Pro Gaming Gear of the Year – 2024

As we enter the final two weeks of the year 2024, it’s time to reflect and assess. It has been an interesting year in the professional gaming scene, as some extremely anticipated products finally saw the light of day. We saw old favorites being challenged, as well as new products making their way onto the desks of pro gamers. In this article, we’ll go over the gear that’s been used to create history across a variety of competitive games: these are the most used products across all of our analyzed games. This is the pro gaming gear of the year 2024.

For this article, we use data from all of our analyzed games.

Update: a couple of hours after the post went live, the Razer Viper V3 Pro overtook the #1 spot, so we adjusted the positioning in the chart. However, since this article is a ‘snapshot’ of how gear is right now, we will not be making any further updates to this article. For live updates on the gear, feel free to browse our lists linked in the article itself.

Mice

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1813 players, using 174 different types of mice.

In the mouse department, there’s one very clear mouse of the year. The Razer Viper V3 Pro has managed to climb to an impressive 18% market share over the course of the year. And that’s despite being released in April.

It has crowned itself as the #1 gaming mouse across all games, which is a massive achievement. Of course, it has to be said that the Logitech Superlight line is split into two mice right now. Combine those two and team blue’s flagship product still reigns supreme.

With that said: the Superlight 2 has ‘only’ managed to gain 2% when compared to August, whereas the original Superlight has dropped by 5%. That means a further drop of 3%. In comparison, the Viper V3 Pro went up by 6% over the course of the past six months. It’ll be interesting to see if this trend continues.

Further down the list, the Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro is holding steady as the fourth most used mouse, and the ZOWIE EC2-CW holds its spot as the #5. Interestingly, 6 players have already switched over to the unreleased ZOWIE EC2-DW. This even gave the mouse a spot as one of the five most used mice in the recent CS2 Major, which is quite an impressive feat.

VAXEE’s E1 Wireless also deserves a mention. It doesn’t make the top 5, but it is sitting at an impressive 9th place as of writing. That’s quite impressive for a mouse from a niche (compared to the usual suspects) brand that was released only a couple of weeks ago.

See our detailed mouse list, complete with specs, users, and links to reviews.

Brand Trends

The trend that we noticed back in August continues: Logitech is losing market share. The brand is still quite comfortable at the top, but Razer is definitely closing the gap.

Compared to August, Razer has gained 6%, whereas Logitech has lost 5%. If this trend continues, we might see Razer take over the crown as the #1 mouse brand on the website in 2025.

ZOWIE has lost 2% over the past two quarters. However, their recent launch of their DW models (which feature 4000Hz polling rates and a -slightly- lighter weight: two widely requested changes) has seen a lot of players who left the brand returning, so good times might be on the horizon.

Keyboards

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1741 players, using 157 different types of keyboard.

This was definitely the year of the analog keyboards. The trend started back in 2023, but over the past year we’ve seen pros across all games clearly indicate that analog keyboards are the way forward. Over 50% of analyzed pros are using keyboards with analog switches. That number is too high for it to be considered a gimmick or a temporary fad if you ask us.

Razer’s Huntsman V3 Pro TKL is still the most popular board with the pros, but there’s an exciting new kid on the block. Wooting’s 80HE is a board that fans have been anticipating for a very long time, and it’s finally here. Despite only being released in October of this year, it has already made its way into the top 5.

Now that analog technology is well and truly mainstream, we at ProSettings.net expect the market share of these types of boards to continue rising. And for good reason. If you’re a competitive gamer and you’re looking for a new board, you should definitely consider going analog. It really is that much better.

See our detailed keyboards list with specs, users, and links to reviews.

Brand Trends

Over the past two quarters, Razer has further solidified its lead as the #1 keyboard supplier to the pro scene. After an impressive 6% rise, we now see over a quarter of analyzed pros using a Razer board.

Logitech has lost 3%, whereas Wooting has gained 3%. The Dutch brand has now well and truly gone mainstream: it’s hard to find a competitive gamer who hasn’t heard of them. If we’re allowed to take a guess, we expect to see Wooting end up in second place by the time we write another status update next year.

Even if they don’t and stay in third, it should be cause for celebration in the Netherlands. Their rise over the past two years has been nothing short of spectacular, and they really helped innovate the gaming keyboard space.

Monitors

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1710 players, using 88 different types of monitor.

If we would summarize the monitor year of 2024, we’d call it the year of 360Hz. The 360Hz ZOWIE XL2566K continues to climb and is now just two pros who make the switch away from becoming the #1 monitor.

However, it’s important to note that 240Hz is still very much a great option, as the majority of analyzed pros are still using a 240Hz monitor. So yes, technology is moving forward, but that doesn’t mean that 240Hz will handicap you greatly.

