The best gaming mouse pads
Gaming mouse pads provide a comfortable surface that won't wear down your mouse or get it too dirty over time. Here are our favorites.
The best gaming mouse for your setup could cost up to $150. To protect your purchase with one of the best gaming mouse pads costs only a little bit more. Whether you're kicking back with one of the best PC games or simply working through a productivity project, these inexpensive accessories can make your whole PC experience a lot better.
SteelSeries QcK Mouse Pad
Specifications
Reasons to buy
If you like having a lot of options, the SteelSeries QcK Mouse Pad is a good place to start. The standard version of this mouse pad is small enough for a desktop and thick enough to support a wrist, but with no embroidered edges and only a small, white SteelSeries logo in the corner.
You can get it in a variety of sizes, shapes and thicknesses, which should fit your setup no matter how much space you have. I was able to play at the top of my game for Titanfall, Heart of the Swarm and Assassin’s Creed Unity, thanks to its smooth surface, and choosing the right size for my desk made a big difference.
Corsair MM250 Champion Series
Specifications
Reasons to buy
The Corsair MM250 tends to work best with Corsair mice, but it's a good choice for those who need a large, square-ish mouse pad with plenty of room for low DPI mice. With a soft surface, a huge 17.7 x 15.7 footprint and a reasonable price, the Corsair MM250 could prove useful to FPS gamers who prefer dragging a mouse across a long surface rather than losing precision by upping their DPI levels. It's resistant enough to facilitate most gameplay styles, and if you have a Corsair mouse, you can even tune your peripheral to match the surface perfectly.
Razer Firefly V2
Specifications
Reasons to buy
The Razer Firefly V2 is an electronic mouse pad that features a hard surface and LED lights around the edges, with full Chroma capabilities (16.8 million colors). The mouse pad syncs with other Razer Chroma peripherals, like the DeathAdder mouse and BlackWidow keyboard, to display intricate color patterns.
Like previous versions of the mouse pad, the Firefly V2 features a bright LED strip, a hard surface — and a high price. But this time around, you also get smart home integration with colored light bulbs, as well as a mouse cable holder to help keep wires out of your way.
Logitech G240
Specifications
Reasons to buy
The Logitech G240 is one of the simplest gaming mouse pads out there, which, in my estimation, also makes it a contender for the best gaming mouse pad out there. The entire apparatus is a slip of black cloth with a little resistant fabric on the back to prevent it from slipping. With no embroidered edges and a blue Logitech G logo near the bottom, the G420 is exactly what it appears to be: a soft surface for your mouse that should help your peripheral glide across your desktop as you play.
I used the G240 for the longest of any mousepads we tested, and have played dozens of games on it over the course of many months. So far, I have no complaints about the way it handles any titles.
HyperX Fury S Speed Edition (X-Large)
Specifications
Reasons to buy
If you've got a lot of real estate on your desk, consider the HyperX Fury S in its X-Large configuration. You can slap down your keyboard and mouse on top of it — in addition to a headset stand, a headset and a controller, with some room left over for knickknacks.
Apart from its gargantuan size, the Fury S is also comfortable, inexpensive and helps your mouse glide around with ease, whether you're playing competitively or for yourself. The speed edition has an attractive red design in front, but you can also opt for the standard edition if you'd prefer a plain black design.
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Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.