Serious gamers play in one of two ways. PC gamers usually sit at a desk with a keyboard and mouse in front of them and look at a monitor a foot or two away that typically measures between 20 and 30 inches. Console gamers, on the other hand, often sit on a couch with a gamepad and headset, staring at a TV that’s six or more feet away. The greater distance demands a bigger screen and means most monitors won’t cut it. You need a good TV for gaming. Ideally, that means getting a good TV in general, but there are specific qualities to consider as well.
We judge TVs based on several factors. Our biggest focus is on picture quality: We measure the contrast and colors to ensure everything looks as bright, dark, vivid, and accurate as the director (or game designer) intended. We also consider how easy the TV is to work with, factoring in aspects like remote ergonomics and interface design. Those qualities are all important when you sit down to watch your favorite movie or TV show but, for gaming, you need to think about additional factors, such as input lag and refresh rate.
We take all of these factors into account when testing TVs and determining which ones are best for gaming, and which ones are best kept in a seldom-used guest room. Read on for the top gaming TVs we’ve tested, followed by an in-depth explanation of all the gaming features we look for and how we evaluate them.
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More About Our Picks
Best Overall Value
Bottom Line:
The Hisense U8H LED TV offers flagship-level performance and an impressive array of features for a modest price.
Pros
- Excellent contrast and color range
- Google TV with hands-free Google Assistant and Google Cast
- Solid gaming features and performance
Cons
- Occasional light bloom
- Confusing pricing strategy
Why We Picked It
The Hisense U8H isn’t the fastest TV on the market but, with a response time of 8.1 milliseconds, it still beats the 10ms threshold we use to determine eligibility for this roundup. Support for AMD FreeSync Premium is another strong point in its favor, as is its Google TV interface with hands-free Google Assistant, Google Cast, and (later in 2022) Apple AirPlay. Aside from all that, this model offers fantastic picture quality, with incredible brightness and wide colors.
Who It’s For
This is an excellent all-around TV with strong gaming performance. It doesn’t have Nvidia G-Sync, but AMD-based PC gamers should enjoy the FreeSync Premium support. The input lag should satisfy most console gamers. And it also performs well whenever you just want to watch TV or movies.
Best OLED TV for Gaming
Bottom Line:
The outstanding LG C2 Evo OLED offers one of the best pictures we’ve ever seen on a TV, with nearly cinema-perfect color out of the box, as well as incredibly low input lag for gamers.
Pros
- Most accurate digital cinema color we’ve seen on a TV
- 120Hz panel with incredibly low input lag
- G-Sync Compatible and supports AMD FreeSync Premium
- WebOS offers Apple AirPlay, multiple voice assistants, and a web browser
Cons
- Remote control and WebOS are a bit clunky
- No hands-free Google Assistant
Why We Picked It
The LG C2 Evo OLED is one of our favorite TVs in general because it shows how fantastic an OLED picture can be. It offers incredible contrast, wide and accurate colors, and a capable smart TV platform with hands-free Amazon Alexa and Apple AirPlay. For gamers, though, its big boons are its support for both Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium, as well as its incredibly low input lag. With latency of less than two milliseconds, it’s one of the most responsive TVs you can buy.
Who It’s For
This is for any gamer who can afford OLED prices. The technology is still more expensive than most comparable LED-backlit LCD TVs, but the performance across the board is worth it. If you can splurge on your gaming TV, this is the one to get.
TCL 6-Series 4K Google TV
Best Alternative to Hisense U8H
Bottom Line:
The TCL 4K 6-Series with Google TV offers more features and better performance than the Roku-based 6-Series, and all you’re giving up is Apple AirPlay.
Pros
- Excellent contrast and color performance
- Google TV with Google Cast and hands-free Google Assistant
- Low input lag
Cons
- No AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync
- No Apple AirPlay
Why We Picked It
TCL’s 6-Series has long been one of our favorite affordable TV lines because it pushes the boundaries for relatively inexpensive TVs. The 4K Google TV 6-Series has an especially bright picture with very low black levels. It boasts fantastic contrast, wide colors, and a powerful Google TV interface with hands-free Google Assistant. It lacks AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync, but its 120Hz panel still shows suitably low input lag.
Who It’s For
This is one of the best-value TVs for its performance and price, though the Hisense U8H edges it out just slightly with its brighter panel, wider colors, and AMD FreeSync Premium. Even then, this model is a great middle ground if you don’t want to pay OLED prices but still want a picture with excellent contrast, and is a worthy alternative to the U8H. And its refresh rate and input lag should still please gamers.
