The Best Gaming TVs, According To Weeks Of Rigorous Testing

A great gaming TV can help create a truly transcendent gaming experience, whether it’s making sure the action in Red Dead Redemption II plays as smooth as butter or making the colors in Super Mario Bros. Wonder pop. The best gaming TVs also feature high refresh rates, no input lag and seamless connectivity to your favorite consoles and cloud gaming services.

Because there’s no short supply of great displays available right now, I spent several months hands-on testing many of the top contenders from Samsung, LG and other brands to find out which ones really stand out. Many of the TVs I tested were designed specifically with gaming in mind. I narrowed the list down to four models that I felt were the top gaming TVs on the market. My top overall pick is the LG OLED Evo G4 TV. It provides the best features available on the market, while the Samsung OLED S95C came in a very, very close second.

Here are the best gaming TVs, according to my rigorous testing:

Best for:

• Enjoying your games with a crisp, bright picture
• Making the most of a large living area with a wide viewing angle

Skip if:

• You want good built-in audio
• You don’t want to constantly swap between modes

After testing the LG OLED Evo G4 TV for a few weeks, I came to the conclusion that—like its predecessor, the G3—it is the best gaming TV you can buy right now. The TV itself improves upon the G3’s brightness. LG doesn’t share the nits brightness, instead wanting users to do the testing themselves. Based on my testing, it’s definitely brighter than the G3, and it showcases well in my living room, rain or shine. I suspect this is due to LG’s Micro Lens Array (MLA) technology enhancements.

LG also made some minor tweaks to the WebOS 24, making it slightly more intuitive, so it’s easy to swap between my content, cloud gaming and my four HDMI ports thanks to the built-in home screen shortcuts. While shows like House of the Dragon and Fallout show well on-screen, hitting all the colors in Filmmaker mode, as a gamer, I was wowed by the Game Optimizer mode. Again, as with the G3, the G4 keeps that native 120Hz refresh rate for smooth, responsive gameplay. Combined with the improved brightness and this dedicated, adjustable viewing mode, when I played Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, colors looked bright and accurate on-screen, and the gameplay was fast. Not once did I experience any screen tearing or lag. I did notice that the Game Optimizer mode doesn’t swap back out when I leave gaming for watching movies, so for those who don’t want to finagle settings constantly, look elsewhere.

The same can be said for Mass Effect: Andromeda and Judgment, which I watched as my husband played on his PlayStation 4 Pro. Both are slightly older games, but for Andromeda, I could see dingy ship scenes clearly—which, when you have a bright living room like mine, can be a real problem. Additionally, Takayuki Yagami’s fights played well, and even after several hours, I didn’t notice any gameplay lag.

By far, my favorite experience was the cloud gaming on the G4. It still comes with all of the favorite services: Utomik, Blacknut and Amazon Luna, to name a few. If you’re gaming with Xbox Game Pass, you’ll want to skip this TV, as it doesn’t come with this compatibility (that is reserved for Samsung and Amazon Fire panels). But when I cross-tested Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga on Amazon Luna, it was a similar experience as that of the console. Running around as Luke and Leia felt responsive, and I didn’t experience any pixelation.

That said, you’ll want to add a dedicated soundbar. The TV features an AI Sound Pro setting that is subpar at best, and the other audio settings feel too muted to pack the much-needed punch for my games. But once you add in a soundbar, it’s my top pick for the best gaming TV overall. If you’re interested in learning more about this panel, you can read my full LG OLED Evo G4 TV review.

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Best for:

• Viewers of high-quality 4K content who want gorgeous contrast
• Samsung fans who want to expand their SmartThings home system
• Gamers with 4K and HDR-supported consoles

Skip if:

• You don’t want to spend a lot on a TV
• You don’t want to deal with the One Connect box

I learned that the Samsung OLED S95C TV packs a lot into this TV during my testing, making it a great splurge pick for any gamer’s home. Samsung’s design has a OneConnect Box that either rests on the back of the TV or can be set on a home entertainment stand. This gave me a more customizable setup, as this box is where I found my HDMI, Ethernet and more, and I can tuck it away into a TV stand and keep my home entertainment center looking less like a rat’s nest of cables.

The display is where I found the Samsung OLED S95C to shine, providing gorgeous contrast with dense, inky blacks and oversaturated reds and greens during my Horizon Forbidden West gameplay. As I said in my review, the oversaturation can feel more like a preference, but when I wasn’t gaming, shows like Fargo captured the bleak, muted Midwestern feel, showcasing just how versatile the panel can be. The vibrant colors and gorgeous contrast make for a top-notch picture based on my testing, and when I calibrated the display settings, colors balanced out and I got a vibrant, beautiful picture. My only gripe? Sometimes during bright sunny days I could see my reflection during darker scenes on the display, but for that vibrancy and contrast, it felt like a small price to pay.

