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Best Wireless Mouse
SteelSeries Prime Wireless
Best Corded Mouse
NZXT Lift 2 Symm
Best Under $50
Logitech G203
Best for Comfort
Logitech MX Master 3S
Picking a gaming mouse is a very personal endeavor. Everyone’s hands are different, everyone’s preferences and needs are different, and we all play different games. That’s why we’re lucky to live in the golden age of gaming mice, with major manufacturers pouring engineering muscle into one-upping one another. The result is a market loaded with high-quality yet relatively inexpensive mice.
We’ve tested quite a few, and while we can’t tell you precisely which mouse is right for you—you may prefer wired or wireless, more or fewer buttons—we have a variety of recommendations. These are the best gaming mice for every kind of gamer we can think of, plus a couple of mousepads for good measure.
Be sure to also read our other buying guides, like the Best Gaming Headsets, Best Wireless Gaming Headsets, and Best Keyboards, for more gear recommendations.
Updated July 2024: We added the NZXT Lift 2 Symm and the Razer Cobra Pro.
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Looking for a Great Mouse? Look at Your Palms
One aspect to consider when shopping for a mouse is its size. I used to use Logitech’s G305 until I realized it’s way too small for my palm size—I was forcing myself to grip it a certain way and was straining my wrist in the process. Not good. This also depends on how you hold your mouse. Are you using your whole palm? Just your fingertips? Or are you using it claw-style, with your fingertips and bottom of your palm touching the mouse?
I recommend measuring the distance from the tip of your middle finger to the bottom of your palm, then finding a mouse that’s roughly the same length. You can do this with your hand’s width too to make sure the mouse you’re buying isn’t too wide or too narrow. Rocket Jump Ninja has a nifty tool that lets you input your measurements and spits out mouse recommendations based on your hand size. Razer has a handy guide too, but it only recommends Razer-made mice. By measuring your hand, you can enjoy a much more comfortable gaming experience. That’s how I found out that Logitech’s G604 is the best size for me—my wrist says thank you. —Julian Chokkattu
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Photograph: SteelSeries
Best Wireless Mouse
SteelSeries Prime Wireless
I’ve always had a soft spot for Steelseries gaming mice. They’re always so balanced: They have nice lights but not too many, aren’t too expensive, and have a lovely, understated design. Yet it wasn’t until the Steelseries Prime Wireless mouse that I fell truly, madly, deeply in love. The Prime Wireless mouse is a perfect fit for a wide range of hand sizes, and it isn’t cluttered with extra buttons.
It’s designed for professional esports play, and it shows. The mouse is quick and responsive, and the buttons are nice and clicky. The reception range is impressive too. I’m about 10 feet away from my PC tower most of the time, and even with obstructions, the Prime Wireless never loses connection or starts skipping across the screen (even when it’s low on battery, which doesn’t happen often, with 100 hours of stated battery life). It also glides effortlessly across just about any surface you put it on.
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Best Corded Mouse
NZXT Lift 2 Symm
PC manufacturer NZXT has been venturing out into the peripherals market with impressive products for a company so relatively new to the game. And the NZXT Lift 2 Symm is no exception. This mouse has a hollow interior and a base that uses minimal plastic. This gives it an extremely lightweight feel, but avoids the odd feeling that other mice like the SteelSeries Aerox 3 give off by reducing the amount of plastic in the pieces that touch your hands. Combined with an 8,000-Hz polling rate, optical switches, and an excessively robust 26k DPI optical sensor, this mouse is more than capable of handling even the fastest games, at a low price.
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Photograph: Logitech
Logitech G203
Budget gaming mice often forgo a lot of the conveniences and performance you get out of nicer models, but the Logitech G203 never feels like it’s lacking. The sensor has a lower maximum sensitivity than you’ll get out of a more expensive offering—8,000 dots per inch—so if you need that top-end sensitivity, you’ll want to look elsewhere, but it features six buttons, compatibility with Logitech’s G Hub software, and most importantly, has RGB lighting. Those are all things you’d typically expect to pay more for.
