Targeting, slashing, hacking, attacking: The key actions you take in any PC game happen at the click of your mouse, so you can’t skimp on your weapon if you want to win. Today, though, the quality bar is high for all but the cheapest gaming mice, so you can afford to be picky. Nowadays, you should expect reliable connectivity, smooth and responsive tracking, and crisp click and scroll functions. Those are the table stakes—it takes much more to elevate a “good” gaming mouse to “great.”
So, what makes the difference? Comfort and accuracy come more naturally to some models than others. An extra button in the right spot can speed up switching modes or weapons, saving you life-or-death fractions of a second. And the right supporting software can power simple or complex shortcuts that decide defeat or victory.
Here are our top picks, followed by what to look for in a right-fit gaming mouse.
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HyperX Pulsefire Haste
Best Gaming Mouse Overall
Bottom Line:
Lightweight, comfortable, and reasonably priced, the HyperX Pulsefire Haste is the best esports mouse to come along in some time.
PROS
- Extremely light
- Terrific sensor for the price
- Onboard memory
- Stylish honeycomb chassis
CONS
- Chassis shape could use a bit more support
- Little RGB lighting
Corsair Katar Elite Wireless
A Solid Alternative to HyperX Pulsefire Haste
Bottom Line:
It has only niche appeal, but Corsair’s Katar Elite Wireless gaming mouse perfects the design for claw and fingertip players.
PROS
- Lightweight
- Powerful sensor
- Lots of premium upgrades over the previous model
- Shaped specifically for claw- and fingertip-style grips
CONS
- Small, tapered shape isn’t comfortable for standard palm grip
- Only stores one onboard profile
Roccat Kone XP
Best Premium Gaming Mouse
Bottom Line:
Roccat nearly perfects its AIMO line with the Kone XP, a gaming mouse with a cornucopia of top-shelf components and features.
PROS
- Generous complement of 15 buttons
- Nvidia Reflex support
- Gorgeous RGB lighting
- Premium switches
- Good price for the features
CONS
- Not for left-handed users
- Slightly bulky shell
- Swarm app could use a bit of modernizing
Roccat Kone XP Air
Best Wireless Gaming Mouse Overall
Bottom Line:
Roccat’s Kone XP Air remains as excellent as its wired variant, but in going wireless, it nearly doubles in price without adding other major features.
PROS
- Tons of buttons
- Nvidia Reflex support
- 2.4GHz and Bluetooth options
- RGB lighting looks great
CONS
- Expensive
- No major changes from wired version
SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless Gaming Mouse
Best Budget Wireless Gaming Mouse
Bottom Line:
The Rival 3 Wireless’ great battery life and upgraded sensor breathe new life into SteelSeries’ budget mouse design.
PROS
- Incredible battery life
- Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz wireless
- Very affordable for a wireless mouse
- Works while using one or two AAA batteries
CONS
- Shape is still slightly uncomfortable when using palm grip
- Weighs more than the wired version
- “High-Efficiency” power-saving mode drops polling rate
Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro
Best Wireless Gaming Mouse for Esports
Bottom Line:
The Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro delivers a bevy of improvements to Razer’s long running gaming-mouse line that, while not essential, help solidify its spot at the top of the food chain.
PROS
- Enhanced ergonomic design
- Tons of improvements
- True 4,000Hz polling rate (with Hyperpolling dongle)
- Lightweight
CONS
- Expensive
- Improvements aren’t really game-changers
- Hyperpolling wireless dongle sold separately
Corsair Dark Core RGB Pro SE
Best Gaming Mouse With Wireless Charging
Bottom Line:
With an upgraded sensor and remodeled side buttons, Corsair’s Dark Core RGB Pro SE updates a great mouse to keep it in the front rank.
PROS
- Remodeled side macro buttons
- Very good price
- Qi wireless charging
- Highly customizable lighting
- Built-in dongle storage
CONS
- Textured grip is a bit slippery
- Fewer buttons than the first Dark Core
- No really big changes
Razer Naga Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse
Best Gaming Mouse for MMOs
Bottom Line:
The “ultimate” version of Razer’s modular MMO mouse features significant, useful upgrades, but some gamers may not appreciate its relatively flat shape.
PROS
- Modular side plates are easy to switch and customize
- Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz wireless
- Strong sensor
- Great battery life
CONS
- Flat shape
- Wireless charging only available with an optional dock
- Very expensive
Mad Catz B.A.T. 6+ Gaming Mouse
Best Gaming Mouse for Lefties
Bottom Line:
The Mad Catz B.A.T. 6+ is a modular gaming mouse that’s easy to use and easy on the eyes. Despite a high price, it should please most users looking for customization options.
PROS
- Ambidextrous, stylish design
- Comfortable to use
- Easy to attach and remove parts
CONS
- RGB lights are covered by wings
- Expensive for a wired mouse
- Customization software is limited
Corsair Ironclaw RGB Wireless
Best Gaming Mouse for Large Hands
Bottom Line:
Corsair’s latest wireless mouse, the Ironclaw RGB Wireless, is a little more practical than some of its top-end competitors. It’s a strong pick for big-handed users.
