Gaming Chair Size Guide: How Big Chair Do You Need? (+ Short Person Recommendation)

When you’re buying clothes, you pretty much already know your size and can buy them easily online. The difference between pants and gaming chairs is that we don’t really buy gaming chairs that often. Hence it’s a bit more difficult to choose a gaming chair of the right height for your body height.

What you really don’t want to happen is buying:

  • Chair that’s too small. You’ll have to squeeze in it, won’t have enough leg space.
  • Chair that’s too big. Too much leg space (you don’t want to dangle your legs) and the chair doesn’t have that comfortable grip on you.
  • A chair that’s not ideal height. With the adjustable height chairs, there is almost no excuse why you wouldn’t have a chair that’s within 1 inch of your perfect sitting position.

When looking at different gaming chair for short, average or tall guys, the only thing we really know is our height.

For example, I’m a 5’6” guy who weighs 160 pounds. What is the perfect gaming chair size for my body composition?

Especially short people have problems getting the chair with the right height.

The most popular and arguably the best gaming chair for a short person is undoubtedly the Secretlab Omega. It’s specifically designed for shorter (between 4’11” and 5’11”) people in mind and it’s a 1st class chair:

size of gaming chairs
Secretlab Omega has the status of being the best gaming chair for shorter people. For the best comfort, you should be between 4’11” and 5’11”. You can check all 3 chair sizes here.

Height Guide Infographics For Gamers

To help you out, I’ve prepared a short infographic about how high should your chair be. The only thing you should know is how tall you are.

I’ve coupled your height with the total height of a gaming chair, have a look:

infographic about how high should a gaming chair be for short and tall guys

We basically have 4 height groups for male gamers (based on Healthline’s average height for men data):

  1. Short guys (below 5’2”). Less than 5% of guys are under 5’2”.
  2. Almost-average height guys (between 5’2” and 5’10”). Girls and teenage guys growing up.
  3. Average height guys (between 5’10” and 6’2”). Most gamers (+50%) are of this height.
  4. Tall people (above 6’2”). Less than 5% of guys are above 6’2”.

Now, you know how tall you are and into which height group you below. Ok, so how tall should your gaming chair be?

We’ll cover how high a gaming chair should be for every group below and I’ll give you some gaming chair examples.

But before that, we have to clear one thing: how to actually get the total gaming chair height? You’re probably looking at the descriptions of several chairs but not many of them include ‘Total chair height’.

You really have to look at the fine print, or even chair instructions to pinpoint that number. It’s tricky but it can be done; and, of course, sometimes you won’t find the total height of gaming chair at all.

1. Gaming Chairs For Short Guys (Total Height Should Be Below 42 Inches)

Short is a really relative term; here I’ll refer to as ‘short’ for everybody below 5’2′‘.

As you’ve probably realized, it’s really difficult to find a gaming chair that could accommodate guys under 5’2”. It’s kind of a niche market and you’ll hardly find any gaming chair with the overall height from the casters to the top of the backrest of less than 42”.

My advice would be to opt for either Secretlab Omega (smaller chair) or kids gaming chairs. I know, I know, they’re meant for little boys and girl. However, if you look around, you’ll find gaming chairs for bigger kids as well.

You can find a cool list of best kids gaming chairs here.

Those have a total height of about 40”, can be fairly broad and even have adjustable height seat. You can usually move the seat up and down for good 3 inches to find your perfect height.

2. Almost-Average Height Guys And GIRLS! (Chair Height: Between 42” And 48”)

You should be from 5’2” to 5’10” to sit gaming chairs with a total height of 42” – 48”.

In this height group, we mostly find two types of gamers:

  1. Girls and women. The 42” – 48” gaming chair height is totally female-friendly.
  2. Growing up teenage guys and shorter guys.

This is usually the height group that usually has a bad experience due to choosing a gaming chair that’s too big. The reason is that most of the racing gaming chairs are made to fit average-height guys (Group 3) who’re 5’10” – 6’2” tall and everybody who’s a few inches below that could be tempted to just buy those average- height chairs.

