gaming chairs permeate the market that cost almost as much–if not more than–an office chair. Why are gaming chairs so expensive?
Gaming chairs have become more expensive as the line between office and gaming chairs has blurred. Today’s gaming chairs support office workers and streamers alike who put in long hours and thus must have great ergonomics and premium features. These features are costly to develop and implement.
If you want to learn more about why gaming chairs have gotten pricy, this is the article for you. Ahead, I’ll delve deeper into the factors that drive costs up and discuss whether a cheaper gaming chair is really the way to go.
Why Are Gaming Chairs Expensive? Major Factors Explained
Most gaming chairs worth their salt start at $200 and can cost upwards of $500 and more. Of course, you can still get your hands on a gaming chair for $75, but most chairs have bigger price tags.
Per the intro, let’s expound further on why gaming chairs have gotten so costly.
Brand Reputation
The first factor is a big one, and it’s brand reputation.
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this, as you’re a consumer too, but the brand is a huge determining factor in people’s purchasing decisions.
A 2014 report from online marketing research firm AYTM found that when it comes to grocery shopping, 70 percent of consumers believe that a brand name sometimes indicates higher quality.
If you see a pair of Nike shoes versus a pair of off-brand shoes, which will inspire more trust that you’re going to get a high-quality product? That’s right, it’s the Nikes.
That’s a belief that’s hard to shake. When you consider that branded products tend to cost more than off-brands (Nike versus that brand of shoes you’ve never heard of), this can further drive the impression that a costlier item must be higher-quality.
Now, is that always true? No. However, people stick to what they know, and believing that the branded item is better quality means that consumers are usually willing to spend more money.
Thus, if you look at a very well-established gaming chair brand such as Secretlab, consumers take no umbrage with shelling out $700+ for this company’s chairs.
Compare that to a chair brand like SMAX. Their gaming chair costs close to $300.
Since SMAX isn’t a very well-known brand, consumers might not want to spend that much money on the chair. They don’t know what they’re going to get, so spending the $300 could be a gamble.
(FYI, the SMAX chair we linked you to is rated quite favorably, and I just used it for the sake of example.)
Materials and Build Quality
Do you want premium materials in your gaming chair that will last for years to come? Do you want a chair that looks great when it’s assembled with no misaligned areas or visible seams?
If you answered yes to these questions, then you have to know that the high build quality of the chair is going to cost you.
Buying a chair with a cheap build quality will cost you too, but in a different way.
When you find a gaming chair for just shy of $100 or slightly over that mark, you can feel at first that you scored a great deal.
Then, after a few weeks or months of using the chair, its true colors come out.
The seams begin loosening, and you’re constantly cutting off long strings. The fabric might have torn, especially in high-impact areas like the seat and the back. The thin, cheap foam could have compressed and will not bounce back.
In short, all sorts of things are wrong with this chair.
It wasn’t made very well, and now you’re realizing it. You’ll end up needing a new gaming chair in six months or under.
Spending under $100 on a gaming chair seemed like a great bargain until you have to replace your chair at least twice a year.
Higher-end and thus more expensive gaming chairs don’t suffer from the same sort of quality defects.
Rather than use cheap fabric (often PU leather), a gaming chair will feature real leather or durable faux leather.
For example, Secretlab’s NEO hybrid leatherette isn’t real leather, but you would never know that by looking at and using the Titan chair that’s equipped with the leatherette.
Liquid-resistant and 12 times more durable than regular PU leather, the NEO hybrid leatherette costs hundreds of dollars less than equipping your Secretlab gaming chair with real leather. It will hold up, and it adds to the look of your chair.
More expensive gaming chairs will feature plush seat cushions made of high-density foam, sometimes even cold-cure foam. Like the kind of memory foam in your mattress, the foam in a good gaming chair will restore its shape after you get up.
The foam lasts longer, supporting and cradling your lower half to keep you free of pain as you play or even work for hours.
