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Best gaming earbuds
If you’re not all about those giant wireless gaming headsets, or you need something more portable for gaming on the move, you should definitely consider getting a pair of gaming earbuds. Especially if you regularly play games on your mobile or on portable consoles like the Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck when you’re out and about. And if you just want to ditch the bulky headphones at home, these earbuds have got your back. Now, not all earbuds are made for gaming, so we’ve handpicked some of the best ones out there just for you.
What's new?
- This article was updated on February 16, 2024, to add the Sony INZONE Buds as a notable mention.
- If you are interested in earbuds for more than just gaming, check out our list of the best wireless earbuds, and if you are on a budget, see our top picks for the best wireless earbuds for under $100 and under $50.
- If you are looking for a more immersive gaming experience, check out our list of the best gaming headsets, and if you play a lot of online multiplayer matches, see our picks for the best gaming headsets with good microphones for clear communication.
The best wired earbuds for gaming is the JBL Quantum 50
For most people, the JBL Quantum 50 will be the best option when it comes to gaming earbuds. Not only is it very affordable at $30, but it sounds quite good for any gaming or musical genre.
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The JBL Quantum 50 carries an in-line control module with a microphone, fits comfortably, and can connect to any device or controller with a 3.5mm headphone jack (from the Xbox Series X/S to the PlayStation 5). You can experiment with the three different ear tip options to find the perfect fit, all with great isolation. A rubberized disc grips your ear and allows the buds to sit comfortably and securely.
The frequency response of the JBL Quantum 50 follows our consumer curve pretty closely, with a bit of emphasis in the bass frequency range. This is common in gaming headsets, and you can still hear the mids and highs along with the bass frequencies. In short, it makes for a pair of truly enjoyable earbuds that reproduce sound clearly.
The microphone on the JBL Quantum 50 is just okay. It’s a bit muffled and quiet, but it’s fine for phone calls. Take a listen for yourself:
JBL Quantum 50 microphone demo (Ideal conditions):
JBL Quantum 50 microphone demo (Office conditions):
How does the mic sound to you?
EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid does everything well, not just gaming
The EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid is a set of wireless earbuds that does a lot very well. It’s well built, it has an IPX5 water-resistant rating, and it’s pretty lightweight too.
The earbuds come with a USB-C dongle that uses aptX Low Latency for connecting to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, and PC. It also supports dongle-free Bluetooth connections using the regular aptX and default SBC Bluetooth codecs, but not AAC. These earbuds even support Bluetooth multipoint.
Anyone who hates the heft of over-ear gaming headsets will enjoy this pair of wireless gaming earbuds, though the microphone doesn’t work when you’re gaming, so there is a trade-off there. The frequency response chart (at the end of the image gallery above) shows a pleasant sound profile apart from an under-emphasis in the treble frequencies, but in testing it, there aren’t any notable problems with it. The slight b00st in bass makes for a traditional gaming experience, with gunshots and explosions being pleasantly loud without masking higher-pitched sounds like footsteps.
The microphone in the EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid is decent, but the biggest issue is that you can’t use it for in-game chat, which is strange for gaming earbuds. The mic quality itself is just average, sounding a bit muffled. Listen for yourself:
EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid microphone demo (Non-standardized):
How does the microphone sound to you?
There are a host of high-quality Bluetooth codecs for Android phone owners to take advantage of, with aptX being among the most reliable for the largest range of handsets. You can read all about Bluetooth codecs in our explainer, but all you really need to know is AAC is best for iPhones, and aptX (or LDAC) is generally best for Android phones.
Get the Razer Hammerhead Hyperspeed if you want noise canceling
With noise canceling and IPX4 water resistance, the Razer Hammerhead Hyperspeed is a great option for on-the-go mobile gamers looking for low-latency wireless gaming earbuds. This new model brings new compatibility options with a USB-C dongle and
It uses Bluetooth 5.2 and supports the SBC and AAC codecs, and has a low-latency mode for gaming and streaming that reduces latency to 60ms. Even without aptX support, the low-latency mode works pretty well, but if you really want no latency, you can use the included USB-C dongle for gaming. The inclusion of the dongle also makes gaming with these earbuds on PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch viable, which is great to see.