Very short guys don’t have such problems; they’ll just buy very short gaming chairs. Big guys don’t have this problem either; they know they have to choose gaming chair for tall guys. Average-height guys won’t even think twice about height; more than 80% of chairs are already custom-sized for them.

Girl gamers and shorter guys do have to worry about chair height the most. Two key pieces of advice for you guys (and girls):

  • Shoot for 42” – 48” total height range.
  • Adjustable height is your friend!

The maximum weight capacity can be another way to orient yourself to the perfect-height gaming chairs. Look for chairs with max. cap of 250-300 lbs.

If you see a chair that has 350 lbs maximum weight capacity, it will almost 100% be too tall for you.

Several of almost-average height chairs are available in our list of the cutest pink gaming chairs. Newsflash for all the boys: that’s a complete list of pinkiest gaming chairs even you may love!

Always go for adjustable seat height. Having your seat 3 inches higher or lower can make all the difference in the world.

Average Height Gaming Chairs (For Guys Who Are 5’10” – 6’2” High)

Being average in height is like the best thing when it comes to gaming chairs. Pretty much every (well, at least 80%) of gaming chairs are made to exactly fit your body composition.

Obviously, 5’10” to 6’2” guys are the most populous consumers of gaming chairs and pretty much every gaming chair designer who thinks about a blueprint for a gaming chair has you guys in mind. He or she is imagining sitting you on that gaming throne and fantasizing to fulfill your every kind of dimensional need.

Average height guys need to follow one advice when choosing the right gaming chair for their height:

  1. Don’t buy chairs for small or big guys. That’s it.

Whichever chair you’re looking at, there’s like 80% probability it has these metrics:

  • Total height: 48” to 55”.
  • Maximum weight capacity: 300 lbs to 400 lbs.

Stick to these two metrics and you’ll have a comfortable gaming chair that will fit you really well.

On that point, here’s the obvious tip: Adjustable seat height chair is a bonus! If you’re 5’10” you can move the seat an inch down, if you’re 6’2” you can move it 2 inches up, it’s brilliant.

I could present pretty much any chair here as an example of the average height gaming chair. For the best ones, you should check the 2019 list of best gaming chairs. Maybe I’ll just show just one of the most popular ones; here’s the Merax chair:

Gaming Chairs For Big And Tall Guys (You Must Be 6’2” Or More To Sit These Monsters)

You guys also know who you are. Those XL and XXL clothes fit you like a glove and you hate budget airlines with like zero leg space room.

Fortunately, guys over 6’2” are served surprisingly well by gaming chair designers. Pretty much any serious brand has the 400+ lbs maximum capacity gaming chair to offer which is actually pretty nice.

You can get chairs that are really, and I mean really, tall. Some even reach 55 inches in height and those are perfect for your particular body constitution.

I’ve gathered all the biggest gaming chairs here (for 6+ foot, 200+ lbs guys). Now I really feel obligated to share one example of a ginormous gaming chair with you and, obviously, it’s the DXRacer’s TANK.

Why is it called ‘The Tank’? Cause it’s big, bold and built like a freaking tank, that’s why! Just look at it:

highest overall gaming chair dxracer tank is 55 inches tall
DXRacer TANK gaming chair is 55” tall, has a weight capacity of 450 lbs and weighs full 65 lbs. It’s built like a tank!

Most of the gaming chairs for big and tall guys have the adjustable seat height; use it! Because tall guys can be anywhere from 6’2” to 7 footers, the adjustability range can be as much as 4 inches. Just swing your seat up or down and customize the overall chair height to best fit you.

Do make sure that you don’t find a ‘tall chair’ with 300 lbs maximum capacity. It might be tall but with only 300 lbs capacity, it won’t be stable. Shoot for at least 400 lbs maximum capacity chairs.

Closing Comments

I hope that now everybody knows how high to aim when picking a gaming chair size.

If you have any questions, feel free to address them in the comments below.

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