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Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft
Best for Comfort
Logitech MX Master 3S
The MX Master 3S isn’t a gaming mouse per se, but it’s also better at being a gaming mouse than many dedicated gaming mice. It features a few extra customizable buttons, plus a horizontal side scrolling wheel. It’s ridiculously comfortable. Logitech’s been making mice for years, and this mouse benefits from all that experience, with a smooth arc for your palm and a rest spot for your thumb. It even includes a button in that spot where your thumb naturally rests. This is the preferred daily mouse of many WIRED staffers, including senior reviews editor Parker Hall.
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Photograph: Logitech
For Competitive Gaming
Logitech Pro X Superlight 2
For fast-paced games like FPS shooters, speed matters more than anything else. The few milliseconds between when your brain tells your finger to press a button and the game registering the button press can be the difference between virtual life and death. Wireless mice are often at a disadvantage on this front, but Logitech’s Pro X Superlight 2 is one of the few that rivals wired mice in speed, with a 32,000 DPI sensor and 2K polling for speedy response. It also features two programmable side buttons, an internal compartment to store its USB wireless receiver, and it’s comfortable for most people’s hands.
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Photograph: Logitech
For Easy Wireless Charging
Logitech G Pro Wireless
Logitech’s G Pro series was designed with input from esports professionals. Lightning-fast response times and proper ergonomics ensure that the additional buttons are right where your fingers rest. The wireless receiver delivers 1-millisecond response times, so you won’t miss headshots due to lag. The buttons are satisfying and sturdy, with mechanically tensioned springs underneath both the left and right buttons, and separate key plates for accuracy.
It lasts around 48 hours on a single charge, but if you want to completely forget about charging, get the wireless charging-mat bundle.
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Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft
For Lefties
Corsair M75 Wireless
Left-handed gamers all too often have limited options when it comes to getting the best gaming mice, but Corsair’s M75 has plenty of tricks up its ambidextrous sleeves. It has a symmetrical design with some of the smoothest mouse skates of any mouse I’ve used. It pairs wirelessly via either a 2.4-GHz dongle or Bluetooth. Best of all, it has two thumb buttons on both sides of the mouse, so no matter which hand you use it with, you have convenient shortcuts. The caps on these buttons are also magnetic, and you can swap them out for either flat or slightly raised caps, depending on your preferences.
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For Button Mashers
Corsair Scimitar Elite Wireless
I’ve been using the Logitech G600 for more than a decade and all I’ve wanted is for Logitech to make a wireless version of the mouse I love. While I continue to wait, Corsair has stepped up. The Scimitar Elite Wireless has an array of 12 thumb buttons along the left side, which can be customized with various shortcuts, macros, and functions. There are games like Overwatch 2 that I can’t play without a mouse like this, and while I like Logitech’s software better, Corsair’s mouse is an excellent portable alternative.
★ Alternative: The SteelSeries Aerox 9 ($150) is slightly more expensive than the Scimitar Elite (though it’s often on sale for less), and has a similar array of side buttons. Its shell also has a grid cutout pattern, which SteelSeries says helps reduce the weight of the mouse, but my roommate says triggers her trypophobia, so your mileage may vary.
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For Simple Customization
Razer Cobra Pro
I am personally a fan of mice with a dozen extra buttons, but if you’d rather just have a little bit of extra power without being overwhelmed, the Razer Cobra Pro might be more your speed. It has two thumb buttons on the left side, as well as two DPI controls down the middle, all of which can be customized to your needs. While playing Overwatch 2, I like to use the DPI buttons to cycle between sensitivities for different heroes, but when I’m using it for work, I like that I can assign common shortcuts or macros that I need while getting things done.
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Photograph: Razer
For Tinkerers
Razer Naga V2 Pro
Our previous pick for this category, the Razer Naga Trinity, is still a great mouse, but the Naga V2 Pro has superseded it in just about every way (including price). Like the Trinity, the V2 Pro comes with three interchangeable plates with various arrangements of programmable buttons. However, this set no longer includes a plate with a circular array of six buttons like the Trinity, instead including a more natural panel with six buttons laid out in a curved grid. Underneath, it also has a slot for an optional wireless charging puck, and the mouse features Razer’s ultra-customizable scroll wheel.
