Best Gaming Headphones 2024
For younger generations, it might be hard to imagine a time when gaming was a niche hobby. For sure, those days are long gone! Now it's huge: did you know that in terms of revenue, gaming is bigger than both the movie and music industries combined? But to fully immerse yourself in Hyrule or Faerûn you’ll need a decent set of headphones, and luckily 2024 has been kind enough to provide.
Arcade gaming
If you’re old enough to remember video game arcades, then boy have you had a wild ride! Watching games arrive in your home courtesy of consoles like the Atari or ZX Spectrum was revolutionary.
Back then, the social elements of gaming were different. You’d visit an arcade or a friend’s house; maybe sit next to each other on Mario, or take turns trying to finish tough levels.
Multiplay
Things blossomed even more with the concept of multiplayer games. Yep, more than two people could gather around and play the same game — at the time it seemed such a crazy idea, but it worked!
The N64 console allowed you to cram into a friend’s bedroom and play Goldeneye together. How different would those times have been if bits of gaming gear like headphones were as developed then as they are now?
Split-screen
Okay, probably not that different, considering games of yore were split-screen and you could just look at your friend’s quarter if you were feeling particularly underhand. Yeah, we know you did it!
P.C. gamers had it a little easier, of course. Desktop computers already had speakers and headphone jacks in place to help immerse yourself more deeply into their digital worlds, so they were ahead of the curve.
Audio intro
Still, the quality of the headphones were completely different. For the longest time there were few, if any, pairs that were dedicated to gaming: you just had to make do with generic ones.
Then the unexpected happened, and gaming became more steadily more mainstream. Now everyone and their mother is a gamer — take the case of Skyrim Grandma — and needless to say, technology has improved a lot.