After spending weeks testing 13 of the best earbuds for gaming, the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds stand out because of their comfortable fit, balanced audio, and massive library of built-in equalizers that adapt your sound to specific games.

But players who need an open-ear design or strong noise canceling for their commute should pick a different set of gaming earbuds. Here's why.

I'm a journalist and reviewer with more than 12 years of experience writing about games and tech. I reviewed my first audio product seven years ago, and for the past year I've been IGN's lead earbud reviewer, primarily testing gaming earbuds that pack a wireless USB dongle for their connection to your PC or console, rather than relying on higher-latency Bluetooth.

Great gaming earbuds must tick lots of boxes: they should be comfortable to wear for long stretches, hold enough charge for long gaming sessions, and deliver audio without any significant delays. They should sound clean, balanced, and rich when playing games in any genre, and should clearly distinguish between audio elements. Ideally they'll tell you the directions of in-game sounds, such as an enemy's footsteps. They should, in most cases, have a decent microphone. And they must connect quickly and reliably across multiple gaming devices.

I consider some other features useful but not essential for gaming, including powerful noise canceling and a transparency mode.

Using this criteria, I built out a longlist of gaming earbuds to potentially test and recommend here. I wanted to include any pair of earbuds I thought had even an outside shot of being the best, so I spread the net widely.

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