Best Gaming Mouse Pads 2024: Top Picks for Pro Performance
By Roger on Sep 17th, 2024, 10:20
The best gaming mouse pad can elevate your gaming experience and performance. People spend hundreds of dollars on their gaming rig and monitors but often treat this accessory as an afterthought. Imagine roughing out your high-performance mouse on your bare desk or some random flat surface. Not only will it limit the potential of your mouse, but it will also damage it. Whether you're using a hard surface or a traditional cloth pad, the quality of your mousepad plays a significant role in your gameplay.
The gaming technology has made so much advancement and the mousepads today are much more capable than their older counterparts. We have tested a good number of gaming peripherals and equipment over the years, and based on our experience, we can say this with confidence that the best gaming mousepad, including popular options like the Corsair MM100, Razer Firefly V2 Pro, or even Razer Strider, does make a lot of difference.
In this guide, we have gathered some of the best-performing mousepads, including options with multiple sizes, to help you find the right pick for you.
You may think any mousepad will work, but that’s not true, especially for shooter games. Unless you are playing MOBAs where mouse precision isn’t important, you can use a regular office mouse pad for your gameplay. There’s a reason why 99% of professional shooter players use a gaming mouse mat instead of a regular one. Pads come in various shapes and sizes, so choosing the right one can significantly impact your performance.
These gaming mousepads are carefully designed for smooth and uninterrupted gliding. Look for mousepads that offer little to no irregularities for optimal tracking. This will provide you with an even gliding surface and enable the sensor in your mouse to accurately track everything that you do all the time, whether it's on a slick surface or a hard mouse pad.
Although shopping for a gaming mousepad is relatively more straightforward than, say, shopping for a PC or a laptop, there are still many elements to consider when choosing the right fit for you. Do you want a best hard pad for fast gliding? Or a thick pad to control your wild swipes? There can be a significant difference in the gliding characteristics between different mousepads, even though they may all look the same from a distance. And don’t forget, your gaming keyboard and the XXL size of your desk mat can also influence your choice.
Using a gaming mousepad will also prolong the health of your mouse. You don’t want to sand down the feet of your gaming mouse by sliding it on a rough surface or a low-grade office mousepad.
Surface Material: Stitched Cloth
Thickness: 3mm
Height: 400mm
Length: 920mm
Glide: Medium-Fast
Stitched Edges: Yes
This extra-large mousepad is a brilliant choice for gamers who need extra room to move your mouse. Featuring a high-speed cloth surface and rubber base for grip, it’s a durable, high-performance option that can stand the test of time whilst looking unique.
The CHERRY XTRFY GP5 is an excellent choice for gamers looking for a premium surface that combines style, performance, durability, and size.
Material: Rubber
Thickness: 3mm
Height: 280mm
Width: 340mm
Glide: Ultra-low surface friction
Stitched Edges: Yes
The Logitech G440 features a three-layer construction: polypropylene at the top, a polystyrene core, and a rubber base. The back has a grippy rubberized layer that doesn’t slide around when you use it. We find that this mousepad gives a smooth glide over a low-friction surface. Tracking seems pretty accurate with a sensory accuracy that makes it quite enjoyable to use.
The edges took us some getting used to because they are hard and kind of pinches on the wrist. It’s not sharp enough to cut through your skin, and you’ll get used to it in a day or two.
Material: Cloth
Thickness: 6mm
Height: 39.7
Length: 44.5
Glide: Medium
Stitched Edges: Yes
Coming in at a generous 6mm thickness, the QcK Heavy from SteelSeries is one of the thicker pads in the market. If you are a LAN gaming enthusiast, this mousepad runs smoothly even on uneven surfaces and will come in handy whenever you are gaming away from home.
One advantage to using thicker mousepads is that you can press down your mouse into the pad a little to get more control. This is very helpful when you are targeting small objects or when you are spraying.
Material: Cloth
Thickness: 3.5mm
Height: 39
Length: 47
Glide: Control
Stitched Edges: Yes
For those of you who like to maintain an aesthetic gaming setup, the VAXEE PA comes in different designs, although it all works the same. This mousepad has a glide that leans more toward the controlling end of things without being overly mushy. If you have tried ZOWIE G-SR-SE, the PA is made with the same design principle. Overall, we would recommend this mousepad for gamers in the tactical shooter circles due to its controlled glide.
Material: Cloth
Thickness: 3.5mm
Height: 41
Length: 49
Glide: Control
Stitched Edges: Yes
This Saturn Pro gaming mousepad is a control pad, but unlike other control pads in the market, this one isn’t overly gritty or muddy. It has excellent consistency with premium-standard finishing. It does cost a pretty penny, but it is worth your investment if you are a competitive gamer looking for a reliable peripheral to optimize your grind. Although it works well for any gaming, we recommend it particularly for tactical shooters.
Material: Cloth
Thickness: 3mm
Height: 40
Length: 45
Glide: Control-Oriented
Stitched Edges: Yes
If you love a completely custom-designed gaming mousepad, then we recommend the InkedGaming pads. They are popular among a good number of pro players, which is all the more reason for you to give it a shot. Some big brands also offer customization options but they are very limited. InkedGaming, on the other hand, lets you customize your mousepads entirely if you want to.
These mousepads come in all sizes, and you can print pretty much any image you want. As for the glide, it is quite similar to Razer Gigantus V2 and ZOWIE G-SR-SE, so if you like these mousepads, you will probably like this one too.
There are a plethora of mousepad varieties in the market, and it is up to you to find out which one is the best gaming mousepad for you. Every product we have listed in this article are great at doing exactly what they are meant to do, so it mainly comes down to you to figure out what you want. If you are just starting out, we recommend you opt for a mid-way cloth pad to begin with.
Do keep in mind that irrespective of what type of gaming mousepad you buy, it will be affected by different factors like the humidity level of your room, how well you take care of it, your playing style, and the age of the mousepad. Therefore, your experience of a certain pad can be completely different from that of another gamer. A pad might perform differently based on these conditions, and considering multiple sizes and materials can help you find the perfect fit.