PROS
- Snappy wireless, via 2.4GHz adapter or Bluetooth.
- Hand-pleasing shape for big paws.
- Highly configurable resolution settings.
CONS
- Indifferent RGB placement.
- Can’t configure while using Bluetooth.
- No wireless charging.
Mad Catz R.A.T. 8+
Best Gaming Mouse for Extreme Customization
Bottom Line:
With a unique look and parts you can swap out for comfort, the Mad Catz R.A.T. 8+ is a high-end gaming mouse that should tickle tinkerers, as well as players seeking lots of buttons and flexibility.
PROS
- Adjustable parts provide unique customization options.
- Good feel for a variety of hands.
- Unique, partly open-shell look.
CONS
- Expensive for a wired mouse.
- Adjustable features introduce small parts that are easy to misplace.
- Configuration software feels a bit lightweight.
Logitech G Pro X Superlight Wireless Gaming Mouse
Best Lightweight Gaming Mouse
Bottom Line:
Logitech’s Pro X Superlight is the lightest wireless esports mouse yet, but that crown comes with a few caveats.
PROS
- Extremely light, especially for a wireless mouse
- Powerful Hero 25K sensor
- Dongle storage
- Comes with an extra PTFE panel for super-smooth mousing
CONS
- Expensive
- Shape could be more supportive
- Wireless Charging requires Powerplay mousepad
Read Our Logitech G Pro X Superlight Wireless Gaming Mouse Review
Buying Guide: The Best Gaming Mice for 2022
Nailing down a high-quality gaming mouse is tricky without getting hands-on time with a given model. But to narrow your search, it helps to start by deciding on which type of sensor you need. The two key sensor types are “optical” and “laser” sensors, but you can’t apply absolutes when judging them. Your best bet is to try out a mouse in person, or to rely on formal reviews like ours, as well as online forums, for the skinny on how a mouse feels in specific play situations.
Less-expensive mice tend to have optical sensors, which offer good tracking sensitivity and tend to map well on a variety of surfaces, including textured ones such as cloth. Laser sensors, on the other hand, map onto the same or more kinds of surfaces (including some smooth or glossy ones that may give optical sensors fits), but they can be more finicky about rough surface textures. That said, we wouldn’t let one kind or the other be the main reason you choose a mouse. Likewise, some vendors market branded versions of sensors that track, say, on glass or reflective surfaces. Don’t take them too seriously, as you can solve any challenging mousing surface with…a $2 mousepad.
(Credit: Mike Epstein)
More important to look for is a suitable resolution range, measured in dots per inch (dpi), that allows for fine-grained and wide-sweep tracking. Just as crucial is a button or toggle that lets you adjust the setting easily on the fly—as opposed to only in software. Sometimes this button is on the top of the mouse for fast changes; on other mice, it’s on the underside for resolution changes outside the flow of the game. Which you want depends on your style of gameplay. (More about resolution switching in a moment.)
The numbers you see in terms of mouse resolution, though, are less crucial. Mouse resolution is mostly a marketing numbers game. You would use extreme dpi settings in the five-figure range only if you have one or more very high-pixel-count displays, such as 4K monitors, to mouse across. So don’t put a whole lot of stock, say, in a 16,000dpi maximum setting versus a 14,000dpi one. Either will serve you well under most real-world circumstances.
Should My Gaming Mouse Be Wired, or Wireless?
Gaming mice are either wired or wireless in design, but most of today’s high-end models still, surprisingly, use an old-school USB cable to connect to your computer.
For a long time, competitive gamers strongly preferred wired gaming mice to wireless ones to eliminate perceived latency, as well as the possibility of a battery running down in the midst of a heated match. Many serious players still hold that bias, but Razer, Logitech, and others have released higher-end mice of late with low latency ratings that ought to satisfy all but the most extreme of gamers. (See our favorite wireless mice.)
More the issue is knowing how your mouse connects to its host. The three main possibilities are USB (via a typical cable), USB (wirelessly, via an RF USB dongle), or Bluetooth (also wireless, usually via the host’s built-in Bluetooth radio). Bluetooth is the least common of the three among gaming mice; it tends to be found more often in productivity or mobile mice. Note that some wireless models with rechargeable batteries come with a USB charging cable that can double as a mouse cable while you’re juicing back up, letting you continue using the mouse with the battery depleted.
(Credit: Mike Epstein)
The key thing here is to know what you’re getting, and to make sure you have the appropriate port free (or that you have Bluetooth support). If you opt for a cabled mouse, don’t forget to check the cable length. Is it long enough to reach from a PC tower on the floor to your desk? Is it six feet long, but only needs to run from your mouse pad to the laptop beside it? Also look at the cable itself. A braided nylon or cloth cover is more durable than a standard rubber coating.
What Are the Niches of Gaming Mouse?
The best gaming mice offer comfort and customization that will please a wide range of users, but in some cases, the core features of a mouse revolve around certain kinds of games. Blazing away in a firefight, staving off an advancing horde in a real-time strategy (RTS) title, or commanding an NFL franchise: Game genres have specific needs, and some mice outright target specific ones.