Can you sometimes find a low-priced or mid-priced gaming chair that has these kinds of covetable features? Yes, but these chairs are admittedly few and far between.
The less money that a chair retails for, the less money the manufacturer can expend on producing it. If they spend more money to make the chair than they earn, then they’re operating at a loss. No company can do that and survive for long.
Thus, you’ll have to expect that in almost every instance, you must be willing to spend more money for inimitable build quality.
Manufacturing Location
Another factor to keep in mind when assessing the price of a gaming chair is where the chair is produced.
If the manufacturer is located in your country of origin, then you don’t have to pay as much money for shipping and handling.
For those shoppers who purchase a chair from a manufacturing plant halfway around the world, expect to see even higher prices than the norm.
Warranty
Does your gaming chair come with a warranty?
Many do to sweeten the pot and entice consumers who were on the fence to make a purchasing decision.
After all, it’s always nice to know that if one of the parts fails or if something happens to your chair that isn’t basic wear and tear from everyday use that you wouldn’t have to pay for the repair or replacement part yourself.
The warranty would cover it.
Further, when you consider that most gaming chair warranties are multi-year deals, that makes passing on the warranty even harder to do.
Most people get so caught up in the assurances of free repairs that they don’t stop to think about where the money for the warranty comes from.
As I talked about in my post on why office chairs are so expensive, gaming chair warranties are factored into the overall price of your chair.
The longer and more comprehensive the warranty is, the more money you’ll usually end up spending on your gaming chair.
This is one of those things where you don’t even get a choice in the matter. A warranty is bundled into your gaming chair, with no option to remove it.
If you contacted the manufacturer and tried to ask about foregoing the warranty, you would likely be told that’s not possible.
You’re stuck paying that extra money, but at least it benefits you in both the short-term and usually the long-term as well.
Features
These days, gaming chairs come fully equipped with all the features you need to sit down, kick back, and get ready to play for hours.
Some gaming chairs feature retractable footrests. If you want to put your feet up in between rounds or when talking to your audience on stream, you can.
Then, the footrest pushes down seamlessly and tucks under the chair so it’s not in the way. It’s the ultimate convenience feature.
Lots of gaming chairs feature cupholders and/or small storage pouches for holding snacks, charging cables, your smartphone, or a spare controller. These are also convenience features.
You can keep everything you need close at hand so you don’t have to disrupt the stream and take yourself out of the game by getting up and going to the fridge.
Some gaming chairs even have coursing LED lights and built-in speakers for augmenting the audio experience. Gaming will feel more immersive with speakers on either side of your head.
There are more features still that you’d expect to find in your everyday gaming chair. I’ll talk more about adjustments in the next section, but you’ll want tilt, flexible arms, height adjustments, and maybe some rocking as well.
I’ll also touch on ergonomics a little later, but you’ll expect those to be there.
Yes, that’s right, ergonomics! Most streamers are at an age where they don’t have to think twice about stiff shoulders or lower back pain, but you’ll remember the point I made earlier in this article.
Today’s gaming chairs blur the line between them and office chairs. You can use a gaming chair in the office as well as at home for gaming. Thus, they need ergonomics.
When your gaming chair has a wealth of features, and those features are of exceptional quality, then your chair costs more.
Adjustability Options
Okay, so let’s talk about adjustments, shall we?
Gaming chairs are usually more adjustable than office chairs to offer users a higher degree of flexibility, but that very much depends on which office and gaming chair you’re comparing.
You will expect to be able to adjust the height of your chair. Some gaming chairs like the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 Series are available in several sizes so that when you adjust the height of your chair, it feels more commensurate to your size.
The hydraulics that usually allow for height adjustments will be quiet and well-functioning.
Your chair should be able to tilt or recline. Whether you get more than 130 degrees of recline all comes down to the gaming chair model you select.
Higher-end, costlier chairs usually offer a more expansive range of recline. You’ll be able to lay nearly all the way back so you can easily get into relaxation mode before your stream or immediately after.