Sound quality is also great, with Razer partnering with THX on these buds. The frequency response chart (end of the gallery above) for the earbuds closely follows our consumer curve, though there’s some under-emphasis in the treble range. However, this doesn’t cause any significant issues, and you can EQ the sound in the mobile app. It also comes with a variety of ear tips, with six different silicone tips and a memory foam tip option as well to ensure good isolation.
If you are willing to spend a little extra, the Razer Hammerhead Pro Hyperspeed ($199 at Amazon) is a more premium version of these earbuds that packs a few additional features, such as ANC and low latency.
The Razer Hammerhead Hyperspeed has an okay microphone. It’s perfectly fine for phone calls or in-game chat, but it is a bit loud. Take a listen:
Razer Hammerhead Hyperspeed microphone sample (Ideal conditions)
How does the microphone sound to you?
The best wireless earbuds for gaming is the Logitech G Fits
One of the unique features of the Logitech G Fits earbuds is the LIGHTFORM technology. These earbuds use a light-activated gel-hardening process to mold the ear tips to your specific ear shape. This ensures a comfortable fit that provides excellent acoustic isolation, an important factor when it comes to the quality of sound reproduction.
When it comes to compatibility, the Logitech G Fits earbuds stand out as they are designed to provide lag-free wireless audio for gaming. They come equipped with a USB dongle and support Bluetooth 5.2, ensuring broad compatibility with various devices, including PCs, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
The audio performance of the Logitech G Fits is worth mentioning. The earbuds offer a pleasant music-listening experience with a satisfying bass response. The frequency response does not overly emphasize the bass, which can be a common issue in gaming audio products. Moreover, they handle typical stereo mixes well during gaming sessions, ensuring a comprehensive and immersive audio experience.
The Logitech G Fits doesn’t have the best microphone, but it does use a USB connection, which is more reliable. Take a listen for yourself below:
Logitech G Fits microphone demo (Ideal conditions):
Logitech G Fits microphone demo (Office conditions):
Logitech G Fits microphone demo (Reverberant conditions):
The Edifier TWS1 Pro are a great bang for the buck
The Edifier TWS1 Pro 2 is packed full of features yet still comes in under $50. Aside from active noise canceling (ANC), they also sport a low-latency mode for gaming, so there’s little discrepancy between seeing and hearing someone’s lips move on screen. These are a great value buy if you need to block out noise from others to focus on the game.
The earbuds also sound pretty good out of the box, with only a slight boost to bass. You can also select from 3 other equalizer presets in the companion app: pop, classical, and rock. You can also track lost earbuds using the app and customize the onboard touch controls.
The main drawback with these earbuds is relatively poor battery life. But if you don’t plan on using these earbuds for more than five hours of gameplay or at least taking a break in between to charge, they are a great option.
The microphone quality is okay, and you can hear it in our demo below.
Edifier TWS1 Pro 2 microphone demo (Ideal conditions):
Edifier TWS1 Pro 2 microphone demo (Office conditions):
Edifier TWS1 Pro 2 microphone demo (Street conditions):
How does the microphone sound to you?
The Logitech G333 is a great value pick for gamers
For $50, the Logitech G333 is a great choice for gamers who want a great bang for their buck. The Logitech G333 has a 3.5mm connection as well as a USB-C adapter, so mobile gamers and console gamers alike can enjoy these buds.
The Logitech G333 features an in-line microphone and media controls, making for a convenient experience whether you’re gaming, listening to music, or taking a call. It also has dual drivers like the Razer Hammerhead Duo, making for improved sound quality.
With three silicone ear tip options and an aluminum build, the Logitech G333 is a comfortable and durable option that doesn’t break the bank.
Considering that it only has an in-line microphone, the Logitech G333 delivers pretty decent mic performance for a set of earbuds.
Logitech G333 microphone demo (Ideal conditions):
Logitech G333 microphone demo (Office conditions):
How does the microphone sound to you?
Should you get the ASUS ROG Certa II?
The Asus ROG Certa II has a heftier price tag than the other options on this list, but is it worth the extra money? The earbuds feature active noise canceling and RGB lighting, as well as liquid silicone rubber drivers.
