With the holidays around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about what you’re going to do for gifts, and for those who have a gamer in their life you can’t go wrong with some nice gaming accessories, and we’ve got you covered with the best gaming accessories you can find.
A good gaming accessory can really improve the gaming experience whether it’s something for storage, something to enhance the gameplay like a nice controller, or just more space for games. There are tons and tons of gaming accessories out there though. And with that being the case, it can be daunting to find something that really fits what you’re after. Not to mention finding something that fits your budget. That’s why we’re doing our gift guides differently this year.
We’ve picked two of the best gaming accessories available at three different price points. Two of the best high-end accessories, two in the mid-range, and two low-end options. This way there’s a choice of accessories at every price point to meet all budgets. With that being said, let’s dive into the guide and take a look at the best gaming accessories your money can buy.
Best high-end gaming accessories
We’ll kick things off with the best gaming accessories at the high-end price point. These are the best of the best gaming accessories and if you’re looking to spend some money, these are what you want to buy.
They’ll be more expensive, but the best of the best doesn’t often come cheap. And if you’re looking at these accessories in particular then you already know that.
4TB WD_Black SN850 NVMe SSD
Whether you play games on PC or on PS5, one thing you are definitely going to need is more storage for games, which is why we recommend the 4TB WD_Black SN850 NVMe SSD. Some games these days can fill up your storage super quickly and that’s because of their file sizes. Not all games are big, but some of the most popular AAA titles can take up over 100GB of storage space. Take Call of Duty Black Ops 6, for example. If you choose to install everything that comes along with it, you’re looking at well over 100GB of file space. With a 4TB SSD, that isn’t going to be an issue at all.
I have been using this exact SSD in my PS5 for several months now, and it’s been the best choice I made when it comes to gaming accessory upgrades. I never have to worry about storage space anymore. And if you have this SSD inside of your console or PC, you won’t have to either.
It has blazing-fast sequential read and write speeds, and that’s going to help with game load times, faster installs, and faster file transfers. Plus, this model comes with the heatsink which means it’s ready to go for your PS5 if that’s what it’s for. You can also get this SSD in an 8TB model but I think the 4TB model is the sweet spot, given the cost of the 8TB. And it’s still pretty unlikely that you’ll fill up all 4TB of storage. At a regular full retail price of $379.99, the 4TB WD_Black SN850 SSD is a solid gaming accessory to buy this holiday season.
Plus, Best Buy currently has it on sale for $305.99. That makes it an even better value.
DualSense Edge Controller
Sony’s DualSense Edge controller may be designed for PS5, but it’s also compatible with PC and works with tons of different PC games. This is an accessory that is most certainly a must-have for every PS5 owner. The features it offers are too good to pass up and it makes playing loads of games way more fun. I primarily bought this controller for myself for use with Call of Duty games. The more I played with it though, the more I started to use it with other games as well. And it’s been the best controller I’ve ever used for games.
One of the main features it has is the back paddles. You can easily remove these buttons when you don’t need them as they attach with magnets. You can also map those paddles to most other buttons on the controller. So they’re completely versatile for all game types. What makes this even better is the ability to save different profiles. This lets you create a profile for all of your favorite games, and then you can swap between them on the fly.
Sony also designed the controller with easily removable joystick modules. If anything ever gets damaged on the joystick, or simply stops working, you can pop it out and replace it with a new one in under a minute. Without having to take the controller apart. Then there are all the other extras. The hard shell carrying case travel storage is great because it keeps everything protected. There’s the long braided USB-C cable for wired play and charging too. This cable also has a locking attachment that secures the cable in place so it can’t be yanked out of the controller’s USB-C port.
And of course, my absolute favorite feature, the trigger stops. These little switches on the back let you adjust the travel time of each trigger pull. So you can have a full range of motion on the pull or make it super short for shooter games. And that means faster shots and a potential advantage over your opponent. At $199.99, it’s a spendy controller. But it’s so worth it.
Best mid-range gaming accessories
If you’re looking to spend a little less money, we’ve got some excellent picks for you that fit right into the mid-range price point. As with the two high-end accessories, these are gaming accessories I have personally tested and compared to others in their price range, and I absolutely love them. Putting my appreciation for them aside, they’re also top quality and will do wonders for the gaming experience.
You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars to get something that’s top quality, as the accessories below show off pretty well.
Logitech G515 TKL gaming keyboard
For the PC gamer, a really good gaming keyboard is just as important as everything else. You want something that has keys that feel good when you type on them. But you also want something that has other useful features. The Logitech G515 TKL fits perfectly here. This is a wireless keyboard, but it can also be used in a wired state if you plug it in with the included USB-C to USB-A cable. This is also how you charge up the keyboard’s battery when it’s been depleted.
My personal favorite feature is the dual wireless connectivity options. The keyboard will mainly connect to your source platform via the Lightspeed wireless adapter – a little USB dongle you’ll plug in. But the G515 TKL also connects through Bluetooth. You can actually pair the keyboard to both, then using a dedicated button for either, swap between the two connected sources. This was extremely useful when swapping between two different PCs, and made it so that I didn’t have to set up two different keyboards.
