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Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
Best Mainstream Wired Gaming Mouse
Roccat Kone XP
Roccat nearly perfects its AIMO line with the Kone XP, a gaming mouse with a cornucopia of top-shelf components and features.
Number of Buttons
15
Interface
USB Wired
Hand Orientation
Right-Handed
Sensor Maker and Model
Roccat Owl-Eye 19k
Sensor Maximum Resolution
19000 dpi
Power Source
Wired USB
Weight
3.6 ounces
Warranty (Parts and Labor)
2 years
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Best Mainstream Wireless Gaming Mouse
Asus ROG Keris II Ace
The Asus ROG Keris II Ace has the specs pro gamers need from a wireless mouse: a high DPI ceiling and an 8,000Hz polling rate with not a gram of weight more than necessary.
Number of Buttons
5
Interface
Bluetooth, USB Wired, 2.4GHz Wireless
Hand Orientation
Right-Handed
Sensor Maker and Model
ROG AimPoint Pro
Sensor Maximum Resolution
42000 dpi
Power Source
Internal Battery
Weight
1.9 ounces
Warranty (Parts and Labor)
1 year
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Best Budget Wired Gaming Mouse
HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2
As an update to the original Haste esports mouse, the HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 innovates on everything that made the original great—including a super light weight—while remaining well-priced.
Number of Buttons
6
Interface
USB Wired
Hand Orientation
Right-Handed
Sensor Maker and Model
HyperX 26K Sensor
Sensor Maximum Resolution
26000 dpi
Power Source
Wired USB
Weight
1.92 ounces
Warranty (Parts and Labor)
2 years
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Best Budget Wireless Gaming Mouse
SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless Gaming Mouse
The Rival 3 Wireless’ great battery life and upgraded sensor breathe new life into SteelSeries’ budget mouse design.
Number of Buttons
6
Interface
RF Wireless, Bluetooth
Hand Orientation
Right-Handed
Sensor Maker and Model
SteelSeries TrueMove Air
Sensor Maximum Resolution
18000 dpi
Power Source
Two AAA Batteries
Weight
3.74 ounces
Warranty (Parts and Labor)
1 year
Best Premium Gaming Mouse
Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse
With a smooth glide, excellent performance, and a wildly high polling rate, Alienware’s Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse could convince many an esports pro to finally ditch the cable.
Number of Buttons
4
Interface
USB Wired, 2.4GHz Wireless
Hand Orientation
Right-Handed
Sensor Maker and Model
Unspecified Optical Sensor
Sensor Maximum Resolution
26000 dpi
Power Source
Internal Battery
Weight
2.08 ounces
Warranty (Parts and Labor)
2 years
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Best Gaming Mouse With Wireless Charging
Corsair Dark Core RGB Pro SE Wireless Gaming Mouse
With an upgraded sensor and remodeled side buttons, Corsair’s Dark Core RGB Pro SE updates a great mouse to keep it in the front rank.
Number of Buttons
8
Interface
RF Wireless, Bluetooth, USB Wired
Hand Orientation
Right-Handed
Sensor Maker and Model
PixArt PAW3392
Sensor Maximum Resolution
18000 dpi
Power Source
Internal Battery, Qi Wireless, Wired USB
Weight
4.9 ounces
Warranty (Parts and Labor)
2 years
Best Gaming Mouse for Esports
Razer Basilisk V3 Pro 35K
The Razer Basilisk V3 Pro 35K is an impressive wireless gaming mouse full of style and function that should appeal to the hard-core gaming crowd.
Number of Buttons
5
Interface
USB Wired, 2.4GHz Wireless, Bluetooth
Hand Orientation
Right-Handed
Sensor Maker and Model
Focus Pro Optical Sensor Gen-2
Sensor Maximum Resolution
35000 dpi
Power Source
Internal Battery
Weight
3.9 ounces
Warranty (Parts and Labor)
2 years
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Best Gaming Mouse for MMOs
Razer Naga V2 Pro
Razer takes its classic Naga MMO mouse and polishes it to a sheen, with a host of additions that elevate it to the top of its class.
Number of Buttons
20
Interface
Bluetooth, RF Wireless, USB Wired
Hand Orientation
Right-Handed
Sensor Maker and Model
Razer Focus Pro
Sensor Maximum Resolution
30000 dpi
Power Source
Internal Battery, Qi Wireless
Weight
4.7 ounces
Warranty (Parts and Labor)
2 years
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Best Lightweight Gaming Mouse
Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2
The Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 is a simple, powerful ultralight mouse for gamers who don’t mind trading more money for less weight.