Samsung QN90B Neo QLED TV
Best LED Gaming TV
Bottom Line:
The Samsung QN90B’s mini LED backlight results in a bright picture with effectively perfect black levels, though brightness and color could be slightly better.
Pros
- Fantastic contrast with visually perfect blacks and little to no light bloom
- Ideal white balance
- Hands-free voice assistants and Apple AirPlay 2
- Solar-powered, rechargeable remote
Cons
- Color and peak brightness aren’t quite as strong as predecessor’s
- Samsung’s smart TV interface is still frustrating to navigate
- No Dolby Vision support
Why We Picked It
Samsung’s QN90B Neo QLED TV is as pricey as an OLED model, but that’s because it’s one of the first LED-backlit LCD TVs that offers close-to-OLED performance. Its mini LED backlight system is accurate enough that it can effectively display perfect blacks with little to no light bloom, and it gets impressively bright. It makes a slight trade-off in color range compared with its predecessor (the QN90A) but it still shows a fantastic picture. The TV also has good gaming performance, with a 120Hz panel, AMD FreeSync Premium, and Samsung’s useful Game Bar interface that helps you keep track of what gaming features are on.
Who It’s For
The LG C2 has an edge in almost every category except brightness, the biggest weakness of OLED panels. If you’re willing to spend a decent chunk of money on your gaming TV and want the brightest picture, the QN90B is the TV to get. Also, while the input lag we measured at Samsung’s lab was fairly high (9.8 milliseconds, just under the cutoff), testing circumstances required us to use a different workflow that tends to produce higher latency measurements. If the QN90B is anything like Samsung’s S95B, which we tested based on our standard workflow, this TV might be much more responsive than our official numbers indicate.
SunBriteTV Veranda 3 Series
Best Outdoor Gaming TV
Bottom Line:
The SunBriteTV Veranda Series 3 offers a colorful picture and Android TV smart features in a rugged, weatherproof design built for outdoor use.
Pros
- Ruggedized for outdoor use
- Wide, accurate colors with Dolby Vision support
- Android TV provides phone mirroring, streaming media, and voice control
- Low input lag
Cons
- Expensive
- Doesn’t include a stand
- High black levels
Why We Picked It
Playing video games outdoors sounds like fun but, unless you’re willing to haul your TV in and out every time, you need some serious weatherproofing. Outdoor TVs are much more expensive than most other TVs, but that’s because they can handle heat, cold, and rain without breaking. They also tend to have screen treatments that reduce glare and make the TV viewable in sunlight, or at least in shade with sunlight nearby.
The SunBriteTV Veranda 3 is the best outdoor TV we’ve tested so far because it hits all of those notes, plus offers fairly strong picture quality and gaming performance. It gets reasonably bright and shows wide, accurate color. Furthermore, it features a Google TV interface, which means you get access to a variety of streaming services and other useful features. It only has a 60Hz refresh rate, but it supports AMD FreeSync and has low input lag.
Who It’s For
This is the TV to get for gaming in the backyard, on the patio, or near the pool. You can get better-looking, more responsive TVs with more gaming features, but none of them can survive the being rained on outside.
Vizio M50QXM-K01 M-Series Quantum X TV
Best Budget Gaming TV
Bottom Line:
The 50-inch Vizio M-Series Quantum X TV offers an incredibly wide color range and great gaming features for a reasonable price.
Pros
- Wide, balanced colors
- Fast 120Hz panel with low input lag and several desirable gaming features including 1080p240 mode
- SmartCast supports both Apple AirPlay and Google Cast
Cons
- Doesn’t get particularly bright
- Colors sometimes look slightly oversaturated
- Shadow details can appear washed out
Why We Picked It
Vizio’s 50-inch M50QXM-K01 is a solid TV with just one weakness that holds it back from greatness. It has incredible color performance, great gaming performance and features, and the flexibility of both Apple AirPlay and Google Cast. Its contrast is pretty mediocre, though. That’s not great for films, but its tendency to blow out shadow details can actually help out in video games by letting you see what might be hiding in the darkness. Most importantly, it’s one of the most affordable 120Hz TVs available, with AMD FreeSync Premium and 6.7ms input lag to boot.