It’s also useful if you ever need to connect a keyboard to your phone or tablet, or devices like the Steam Deck or ROG Ally X. Another thing I really enjoyed on the keyboard was the battery life. I typically run the backlit keys at around 65% – 75% on my keyboards, and with that setting, I was getting several days out of the keyboard before it needed to be plugged in for charging. Keep in mind I work from home, and type on it every single day for at least 9 hours. I then play games with it for a few more afterward.
So with this kind of activity daily, it’s still lasting me a few days at least. And that’s pretty good with the key brightness up. Another really useful feature is the KEYCONTROL function. This lets you assign up to 15 actions to a single key for some really advanced gameplay actions. And of course, the G515 TKL is a 75% keyboard making it more compact, and it’s pretty slim. Both of which are great things for smaller desk spaces. At $130, this is an excellent gaming accessory for any PC gamer.
Razer Kishi Ultra Controller
PC and console gaming are great but you can just as easily play games on your phone or tablet, and for that, you’ll definitely want a good gaming controller. Touch controls are fine for some games, but many of them benefit from having actual physical controls with tactile feedback and something to hold onto. Not only can be more comfortable to play games with, but a controller affords you the benefit of easily hitting all your in-game actions.
The Razer Kishi Ultra is the best mobile controller you can buy for several reasons. For one, it’s a full-size controller. Other options like the Backbone One and Razer’s own Kishi V2 Pro are great too. However, the Kishi Ultra outpaces them both and all others. During my testing time with it, I said that it’s about as near to perfect as a mobile controller can get. And I believe this. The textured grips give your hands more hold onto which means you can play for longer sessions without worrying about hand cramps.
What really sets this controller off though are the Sensa HD haptics, customizable controls, and the ability to fit larger devices like iPads. While not all games support physical controllers, you can easily make them work with the Kishi Ultra thanks to the Razer Nexus app. This will allow you to map controls for games to the controller buttons. Even in titles that don’t have controller support. Plus, you get hall effect triggers, full-size joysticks, ABXY buttons that feel like a mouse click and are super tactile, and it can be used with a PC by plugging the controller in.
On top of all that, this makes for a great cloud gaming controller through mobile apps for Game Pass and GeForce NOW. At $150, it’s not exactly an inexpensive mobile controller, but the $150 is definitely worth it for what Razer has produced here.
Best low-end gaming accessories
Now for the low-end gaming accessories. You might be looking to spend under $100 for something and that’s completely fine. There are plenty of gaming accessories that are excellent quality and don’t cost a ton of money. If that’s what you’re searching for this holiday season, we have you covered with the picks we chose below. These are what we feel are the best possible gaming accessories you can buy at this lower price point. Not just because they’re top quality, but because they’re versatile and can be used for more than one platform.
That gives them additional value. With that said, let’s take a look at some excellent gaming accessories that will make the perfect gift at a lower price.
8BitDo Ultimate Controller with Charging Dock
8BitDo makes incredible gaming accessories and the Ultimate Controller with the Charging Dock just might be the company’s best product. It’s an excellent value because it comes with a charging dock, so you have a nifty way to charge your controller when the battery dies. As this is a wireless controller, you will need to charge it from time to time and the dock is way more convenient and organized than plugging the controller in with a USB-C charging cable.
What we really love about the 8BitDo Ultimate Controller is that it’s a Bluetooth controller that works for many platforms. It’s compatible with PC, mobile devices, the Nintendo Switch, and even handheld gaming PC’s like the ROG Ally X and the Steam Deck. If you’ve got more than a few of these, you can use this controller for all of them which is really, really useful. And it means you only have to buy one controller for all of them.
The controller has some advanced features too which caught our eye. Although I don’t use it often, you can use the companion software to set up macros with this controller. So if you’re big into fighting games, this is a really easy way to set up all your combos and special attacks. Then you can just initiate all of your attacks with one button. The controller has haptic feedback as well, but more importantly, it has hall effect triggers and joysticks.
So you’ll never have to worry about stick drift or anything like that. Additionally, there are two pro back buttons that you can remap. I love using these for generally any game, and found them very useful in games like Black Myth: Wukong which is heavy on action combat.
The best part, you get all of that for just $69.99. And that’s a pretty reasonable price for such a good product. Technically, it’s two products since you get the charging dock with the controller.
SanDisk 512GB microSD card
Rounding out our guide is the 512GB SanDisk Extreme microSD card. This can be used with both the Nintendo Switch and handheld gaming PCs like the ROG Ally X and Steam Deck. I have been using a 512GB version for both devices, and it gives PLENTY of extra space for games. This is especially true with the Nintendo Switch because games on the Switch don’t take up nearly as much space as many games on PC.
The nice thing is that if you have one of the Steam Deck OLED models or the ROG Ally X, you start with 1TB of internal storage space on the SSD. So with an extra 512GB of space, you have a ton of room for games. In my experience, this has been the best microSD I have tried for any of my devices. It has fast sequential read and write times, and the faster read times allow for shorter game load times. That, of course, means you load up your games faster which means you’re playing sooner.
You could also use this for a gaming laptop if it has either a microSD card slot or an SD reader. If your gaming laptop has an SD reader, this card comes with an SD adapter to be used in those bigger card slots. And at $42.49, you’re not spending a whole lot of money on additional game storage. It’s a great stocking stuffer item to go along with other gifts as well.