As a consequence of evolving technology, gamers on a budget can now pick up fantastic 240Hz monitors like the ZOWIE XL2546K for pretty friendly prices.

It should be noted that all monitors in this top 5 are 1080p monitors. Pro gamers care about framerates and motion clarity over anything else, and going for higher resolutions generally means that your PC will be outputting fewer frames. PCs are becoming stronger and stronger so we might see a swap to 1440p resolutions in the future, but today’s standard pro resolution is definitely 1920×1080.

Feel free to browse our detailed monitor list, where we have specs, users, and other interesting details.

Brand Trends

We haven’t seen very many revolutionary monitor releases in 2024. At least not pertaining to the pro scene, that is. As a consequence, the brand chart hasn’t moved much.

Mousepads

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1744 players, using 163 different types of mousepad.

Mousepads have been swapping places for pretty much the entire year. At the time of writing, the Razer Gigantus V2 seems to have carved out a small lead however.

Followed by that, we see the SteelSeries QcK Heavy in second place, followed by the ZOWIE G–SR-SE and the Logitech G640.

New in the top 5 is the VAXEE PA. This pad has been around for a while now and has hovered around the top 5 for months, so this is no big surprise to us.

Notably, all pads in the top 5 are pretty ‘mainstream’. By this we mean that they aren’t super premium pads made with exotic materials. A simple explanation for this might be availability. A mousepad isn’t a ‘buy it for life’ type of product, as the cloth will start to degrade after a while. For this reason, pros might prefer pads that are commonly available around the globe.

A lot of the pads in the top 5 have also been around for quite some time. Pros know what to expect when they purchase a new unit, and might want to stick with what they know for consistency’s sake.

With that said: niche, more premium pads are definitely on the rise. This can clearly be seen when looking at brand trends.

Browse our full mousepad list for specs, users, and test results from our test bench so you can compare glide speeds and characteristics.

Brand Trends

Artisan takes the first spot for the first time ever. This is not only a momentous occasion for the brand itself, but also for the mousepad scene in general. A niche brand that produces very high quality mousepads (with comparatively high prices to match) being the most used brand in pro gaming means that the market for these types of pads is wide open.

It’ll be interesting to see if any of the mainstream brands attempt to surf on this wave in 2025. One thing is for sure, though: these are golden times for mousepad enthusiasts.

Headsets

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1682 players, using 118 different types of headset.

For years, the HyperX Cloud II was the most used headset in pro gaming. This year marks the first moment since ProSettings.net has started keeping statistics where another headset takes the crown. The Razer BlackShark V2 Pro can now rightfully be called the #1 headset in pro gaming. That’s no small feat, as the Cloud II’s reign over this particular section of the market has been extremely strong.

The BlackShark V2 Pro is without a doubt a great gaming headset, but we also believe that some other factors have helped with its takeover.

A lot of brands release tons of headsets in short amounts of time (often with confusing names) which prevents their products from building up a reputation like the Cloud II did. Over the years, we saw many headsets gaining traction only to then lose it because another headset (by the same brand) was released shortly thereafter.

The BlackShark V2 Pro has been around for over a year, and is quite firmly established as Razer’s flagship competitive gaming headset. Additionally, it has a recognizable design with a ‘no nonsense’ type of build and overall design that pros seem to love.

Further down the list, we see Logitech’s gaming headsets combine for a 15% market share. With the Cloud II steadily losing users (-3%) over the past year, we might’ve actually seen the end of this fantastic product’s dominance.

See our full headset list for specs, user details, and links to reviews.

Brand Trends

The Cloud II might’ve lost the lead, but HyperX is still hanging on as a brand. They did lose 2% compared to August, but the pro scene still seems to love their entire product line, resulting in a lead that’s still quite commanding.

Further down the list, we see Razer becoming the #2 brand. Boosted by the success of their BlackShark V2 Pro, the brand has managed to overtake Logitech.

Conclusion

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This year has been marked by some great releases. The Razer Viper V3 Pro and Wooting 80HE are without a doubt this year’s top releases (when looking at the pro scene) but other interesting stuff has happened, too.

In the headset market, we saw the end to the HyperX Cloud II’s dominance as the #1 headset. We also saw Artisan rise to the top as the #1 mousepad brand in the pro gaming scene. ZOWIE’s new DW releases also seem to be getting a lot of love from the pros, with the EC2-DW attracting a comparatively large userbase even before being officially announced.

All of this sets the stage for a very interesting 2025. We’ve very much looking forward to seeing what new and established brands can do in the following year.

Enjoy the final two weeks of the year and happy gaming!