Number of Buttons
5
Interface
RF Wireless, USB Wired
Hand Orientation
Ambidextrous
Sensor Maker and Model
Logitech Hero 2
Sensor Maximum Resolution
32000 dpi
Power Source
Internal Battery
Weight
2.1 ounces
Warranty (Parts and Labor)
2 years
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Best Gaming Mouse for Lefties
Mad Catz B.A.T. 6+
The Mad Catz B.A.T. 6+ is a modular gaming mouse that’s easy to use and easy on the eyes. Despite a high price, it should please most users looking for customization options.
Number of Buttons
10
Interface
USB Wired
Hand Orientation
Ambidextrous
Sensor Maker and Model
PixArt PMW3389
Sensor Maximum Resolution
16000 dpi
Power Source
Wired USB
Weight
4.1 ounces
Warranty (Parts and Labor)
2 year
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Buying Guide: The Best Gaming Mice for 2024
Nailing down a high-quality gaming mouse is tricky without getting hands-on time with a given model. But to narrow your search, it helps to start by deciding on which type of sensor you need. The two key sensor types are “optical” and “laser” sensors, but you can’t apply absolutes when judging them. Your best bet is to try out a mouse in person, or to rely on formal reviews like ours, as well as online forums, for the skinny on how a mouse feels in specific play situations.
Less-expensive mice tend to have optical sensors, which offer good tracking sensitivity and tend to map well on a variety of surfaces, including textured ones such as cloth. Laser sensors, on the other hand, map onto the same or more kinds of surfaces (including some smooth or glossy ones that may give optical sensors fits), but they can be more finicky about rough surface textures. That said, we wouldn’t let one kind or the other be the main reason you choose a mouse. Likewise, some vendors market branded versions of sensors that track, say, on glass or reflective surfaces. Don’t take them too seriously, as you can solve any challenging mousing surface with…a $2 mousepad.
(Credit: Mike Epstein)
More important to look for is a suitable resolution range, measured in dots per inch (dpi), that allows for fine-grained and wide-sweep tracking. Just as crucial is a button or toggle that lets you adjust the setting easily on the fly—as opposed to only in software. Sometimes this button is on the top of the mouse for fast changes; on other mice, it’s on the underside for resolution changes outside the flow of the game. Which you want depends on your style of gameplay. (More about resolution switching in a moment.)
The numbers you see in terms of mouse resolution, though, are less crucial. Mouse resolution is mostly a marketing numbers game. You would use extreme dpi settings in the five-figure range only if you have one or more very high-pixel-count displays, such as 4K monitors, to mouse across. So don’t put a whole lot of stock, say, in a 16,000dpi maximum setting versus a 14,000dpi one. Either will serve you well under most real-world circumstances.
Should My Gaming Mouse Be Wired, or Wireless?
Gaming mice are either wired or wireless in design, but most of today’s high-end models still, surprisingly, use an old-school USB cable to connect to your computer.
For a long time, competitive gamers strongly preferred wired gaming mice to wireless ones to eliminate perceived latency, as well as the possibility of a battery running down in the midst of a heated match. Many serious players still hold that bias, but Razer, Logitech, and others have released higher-end mice of late with low latency ratings that ought to satisfy all but the most extreme of gamers. (See our favorite wireless mice.)
More the issue is knowing how your mouse connects to its host. The three main possibilities are USB (via a typical cable), USB (wirelessly, via an RF USB dongle), or Bluetooth (also wireless, usually via the host’s built-in Bluetooth radio). Bluetooth is the least common of the three among gaming mice; it tends to be found more often in productivity or mobile mice. Note that some wireless models with rechargeable batteries come with a USB charging cable that can double as a mouse cable while you’re juicing back up, letting you continue using the mouse with the battery depleted.
(Credit: Mike Epstein)
The key thing here is to know what you’re getting, and to make sure you have the appropriate port free (or that you have Bluetooth support). If you opt for a cabled mouse, don’t forget to check the cable length. Is it long enough to reach from a PC tower on the floor to your desk? Is it six feet long, but only needs to run from your mouse pad to the laptop beside it? Also look at the cable itself. A braided nylon or cloth cover is more durable than a standard rubber coating.
What Are the Niches of Gaming Mouse?
The best gaming mice offer comfort and customization that will please a wide range of users, but in some cases, the core features of a mouse revolve around certain kinds of games. Blazing away in a firefight, staving off an advancing horde in a real-time strategy (RTS) title, or commanding an NFL franchise: Game genres have specific needs, and some mice outright target specific ones.
Mice aimed at first-person shooters, for one, tend to feature ratcheting scroll wheels—letting you cycle accurately through your arsenal without selecting the wrong weapon—and on-the-fly resolution switchers mentioned earlier. The latter will help you snap-change between the broad tracking you need in a frantic shootout and the tight control for lining up a precision shot. (Sometimes this feature is dubbed something like Sniper Mode, and it may involve a dedicated button for getting granular.)