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Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft
For the Traveling Gamer
Razer Viper V2 Pro
Wireless mice are convenient, but if you play a lot of fast-paced games where millisecond reactions matter, they can be a bit of a hindrance. Fortunately, Razer designed the Viper V2 Pro with esports gaming in mind to deal with this challenge. When using the included 2.4-GHz dongle, it has around a 1000-Hz polling rate, meaning it can update your cursor’s position once every millisecond. That’s standard, and plenty for most applications. However, it also supports the Razer Hyperpolling Wireless Dongle ($30), which boosts that up to 8000 Hz, which makes the polling interval eight times faster and a lot more reactive for competitive games.
★ Alternative: The Logitech MX Anywhere 3S ($80) is a cheaper, compact option that got me through playing Starfield in a hotel during release weekend. It can connect to up to three devices via Bluetooth, and gets 70 hours on a single three-hour charge. It doesn’t have as many fancy gaming-centric features, but if you just need a decent mouse you can throw in a bag, this is a great option.
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Photograph: Steelseries
For Small Desks
SteelSeries QcK Mousepad
One of the cheapest things you can do to upgrade your PC gaming experience is to invest in a high-quality mousepad. If you’re a mouse-and-keyboard gamer, having the right surface for your trusty little rodent can be super helpful. Not only do you have a nice little area of your desk cordoned off for mouse use, but you also get a surface designed to be as friction-free and slick as possible—so you’ll be as quick as possible.
SteelSeries’ QcK mousepad is one of my all-time favorites. The medium size is perfect for most desks, even small ones. It’s well made and doesn’t fray easily—cheaper mousepads often fray at the edges, which ruins the aesthetic a good mousepad can lend to a workstation.
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Photograph: Grovemade
For Small Desks and Soft Vibes
Grovemade Wool Felt Desk Pad
This doesn’t seem like your usual gaming accessory, because it’s not. It’s a wool felt pad from Portland, Oregon, company Grovemade, and it’s large enough to fit a keyboard and a mouse with room to spare. It feels soft and plush under your wrists, and all of the gaming mice on this list just glide over its surface, it’s like they’re sliding on glass. It’s a big surprise, honestly. Not to mention, a felt desk pad adds an air of sophistication and style to any desk, without making it seem too uptight. The light great color looks amazing under RGB lighting in a dark room. It’s an easy and affordable way to inject some unique style into your work (and play) space.
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Photograph: Ryan King/Getty Images
What Makes a Good Gaming Mouse?
It’s Not All About RGB
Here are a few features that really separate a gaming mouse from a regular came-with-my-PC kind of mouse:
- Extra-sensitive optical sensors: Gaming mice should have more sensitive optical sensors that can detect smaller movements more quickly than a standard mouse.
- More buttons: At a minimum, a good gaming mouse should have a clickable scroll wheel, a button for adjusting sensitivity, and two buttons where your thumb rests. Those extra thumb buttons can be lifesavers in competitive games.
- Better buttons: They should also have higher-quality buttons, and more of them, than a standard office mouse. The left and right buttons should have individual switches inside, tensioned to register rapid clicks and reinforced to withstand more frequent clicks than a normal mouse. Top-of-the-line gaming mice often feature proprietary mechanical switches inside that give them a more tactile feel when you click.
- Polling rate: For most games, the typical 1000-Hz polling rate will be sufficient, but if you play a lot of fast-paced competitive games, where split-second actions can be crucial to victory, than you may get some benefit out of mice with faster polling rates.
- Don’t buy the dpi hype: Dots per inch is a metric that describes a mouse’s overall sensitivity. A higher dpi means it can respond quicker, which is helpful in competitive online games. However, even if your mouse can go all the way up to, say, 20,000 dpi, most people (even in online games) keep their sensitivity around 800 to 1,600 dpi. So more doesn’t necessarily mean better.