Who It’s For
The M50QXM-K01 is ideal for gamers looking for a very big monitor or a modest gaming TV. It’s inexpensive for a 120Hz model and its AMD FreeSync Premium support should please Radeon owners. The Vizio SmartCast smart TV platform is also functional and unobtrusive. Finally, the TV’s wide colors should really help games pop. There are larger Vizio M-Series Quantum X TVs, but their stated peak brightness levels are much higher. We need to test them separately but, if their brightness claims are accurate, the 65- and 75-inch models might be a better bet than this 50-inch model.
The Best Roku TV
Bottom Line:
TCL introduces mini-LED backlighting to its already-excellent 6-Series 4K Roku TV, bringing it in line with top-notch Google TV competitors.
Pros
- Very high contrast
- Wide colors
- Low input lag with AMD FreeSync Pro and 144Hz support
Cons
- White balance is a bit skewed out of the box
Why We Picked It
Although we prefer the TCL 6-Series Google TV for its broader feature set and more accurate colors, the 6-Series 4K Roku TV is still an excellent value. It gets bright, shows wide color, and has a low price. It should especially appeal to gamers because of its 120Hz panel, VRR up to 144Hz, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support, and very low input lag.
Who It’s For
This simple, inexpensive TV offers top-notch gaming performance for the price. It’s worth looking at if you want a capable TV with sub-5ms latency and don’t mind slightly inaccurate white levels or just basic voice features.
Best for 8K Early Adopters
Bottom Line:
TCL’s 6-Series of 8K TVs offer an excellent picture with impressive contrast and wide colors for a more affordable price than we’ve seen on other 8K models, though there still isn’t any content to really take advantage of it.
Pros
- Fantastic contrast
- Strong color performance
- Good 8K upconversion
Cons
- Expensive
- 8K content still isn’t available
Why We Picked It
We generally don’t recommend getting an 8K TV because no major streaming services or consumer physical media support that resolution yet. That includes game consoles, but PCs are potentially a different story. Pushing 8K resolution requires a lot of power and not all games support it but, if you want to try, TCL’s 8K 6-series is the model we recommend. It’s inexpensive for an 8K TV and offers pretty strong picture quality. It doesn’t have any fancy gaming features besides standard variable refresh rate (VRR), but its low input lag means it can handle as many pixels as your gaming PC can throw at it.
Who It’s For
8K is still really only for early adopters. Among the gaming crowd, it’s for those who already have or plan to secure a GeForce RTX 3080 or 4080, or a similar Radeon graphics card. This is a resolution for the ambitious. Otherwise, consider a 4K TV with better performance.
Best for Alexa Support
Bottom Line:
Amazon’s first attempt at making its own television, the Fire TV Omni offers an impressive range of features for the price, tempered by average picture quality.
Pros
- Affordable
- Lots of Fire TV features
- Hands-free Alexa voice control
- Well-balanced colors
- Low input lag
Cons
- Mediocre contrast and color range
- No Apple AirPlay or Google Cast
- Few gaming features
- Dolby Vision only on 65- and 75-inch models
Why We Picked It
Amazon’s Fire TV platform is powerful and we like its media streamers, but we’ve yet to be impressed by a TV that relies on this platform. Our basic viewpoint on Fire TV hasn’t changed with Amazon’s “high-end” Fire TV model, the Fire TV Omni, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth considering. Simply put, this is the cheapest TV we’ve tested that shows strong gaming performance; it offers an impressively low input lag of 2.6 milliseconds, for instance. The TV also boasts hands-free Amazon Alexa. We’re not fans of its contrast or colors but, if you want cheap and fast, this is the TV to get.
Who It’s For
This is the deep-budget gaming TV. If you want incredibly low latency for a very low price, the Amazon Fire TV Omni is a good choice. Just know that the picture lags behind every other TV on this list. The Vizio M50QXM-K01, for instance, has a much better, and brighter, panel.
Are TVs Good for Gaming?
Up until a few years ago, fancy gaming features and syncing compatibility were solely for gaming monitors. Now, TVs are getting into the action and many of those same features are available over HDMI (rather than DisplayPort, something very few TVs offer). They include Auto Low-Latency Mode (ALLM), Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Nvidia G-Sync, and AMD FreeSync.
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ALLM is a simple but useful feature for gaming with a PC, Xbox One, or Xbox Series X/S. When you start to play a game, it sends a signal to the TV for it to automatically switch into the gaming picture mode and turn on any other gaming features. And, when you stop playing, it automatically exits that mode and turns off the related features.