You can also tilt yourself moderately upright or even bolt-upright if you want to sit straight and concentrate (or get some work done).
Then there are the armrests. These days, 4D arms are a standard in gaming chairs. You need the ultimate in arm flexibility so that no matter how you like to sit and play, the armrests won’t get in your way.
A set of 4D arms can move up, down, in, and out, and they typically pivot as well.
Just because 4D arms are the standard in office chairs doesn’t mean that all arms are created equal though.
The shape of the armrests (convex versus concave), as well as the armrest padding, play a major role in how comfortable the arms will feel, as does how narrow the chair is.
If the armrests hem you in, then no matter how you adjust them, you’ll always feel trapped.
Comfort
The next factor that can influence the cost of a gaming chair is how comfortable it is.
I already touched on the difference between cheap chair foam that loses its shape after a month versus high-density foam that stays firm yet comfortable every time you sit for years at a time.
That’s far from all that goes into how comfortable a gaming chair is though. The shape of the seat is also important, which is why newer gaming chairs have wider seats with flared edges to support the thighs and promote good blood flow.
Features like even pressure distribution, good weight distribution, cooling gel or foam, and adjustments all go into how comfortable a chair is.
Of course, you know I’m going to talk about ergonomics. It used to be that office chairs had the best ergonomics around to support workers putting in long hours at the office.
As gaming chairs have evolved over recent years, the ergonomics featured in these chairs rival and sometimes even surpass the ergonomics found in today’s office chairs.
For example, the Herman Miller Embody gaming chair edition features the brand’s esteemed BackFit adjustment. This built-in faux spine moves naturally like your own spine does to provide support for micromovements and more overt movements alike.
Secretlab, probably inspired by Herman Miller, has a similar feature in its gaming chairs called the four-way L-ADAPT lumbar support system.
The lumbar support moves out, in, down, and up, again mimicking the curvature and natural movement of your spine for support no matter how you like to sit.
Not every gaming chair goes quite that far with lumbar support and ergonomics, I should note. Lower-cost gaming chairs might only feature ergonomic head and neck pillows.
These pillows are okay but could definitely be more supportive, especially if you’re a gamer or office worker who’s already prone to aches and pains.
Research and Development
The last factor I want to talk about is research and development or R&D.
Making a gaming chair isn’t something that just happens overnight, I’m sure you know. A lot of planning and research goes into it, as do a lot of design drafts that never make the final cut.
The gaming chairs that are on the cutting edge of what a chair can be today will have more intensive R&D compared to a gaming chair that’s a clone of another chair on the market (and there are a lot of those).
Higher R&D costs are reflected in the final price of your gaming chair.
Are Expensive Gaming Chairs Worth It?
You can understand the rationale for why today’s gaming chairs are as costly are they are, but does that mean you have to go ahead and buy one?
No, certainly not! You should only spend as much money on an office chair as your budget affords you.
If that’s only a couple of hundred dollars, then while you can’t buy a Secretlab chair or a Herman Miller gaming chair, you can still get your hands on some pretty good-quality chairs.
They’ll certainly last you longer than a cheap $75 chair, although you won’t get as much longevity as a $500 or $700 chair.
It’s for that reason that I do believe wholeheartedly that a more expensive gaming chair is worth it. Yes, the initial cost is more, and no one likes spending large sums of money.
The assurance that you’ll have a quality chair that will get you through at least the next several years cannot be beaten. Your chair has an excellent build quality, uses high-end materials, offers a multitude of adjustments and features, and is ergonomically supported.
It will be comfortable and enjoyable to use. If you stream to an online audience, you might even get compliments from your chat when you’re live on air.
Plus, your gaming chair will be covered under a multi-year warranty!
Conclusion
Gaming chairs are not inexpensive. Although you’re spending more money initially, you can rely on your chair to get you through plenty of long days spent working, playing, and lounging. Your chair will continue to work exceptionally well as time goes on, and with more gradual wear, it will look great for a long time to come as well!
