Gaming Chairs That Cost More Than Your Rent

The idea of a dedicated gaming chair might have seemed silly a few decades ago, but as video games have gotten more immersive, playing times have gone up exponentially. Anyone sitting in the same position for hours on end needs a suitable chair, and as a result, sales of gaming chairs have skyrocketed over the past few years. Brands like Secretlab, DXRacer, and Noblechairs have emerged as market leaders, with prices usually ranging anywhere between $300 and $700 for a high-quality chair. However, there are some gaming chairs that cost double, triple, or even 10 times the amount that most people would be comfortable paying. These chairs represent the very top of the market, catering to the most demanding gamers with the deepest pockets. Whether it's a gaming station shaped like a giant scorpion or a designer chair that's featured in several movies, getting your hands on one of these gamer thrones will mean coughing up more cash than most people's monthly rent bill.

Herman Miller makes a variety of high-end chairs, desks, and furniture, and the brand recently branched out into making gaming chairs. The Embody Gaming Edition takes its best-selling Embody office chair and tweaks it for the optimal gaming experience, with extra layers of foam on the seat for additional comfort. Gamers also have a reputation for getting hot and sweaty during intense sessions, so the Embody Gaming Edition features copper-infused foam technology designed to draw heat away from the body, keeping the chair's occupant cooler through the most heated parts of a match.

Retailing at $1,795, the Embody Gaming Edition is roughly the same price as the standard Embody office chair, which starts at $1,745. It's costly, and it's very much in line with the rest of Herman Miller's prices, with most of the brand's non-gaming chairs also retailing for similar figures. As well as featuring cutting-edge cooling technology, the Embody Gaming Edition is arguably one of the most astonishing low-key chairs on the market, with a spine-like split design at the rear that will look good with any gaming setup.

In comparison to some of the other wild-looking chairs here, the Osim uThrone looks a bit plain. But, its unique selling point is hidden beneath the chair's cushions, as it claims to be the first gaming chair with realistic massage technology. The uThrone features what Osim calls "V-hand Technology," which is meant to simulate the hand movements of a masseuse to provide a more effective massage than anything else on the market. It features built-in rollers that roll along the neck and shoulders which are designed to reduce stress and tension across two parts of the body that are most often strained during long gaming sessions.

PC Gamer tested out the uThrone for themselves and was impressed with its massaging capabilities, although they noted that it was very much a niche product at its price point. Most dedicated massage chairs cost more, but they're able to provide a more varied and customizable set of functions than the uThrone. Likewise, most gaming chairs will be significantly cheaper, with even top-of-the-line products from market leaders like Secretlab costing hundreds of dollars less. Nevertheless, for the few gamers who can't resist getting a full massage while playing their favorite game, the uThrone is a surprisingly competent option.

Unveiled in 2019, the Acer Predator Thronos Air is actually the cheaper version of its predecessor, simply called the Predator Thronos, which cost $30,000 and included a cutting-edge Acer gaming PC. The Predator Thronos Air doesn't include a PC, monitor, or any other form of hardware as standard, instead simply being the chair and surrounding steel structure. Acer called the Air "the perfect gaming cave for hardcore enthusiasts," but with its sky-high price of $13,995, even the most dedicated gamers would have to weigh up their options before buying one.

The chair includes haptic feedback technology that syncs with PCs to create vibrations in response to action within games, but there's also a massage feature to unwind after each gaming session. For optimal comfort during longer sessions, the chair and monitors can be tilted between 130 degrees and 180 degrees. There's also a built-in headset holder, cup holders, a USB hub, and a camera that's designed for live streaming to YouTube or Twitch. It's pretty much everything the most serious gamer could need, minus any actual gaming hardware, of course.

If Herman Miller's Embody chair looked a little too unusual, the Aeron Gaming Edition might be just the ticket. At a glance, it looks like a standard office chair, but it's been reworked to better suit long periods of gaming. The chair is designed to encourage a more upright posture, which aims to help prevent strain on the back and neck. It's also fully adjustable, with the arms, height, and recline functions all designed for a range of different body types.

It's not as feature-packed as many of the other chairs at its price point, but it is more sustainably made than most of them. Herman Miller uses recycled plastic waste that's diverted from the ocean, and the frame and base are made from glass-filled nylon for a smaller environmental impact. Herman Miller's website also mentions that the chair comes in Onyx, their darkest paint shade yet, which is supposed to match any gaming setup. While that's a good thing for potential buyers, the color of the chair seems like an odd thing to champion given that this is a $1,700 piece of furniture.

Sim racing strikes again with the RSeat S1, a rig that's designed to emulate the seating position of both rally and GT cars. At a starting price of $1,249, it already sits towards the upper end of the racing rig market, but to really get the most out of it, it's worth adding in all of the chair's optional extras. A speaker upgrade kit will add an extra $99, the keyboard and mouse tray upgrade kit an extra $129, and the shifter and handbrake kit a further $129. This all leads to a chair that can cost well in excess of $1,500 when all these extras are taken into account.

The seat comes wrapped in Alcantara, a patented high-end material that's often found on real racing seats and in luxury vehicles. Unlike certain other rigs and workstations, there's no built-in monitor mount, so that will have to be purchased separately too, with RSeat's most high-end monitor stand retailing for $599. All in all, a very costly setup, but a relative bargain considering some of the other crazily expensive gaming chairs and workstations on the market.