Mice aimed at first-person shooters, for one, tend to feature ratcheting scroll wheels—letting you cycle accurately through your arsenal without selecting the wrong weapon—and on-the-fly resolution switchers mentioned earlier. The latter will help you snap-change between the broad tracking you need in a frantic shootout and the tight control for lining up a precision shot. (Sometimes this feature is dubbed something like “sniper mode,” and it may involve a dedicated button for getting granular.)
(Credit: Mike Epstein)
Mice that are specially designed for RTS games and MMOs, on the other hand, look quite different. The most extreme come outfitted with an array of 10 or more programmable buttons. Usually set just under the tip of the thumb, these buttons can serve as simple shortcut triggers, or be programmed to execute longer macro commands. (For more on these mice, see our specialized guide to the best mice for MMO games.)
Another, newer niche variety is mice aimed at esports players and professionals. The games they play vary widely, so there is a lot of crossover between these and MMO or other more generic gaming-mouse types. Indeed, many esports players don’t feel the need to gravitate to an “esports-specific” mouse at all, and find that general-use gaming mice work just fine. Nonetheless, a subgenre of esports mice has emerged that emphasizes light body weight and simplicity of design, in terms of buttons and overall sculpting. At the extreme, some lightweight esports mice have holes molded into their shells to reduce the mass of the mouse itself. (See our guide to our favorite esports mice.)
How to Judge Mouse Customization Software
Just as crucial as shortcut buttons and tracking-speed toggles is the software utility—if any—that the mouse maker provides for the hardware.
All of the major (and some of the minor) gaming-gear manufacturers have developed their own mouse-control customization software, which usually encompasses advanced macro programming. Often, the software also enables you to control and customize a gaming keyboard of the same brand. In addition to recording macro commands, these software dashboards let you activate premade, game-specific profiles; create your own profiles; and adjust any on-mouse lighting/LED bling. Many also offer presets for non-gaming use, letting you leverage your mouse’s programmability in Excel or Photoshop when you’re not blowing up starships or hapless zombies.
(Credit: PCMag)
At this point, the major mouse makers’ software packages have been through generations of refinement, so they are slick. Logitech Gaming System (LGS) and G Hub, Corsair Utility Engine (iCUE), and Razer Synapse are among the best-regarded mouse- and keyboard-control utilities that cater to gamers. All offer advanced tweakability, with iCUE regarded by many users and reviewers as the deepest, but also the trickiest to master in depth.
A few less common items are worth looking for if you’re a serious mouse tweaker. The software might control “lift distance,” or how far you can raise a mouse off the pad or desk before it stops tracking. A slider or, better, a wizard-style setup function will dictate this in the utility, if present. Another feature is surface calibration, in which the mouse software runs a routine that optimizes the mouse and its sensor for the texture and traits of your mousing surface. On the even more esoteric side: support for angle snapping (a movement-compensation feature that helps you move the mouse in straight lines) and for designating different resolutions for the X and Y axes (say, for faster tracking only side to side, to traverse a vast landscape in an real-time strategy gameworld).
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(Credit: PCMag)
Know that the presence or absence of a dedicated control utility is a big differentiator between low-end and high-end gaming mice. Some cheap gaming mice will come with no software of their own. Without such a utility, you’ll be able to customize mouse commands only within a game (via its in-game menus) or in your computer’s mouse settings. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; just know what you are getting, or not getting.
Don’t worry, Apple fans: Plenty of gaming mice are Mac-compatible, including their configuration software. We’ve tracked down the best gaming mice for Macs so you can take advantage of all those software perks.
What Is the Right Shape and Weight for My Gaming Mouse?
For increased comfort, some gaming mice allow you to customize their actual bodies to your hand. Removable weights, often resembling small steel pills, are common in better gaming mice. Adding or removing these weights from slots inside the mouse body will shift the overall feel and the amount of drag. Some models take this even further, letting you adjust the center of balance, or change the height and pitch of the palm rest.
(Credit: Mike Epstein)
Body tweaks more radical than that are rare, but a few models have swap-out side grips that snap or screw onto the left or right edge. Swapping out sides might enable you to adjust the mouse to your personal grip “style,” or to compensate for different hand sizes, if the mouse will be used by more than one person.
(Credit: Mike Epstein)
Finally, note that most gaming-mouse designs sculpted for a specific hand cater to right-handed users. Few and far between, alas, are the models that are just for lefties. The most that a left-handed user can hope for is a good ambidextrous design.
So, What Is the Right Gaming Mouse to Buy?
Finding the best gaming mouse for you comes down to knowing your preferred style of game, determining whether or not you will take advantage of more complex functions, and then tweaking the chosen mouse to your specific tastes. Our advice above should arm you with what to seek out; the spec breakout list below, of our top-rated gaming mice, is a great place to start shopping.
Looking to round out your gaming setup? Check out the guides to our favorite gaming keyboards, monitors, and headsets. And if you need to buy a new rig, you’ll want to read about our top-rated gaming desktops and laptops.
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