The OLED S95C also features a dedicated Gaming Hub that showcases a variety of cloud gaming systems, including Blacknut, Xbox Game Pass, Nvidia GeForce Now and more. The Gaming Hub felt intuitive; when I booted it up, the Hub featured easy tutorials for setting up my controller and other FAQs. I really appreciated that with this panel—sometimes setup can feel like a chore.

If you have access to a stable, speedy internet connection, the Gaming Hub suits just fine. I played Arise, and while I experienced lag during the initial setup, a quick reboot fixed that minor hiccup. Combined with its 144Hz refresh rate, I experienced smooth gameplay across all my games, including heavy titles like Read Dead Redemption, Horizon Forbidden West and more.

While it’s one of the best gaming TVs you can buy right now, the Samsung proves itself to be a premium pick because its Gaming Hub allows for easy display adjustment for when you want optimal settings for RPGs, FPS games and more. It’s the little details, like the rich picture and easy tutorials built into the Smart Tizen operating system that make this worth the splurge. Read the full Samsung OLED S95C review to get more insight to this premium panel.

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Best for:

• Getting the full package—audio and picture—without spending a fortune
• Those who game on consoles and don’t rely on cloud gaming

Skip if:

• You want a plug-and-play TV without worrying about calibration
• You want a wide viewing angle

The TCL Q7 QLED TV comes packed with a bunch of different HDR formats for the best viewing. When I pulled up Star Trek: Strange New Worlds the first night I set it up, I was blown away by the visuals. Uniforms looked so detailed I could see practically every stitch on the 65-inch screen, and colors looked incredibly vivid. I fully expected this panel to cost thousands of dollars, but its three-figure price tag makes this my top budget pick. Testing proved that this TV packs a lot of great features into an affordable package.

Like the Sony Bravia XR A80L I tested, the TCL Q7 QLED TV required some finagling in order to get it to work: Popping into the settings and designating the HDMI port to a console, fine-tuning the gaming mode and more. Once I did that, the picture significantly improved. During gameplay, I experienced minimal blooming (which can look like a halo effect)—something that’s important for when I was heading into ruins in Horizon Forbidden West, since you’re relying on dim light emanating from old holographic panels most of the time.

I appreciated how bright and vivid colors looked during testing, especially while running Super Mario Bros. Wonder—it could have easily looked oversaturated and cartoonish. That said, I tested all the TVs both before and after calibration, and I felt that this TV really does need to be calibrated for best results. Remember that game mode I mentioned before? Before calibrating the HDMI 1 input to a dedicated gaming console, Horizon Forbidden West had screen tearing to the point where I couldn’t play the game. Once calibrated, the adaptive refresh rate kicked in and the gameplay smoothed out.

One thing to note about this panel: You’re not going to get cloud gaming unless you download the apps from the Play Store. It’s not a deal breaker per se, but if you’re seeking a dedicated gaming hub like LG or Samsung offers, TCL doesn’t offer that on this panel. I also really struggled with the narrow viewing angle, and for those who have a wide living area, you’ll get some distortion on-screen as you shift away from a center view.

The speakers come packed with a slew of different Dolby-compatible options, including Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital and more. The audio sounds detailed without being too overpowering, but I still ran into moments where I felt that the Starship Enterprise felt a little flat while booting up its main thrusters. In short, you’ll want to consider a Dolby Atmos–compatible sound bar for this TV for the very best sound quality, but if you decide not to, you’ll still get pretty decent audio for the price.

For those who usually game on a console, this is an affordable option that will get you a great picture without breaking the bank.

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Other TVs I Tested

There are plenty of TVs on the market. While these panels didn’t make the cut, they are still worthy of your consideration.

Samsung Neo QLED 8K QN900D ($4,800 on Samsung): Samsung has truly built an impressive, perhaps future-proof television with the QN900D. Games like Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and Judgment looked gorgeous on-screen. Where it fell apart for me was Samsung’s Gaming Hub. During my testing, the Xbox Game Pass cloud gaming left Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order looking pixelated. If you’re gaming on a console system like your PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch, graphics in Mass Effect: Andromeda and Lego Star Wars will perform great. However, you won’t find a lot of native 8K content at the moment, and its price, at $5,000 for the smallest option at the time of publication, may also give pause to some. You can read more about this TV in my full Samsung Neo QLED 8K QN900D review.

Roku Plus Series TV ($500 on Best Buy): Personally, I loved this TV—as a general, all-purpose display. It comes pre-calibrated, so you can just plug and play your home entertainment. My games looked good on the TV, with colors feeling nicely contrasted. Could it be better? Absolutely, but at the same time, this TV costs just three figures, not four, making it a solid budget pick. However, gamers will bristle at its mere 60Hz refresh rate, which can cause some screen tearing and less-than-smooth motion on the display during AAA gameplay. You can read more about my experience with the TV in this full