TV shows and movies almost all have consistent frame rates, but game frame rates can vary wildly. As a result, TVs with refresh rates fixed at 60Hz or 120Hz can struggle to display action smoothly. VRR means the TV can adjust its refresh rate on the fly to match the video source. It can reduce or completely remove choppiness and screen tearing from your games.
Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync are other frame rate- and refresh rate-syncing features. They let a display sync directly with a PC’s graphics card (GeForce and Radeon, respectively) and help reduce screen tearing. Depending on your GPU, either of these features is useful if you plan on connecting your PC to your TV.
What TV Has the Lowest Input Lag?
Input lag is the amount of time between when a TV receives a signal and the display updates. Fighting games, action games, and other titles that require precise timing work best when input lag is very low. It can make the difference between feeling like you have total control over everything happening and needing to constantly compensate for what amounts to very tiny pauses that can throw off your game.
Input lag generally ranges between 5 and 120 milliseconds for TVs, with the biggest differences not between different TVs but between any given TV’s game mode and other picture modes. If you play in the Theater picture mode on even the fastest TV, you are likely to experience tons of lag anyway.
We consider less than 20ms to be acceptable, but for a TV to qualify for this roundup, the input lag must be under 10ms. We previously used 20ms as our best-for-gaming threshold, but we’ve seen significant drops in input lag over the last year or so.
We test input lag using an HDFury 4K Diva 18Gbps HDMI matrix(Opens in a new window) with an Xbox One X as a source. The matrix processes the source video to 4K, then transmits the picture to the TV with a black box overlaid on the center of the screen. A light sensor we place on the screen measures the box as it flashes, determining how long the TV takes between when the signal is sent and the picture changes, down to the tenth of a millisecond.
The Diva can measure input lag with both 1080p and 4K pictures, though so far we’ve seen deviations between the two resolutions to be negligible. Resolution doesn’t appear to affect input lag when image processing features are turned off (you should turn any of these off if you want the lowest possible input lag).
LG C2
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
We record lag times with the TV’s game mode enabled because input lag is most important for gaming. We also note input lag in other picture modes for reference.
The Best TVs for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X
4K is currently the standard for most new TVs. Whether your games have true 4K resolution or high dynamic range (HDR), contrast and color depends on the platform you use and the game you play.
The newest consoles, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X (and Series S) and Sony’s PlayStation 5, support 4K resolution (3,840 by 2,160) with HDR. Games on these systems typically look sharper and more vibrant than those for previous-generation consoles such as the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro (and much sharper than the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One S, which don’t support 4K gaming at all). The new systems also support graphical features like raytracing that their predecessors don’t. You should look for a TV that supports 4K HDR so you can fully enjoy the latest games.
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Refresh rates (the number of times a screen draws a picture per second, measured in Hz) are also important for gaming. All TVs are at least 60Hz, but some are 120Hz. The latter are capable of showing twice as many frames per second. The newer game consoles are capable of hitting frame rates of 120fps (though this is still a rare occurrence). Nonetheless, fast frame rates paired with a TV with a high refresh rate result in ultra-smooth performance.
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Gaming Monitor vs. TV
If you want extremely low input lag and much wider support for various refresh rates and VRR, you need to turn toward smaller screens. By that, we mean dedicated gaming monitors. These are specifically designed for gaming and emphasize responsiveness at least as much as picture quality. Input lag below 4ms is common on high-end gaming monitors and they can also include PC-friendly features that further improve performance, such as adaptive refresh rates with Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync. However, we’ve seen TVs get closer and closer to these numbers over the last year or two, as well as begin to include features like G-Sync and FreeSync, so, eventually, the distinction between the two might become moot.
The biggest drawback with gaming monitors is that you need to spend much more per square inch. Monitors are generally smaller than TVs and are designed for use from only a foot or two away, at a desk. They have fewer inputs, don’t always feature speakers, and rarely have any kind of remote control. If you want to game from your couch, a gaming monitor simply isn’t feasible. But if you’re ready to play from your desk, check out our list of the best gaming monitors.
If you simply want the best picture available, meanwhile, look at our roundup of the best TVs, the best 65-inch TVs, and the best 75-inch (and up) TVs. And if you want to save some money, head over to our list of the best cheap TVs, which highlights some models that are still good for gaming.
For more buying advice, see our story on what TV model numbers and SKUs actually mean.
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