49 Best Gifts for Gamers, Whether They’re Experts, Bots, or NPCs

With gaming’s decades-long explosion, the business has objectively become pretty sinister, but Nintendo almost always falls on the right side of history. A lot of that is down to the influence of Satoru Iwata, one of gaming’s most beloved minds. The gamer in your life could use the inspiration … and they sure as hell could benefit from reading a book for once.

Game of the year! Game of the year! And it’s absolutely insane.

Samsung’s 2nd Gen Freestyle projector comes with one big upgrade: Samsung Gaming Hub. This little thing can stream games via Steam or Xbox Game Pass. That means it can essentially function as a packable console.

If you want to introduce that special someone in your life to the magical joy of PC gaming, this is a good place to start. It’s not top-of-the-line, but this Acer gaming laptop will get you as far as most gamers need to go.

If the Series X (or S) is your console of choice—and you don’t actually own any games and just pay for Game Pass—this is the headset you need. SteelSeries makes more advanced headsets with bigger dongles, but we love the Nova 7 series for its simplicity and ease of use. Sound and mic quality are top-notch as well.

If a PS5 is more their speed, get them the Arctis Nova 7P. Same great wireless headset with a different dongle optimized for PlayStation.

The SteelSeries headsets are great, affordable gifts for console devotees. But if your beloved jumps from PC to PS5 depending on what they’re playing at the moment, we have a shout-out for you: Logitech G’s newest headphones, the Astro A50 X. These are really the first Bluetooth headphones of their kind, and they earned an Esquire Gaming Award because of it.

Essentially, they connect via a Bluetooth adapter, but they can connect to multiple devices at a time. That means that switching from Xbox to PlayStation to PC audio requires only the flip of a switch. It happens instantly, like changing the channel. If they are a multi-platform gamer, this is an incredible splurge.

Recovery is essential to any athlete. And yes, we’ll give gamers the title of athlete. These Therabody goggles will massage away any screen fatigue or headache.

If you want to get the gamer in your life something that will up their style game and make them feel like are living in Night City, these Meta Ray-Bans are the premium pick. Take a classic, time-honored sunglasses design and merge it with the best in AR and voice-recognition tech and you have a pair of glasses that is so much more. They also let you snap photos like a spy, and nothing we’ve done since feels quite as cool.

If your cousin plays Street Fighter VI obsessively, get them this classy fight stick to give ’em a competitive edge. This one is compatible with any PC setup as well as with Nintendo Switch.

Any gamer—even if they are not of a certain age—will have some nostalgia for this Lego set.

Yes, they will think you’re crazy, but hear me out. Sitting for long periods of time gives you crazy hip and back issues. If they do ten minutes of hip-flexor exercises with these bands, it will eliminate most standard gaming-induced hip and back pain. It worked for me; it’ll work for them!

It’s Codenames, from the hit team-based puzzle deduction card game Codenames. It’s Marvel, from everything your kids like. So get this for them and their siblings and let them go nuts.

Let’s just admit it, the Switch’s Joy-Cons suck. If you have normal man-sized hands, they are too small. They break easily and often—both of the pairs I own have severe stick drift. If this is a problem for the gamer in your life, get them this officially licensed Split Pad Pro. It’s ergonomic and tactile.

If they haven’t played one of the biggest contenders for Game of the Year 2023, it’s absolutely the best gift you could give them. Plus, with hundreds of hours of (genuinely fun and inventive) content, it will keep them busy for months.

We love the AirPods Pro, and we grew up on the Game Boy. That makes this the nostalgic accessory of the year.

My eight-year-old nephew loves Sonic, so the Sega classic is fully back in the zeitgeist. That makes this Lego set perfect for gamers within a wide range of age groups.

Get your dearest gamer a personalized, engraved wood charging stand. It chargers their controllers, which means they are forced to display it, even if they are the type to otherwise let that shit collect dust.

Even though it just dropped, the hype for Astro Bot is already astronomical. We’ve played it, and yes, believe what you hear. This is a true GOTY contender, a nostalgic trip through gaming history and one of the most finely crafted platformers ever made. It’s also officially the new best reason to get a PS5.