If you’re looking for something with more of a gamer aesthetic than other options, the ASUS ROG Certa II certainly brings that to the table. It also connects via USB-C, making it a good option for mobile or Nintendo Switch gamers. It also boasts a microphone with noise suppression. Most mobile gamers won’t see the point of spending this much on wired earbuds, but it could be worth it if you value ANC, customizable RGB lighting, and a solid mic system.
Is the 1MORE Quad Driver In-Ear worth it?
If you want durable in-ears with good sound for gaming, the 1MORE Quad Driver In-ear could be a good choice. The cable is wrapped in kevlar, making it super durable, and the 3.5mm jack is L-shaped, which, while inconvenient in your pocket, is more durable than a straight cable. The sound quality is amazing, perfect for anyone who wants to hear everything going on in their game. The price is a bit steep at $114 USD, so there are likely better options for you out there. But if durability and sound quality are top of mind, it’s worth considering.
Notable mentions
- 1MORE Triple Driver ($68 at Amazon): For less than $100, the durable cable and solid audio quality make these earbuds a must-have for anyone who wants a plug-and-play solution.
- ROCCAT Syn Buds Core ($34 at Amazon): This pair of earbuds is super affordable and has in-line controls and a microphone. It’s a very basic and easy-to-use option, though it’s worth noting that they sound very bass-heavy.
- Turtle Beach Battle Buds ($39.99 on Amazon): The Battle Buds is another cheap option for on-the-go gaming, though it sets itself apart from other earbuds as it comes with a detachable microphone. Does it look silly? A little. Is it useful to have a boom mic rather than an in-line mic? Also yes. However, you can use the in-line mic if you are too embarrassed to use the boom mic in public.
- SteelSeries Tusq ($54.99 on Amazon): The SteelSeries Tusq earbuds feature a boom mic as well as an in-line mic, so talking to others while you’re gaming will be a breeze. It connects to a 3.5mm headphone jack, so it will work on most consoles and any phones that still have a headphone jack. Among SteelSeries’ line of headsets, this is its only pair of earbuds.
- Sony INZONE Buds ($198 at Amazon): The Sony INZONE Buds are a good option for PS5 and PC gamers only.
- Turtle Beach Scout Air ( $42 at Amazon): This is a set of true wireless earbuds that uses Bluetooth 5.1 and works with mobile devices like your phone and Nintendo Switch. It may not look as premium as the Hammerhead Pro from Razer, but they work just as well.
- Razer Hammerhead Pro Hyperspeed ($199 at Amazon): These wired earbuds are great for gamers who don’t want to deal with Bluetooth latency or unreliability and want the benefits of active noise cancelation (ANC).
- HyperX Cloud Mix Buds ( $99 at Amazon): Using a USB-C dongle or Bluetooth, you can game with these earbuds on mobile or console. It has a five-band equalizer in the NGENUITY app for sound customization, and it has an IPX4 rating, so you don’t have to shed a tear if you get them a bit wet. There are caveats to these buds, like the hyper-sensitive in-ear detection, the bulky USB-C dongle, and the fact that the NGENUITY app doesn’t retain all of your settings.
What you should know about gaming earbuds
Are wired or wireless gaming earbuds better?
Latency can definitely be a concern when gaming, so it’s important to consider your options and preferences when buying earbuds for gaming. Wired earbuds will consistently have the lowest latency because they’re wired, and you can run into issues when looking for wireless options.
Wireless earbuds with receivers can have lower latency, but Bluetooth can be a mixed bag. AptX Low Latency is a good option, while SBC and AAC run the risk of lagging. Some earbuds will come with a gaming mode with lower latency, which helps reduce latency. If you’re looking to avoid latency as much as possible, wired is the way to go. Remember, lower latency codecs require a device that supports it—it doesn’t matter how many great codecs your earbuds support; the Nintendo Switch still only uses SBC, after all.
What are isolation and active noise canceling?
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Isolation is a really important factor when it comes to earbuds. It is the physical barrier that your earbuds make with your ears to ensure environmental sounds stay out of your ears and your earbuds aren’t leaking sound either. Achieving a good fit is crucial for isolation. Isolation works best against higher-pitched sounds like dishes clanging or fingers snapping.
