Is This Costco Gaming Chair Worth Buying? Here's What Owners Have To Say

Gaming style desk chairs have become increasingly popular over the years, but they can be expensive. Many brands with racing style chairs on offer, such as Herman Miller or Secretlab, have gaming chairs that cost more than your rent, with eye watering price tags that far exceed the budget of your average shopper. Perhaps that's why so many people have rolled the dice on a $150 option from Costco. The DPS Centurion Gaming Chair seems to offer all the features of its costly competitors, but for a fraction of the price. However, while some owners rave about it, others were plagued by issues, and some have more mixed opinions.

I picked the DPS Centurion up about two months ago, and I was surprised to see how both my pros and cons for this chair were echoed by quite a few of the over 1,400 reviews for it on the Costco website. I had never heard of the brand before seeing this chair in-store, and DPS didn't even make our ranking of the best gaming chair brands. But with by now multiple hundreds of hours of sit time during writing and gaming sessions, and having combed through even more hundreds of reviews from other customers, it's clear there's a lot to love about this chair — but also a lot to worry about. 

There's definitely a person for whom this will be a Goldilocks chair, the perfect fit for them, the majority of people certainly have room to gripe. The deciding factor will likely be whether you find the downsides too much for your backside to handle, or if you're hype to rest your hips at this price point. Here's what owners have to say about Costco's most affordable gaming chair.

My great experience with the DPS Centurion gaming chair started with assembly. As noted by a number of reviewers, setup was incredibly easy. You essentially snap in the wheels, mount the back and armrests to the seat, plop the whole thing onto the cylinder and base, then stick on the headrest. Sitting down, the seat is plush but without too much give. This isn't a chair that will swallow your backside. Along with other reviewers, I found its overall comfort to be great.

The most interesting thing about this chair is its back support, which seems to be a love or hate thing for those who own it. It consists of a large, somewhat free-floating section in the center of the back that moves with the user. In practice, it's not nearly as good as the more considered approaches to back support you'd get from a luxury chair, but for the price point, it more than gets the job done. 

In fact, it seems quite similar to the support system found in the much more expensive Razer Iskur V2 Gaming Chair. I loved it at first, but now I think it's just okay. Although some people raved about this back support system, with one user claiming they liked it better than a $1,000 chair they bought it to replace, others found it incredibly uncomfortable, and some reviews mention back pain after only a few days of use.

Some who purchased the DPS Centurion Gaming Chair at Costco had a worse experience than I did. Most alarmingly, some reported broken pieces in the box, with one review displaying a broken height adjustment lever and another with the back support piece had broken off. Others found the chair prone to damage over time, and two separate reviews included pictures of a ripped open seam toward the front of the seat cushion.

My ergonomic gripes with this chair found company among its many reviews. For one, I'm a short guy at 5 feet 6 inches, and the seat of the Centurion DPS is so long that I often find myself slouching forward to get my knees over the edge, while my feet barely rest on the floor. Meanwhile, I saw one review from a person who said the chair was too small for their 6-foot 1-inch stature, so it's possible there's actually a sweet spot somewhere in between the two of us. Those with short legs or tall upper bodies may want to avoid this chair.

Another problem area for some is the headrest. Complaints include it sliding down or bending back easily. I've experienced the opposite; my headrest refuses to lower. Also, some complain that the armrests are inconveniently placed. And finally, the DPS Centurion's faux-leather material is not at all breathable. If you live in a place where the weather gets warm, and you don't feel like peeling yourself out of your seat, you're likely to find that lack of breathability to be a major downside. On the other hand, at this price, you'll have some money left over for chair accessories to enhance your comfort.