(Credit: Mike Epstein)
Mice that are specially designed for RTS games and MMOs, on the other hand, look quite different. The most extreme come outfitted with an array of 10 or more programmable buttons. Usually set just under the tip of the thumb, these buttons can serve as simple shortcut triggers, or be programmed to execute longer macro commands. (For more on these mice, see our specialized guide to the best mice for MMO games.)
Another, newer niche variety is mice aimed at esports players and professionals. The games they play vary widely, so there is a lot of crossover between these and MMO or other more generic gaming-mouse types. Indeed, many esports players don’t feel the need to gravitate to an “esports-specific” mouse at all, and find that general-use gaming mice work just fine. Nonetheless, a subgenre of esports mice has emerged that emphasizes light body weight and simplicity of design, in terms of buttons and overall sculpting. At the extreme, some lightweight esports mice have holes molded into their shells to reduce the mass of the mouse itself. (See our guide to our favorite esports mice.)
How to Judge Mouse Customization Software
Just as crucial as shortcut buttons and tracking-speed toggles is the software utility—if any—that the mouse maker provides for the hardware.
All of the major (and some of the minor) gaming-gear manufacturers have developed their own mouse-control customization software, which usually encompasses advanced macro programming. Often, the software also enables you to control and customize a gaming keyboard of the same brand. In addition to recording macro commands, these software dashboards let you activate premade, game-specific profiles; create your own profiles; and adjust any on-mouse lighting/LED bling. Many also offer presets for non-gaming use, letting you leverage your mouse’s programmability in Excel or Photoshop when you’re not blowing up starships or hapless zombies.
(Credit: Corsair)
At this point, the major mouse makers’ software packages have been through generations of refinement, so they are slick. Logitech G Hub, Corsair Utility Engine (iCUE), and Razer Synapse are among the best-regarded mouse- and keyboard-control utilities that cater to gamers. All offer advanced tweakability, with iCUE regarded by many users and reviewers as the deepest, but also the trickiest to master in depth.
A few less common items are worth looking for if you’re a serious mouse tweaker. The software might control “lift distance,” or how far you can raise a mouse off the pad or desk before it stops tracking. A slider or, better, a wizard-style setup function will dictate this in the utility, if present. Another feature is surface calibration, in which the mouse software runs a routine that optimizes the mouse and its sensor for the texture and traits of your mousing surface. On the even more esoteric side: support for angle snapping (a movement-compensation feature that helps you move the mouse in straight lines) and for designating different resolutions for the X and Y axes (say, for faster tracking only side to side, to traverse a vast landscape in an real-time strategy gameworld).
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(Credit: Razer)
Know that the presence or absence of a dedicated control utility is a big differentiator between low-end and high-end gaming mice. Some cheap gaming mice will come with no software of their own. Without such a utility, you’ll be able to customize mouse commands only within a game (via its in-game menus) or in your computer’s mouse settings. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; just know what you are getting, or not getting.
Don’t worry, Apple fans: Plenty of gaming mice are Mac-compatible, including their configuration software. We’ve tracked down the best gaming mice for Macs so you can take advantage of all those software perks.
What Is the Right Shape and Weight for My Gaming Mouse?
For increased comfort, some gaming mice allow you to customize their actual bodies to your hand. Removable weights, often resembling small steel pills, are common in better gaming mice. Adding or removing these weights from slots inside the mouse body will shift the overall feel and the amount of drag. Some models take this even further, letting you adjust the center of balance, or change the height and pitch of the palm rest.
(Credit: Mike Epstein)
Body tweaks more radical than that are rare, but a few models have swap-out side grips that snap or screw onto the left or right edge. Swapping out sides might enable you to adjust the mouse to your personal grip “style,” or to compensate for different hand sizes, if the mouse will be used by more than one person.
Finally, note that most gaming-mouse designs sculpted for a specific hand cater to right-handed users. Few and far between, alas, are the models that are just for lefties. The most that a left-handed user can hope for is a good ambidextrous design.
Ready to Buy the Right Gaming Mouse for You?
Finding the best gaming mouse for you comes down to knowing your preferred style of game, determining whether or not you will take advantage of more complex functions, and then tweaking the chosen mouse to your specific tastes. Our advice above and our spec breakout should arm you with what you need to seek out in your next favorite gaming mouse.
Looking to round out your gaming setup? Check out the guides to our favorite gaming keyboards, monitors, and headsets. And if you need to buy a new rig, you’ll want to read about our top-rated gaming desktops and laptops.