Active noise cancellation uses microphones to pick up sound from outside of your earbuds and cancel it out with the opposite sound waves, or anti-noise. Since there’s a delay in picking up sounds and identifying them, it works best with droning noises since it can predict what to cancel out. With good isolation and noise canceling working in tandem, you can keep most outside sounds out of your ears.
When you’re using earbuds, fit matters a lot. To have the most sound isolation, the best sound quality, and the most comfort when you’re gaming, you’ll want to have earbuds that fit well in your ears. Many earbuds come with different ear tip sizes since companies realize not everyone has the same size ears. Silicone ear tips won’t always come in the best size and fit for you, so foam ear tips can be great for getting a more custom fit for your ears.
How should gaming earbuds sound?
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If you’ve read any of our reviews, you’ve probably seen our frequency response charts. These charts show how closely headphones (cyan line) will reproduce audio compared to our house curve (pink line). Our house curve represents what consumers tend to prefer in headphones. While some people will prefer a flat curve, most people will prefer more bass and treble. If you want to learn more, you can read more about the SoundGuys house curve.
The best frequency response will be one that doesn’t boost certain frequencies so much that it’s hard to hear others. If you have too much bass and too little treble, you’re not going to enjoy what you hear as much, and when you’re gaming, you might miss out on some important environmental cues.
How we choose the best gaming earbuds
At SoundGuys, we perform objective tests to measure things like frequency response, isolation, microphone quality, and more. To do so, we use a Bruel & Kjaer 5128 head and torso simulator (HATS) with an anatomically realistic ear canal and outer ear. We also use a standardized setup to test the microphone quality of products with pre-recorded phrases from a calibrated artificial mouth in our test chamber. This allows us to present standardized microphone samples to you so you can judge the quality of various products and compare them across the board. After we collect all of this data, we then score each product through various objective and subjective measures.
Our team then confers with one another regarding the best products for a given category before presenting our list to you. It’s not over after we hit “publish,” though. Instead, we treat every article as a living document that we update as new and worthy products come out.
Why you should trust SoundGuys
Each writer at SoundGuys has accumulated years of experience reporting on the consumer audio market, and our staff adheres to a strict ethics policy. We don’t use ads or sponsored content on the website at a time when doing so is the norm. SoundGuys’ survival depends solely on readers enjoying their purchases. We pride ourselves on transparently outlining objective facts while accounting for the subjective experience to contextualize an audio product’s performance. When we do misspeak, we correct and own up to it.
Frequently asked questions about gaming earbuds
Connecting your earbuds will depend on the earbuds and the console. If you’re using earbuds with a 3.5mm connection, you can just plug it into the headphone jack of your console, controller, or PC. If it has a dongle, you can plug it into the corresponding port on your device. And if it’s Bluetooth, you’ll need to go into your Bluetooth settings and pair the earbuds to the device. For a more in-depth guide, you can read more here.
That depends on your own preferences. Some people like bass frequencies to be louder so deeper sounds like explosions or gunshots are more impactful, but others prefer something flatter so they can hear treble frequencies like footsteps better. The best earbuds will be ones that don’t mask any frequency but still reproduce sound to your specific liking. If you know you like some bass boosting, you can go for earbuds that have an emphasis in that range. If you know you like hearing treble more clearly, go for earbuds with less emphasis in the bass frequency and an emphasis on the treble range.
Several brands stand out in the market for their superior quality and performance in gaming earbuds. In our analysis, we found Logitech, Razer, and JBL to be among the best.
Undoubtedly, gaming earbuds are specifically engineered to enhance the gaming experience. They offer immersive sound and comfort, essential for prolonged gaming sessions.
Yes, wireless gaming earbuds provide excellent sound quality and offer the added advantage of unrestricted movement, proving their worth in a competitive gaming environment.
The best Bluetooth earbuds for gaming would be the Razer Hammerhead Hyperspeed. They feature Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity and a low latency mode for gaming.
Earbuds are often favored for their lightweight and compact design, which offers comfort over extended gaming sessions without compromising on sound quality or gaming performance. Wired earbuds also remove any latency you may get with wireless options.