What Height Should a Gaming Desk Be?

It’s 2023. By now, we all know we are sitting wrong. We are opening jars wrong. We are pealing bananas wrong. So many daily things have a right way and a wrong way of doing them. While it is hard to optimize everything and do things the right way, the way you sit and set up your chair and desk can impact your gaming experience massively. If you find a way to sit in the proper position, your aim and reaction time can improve significantly. 

Here are a few tips on how you can do adjust the height of your gaming desk based on your needs. The average gaming desk is between 29″ and 30″ or 73 to 76 cm. It is hard to account for all shapes and sizes humans come in in that range. These standard sizes primarily work for people who are around 5’8 or 5’10” or 172 and 178cm. 

So, obviously not everybody. If you are shorter or taller, then the standard gaming desk will not be the best option for you. What can you do? There are some general rules you can follow that have to do with the height of your limbs and torso. 

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Starting Point

Let’s start with your legs. Your knees should be bent at a 90-degree angle. This will reduce the pressure on your thighs, which is vital for blood flow. In order to maximize your experience, your feet should be planted firmly on the ground. This means that in order to determine your ideal desk height, you adjust your chair too. 

What about the position of the keyboard and arms? You want to avoid wrist pain as much as possible. We all know how red your wrists can get, even callused! The wrist callus is a mark of a frequent PC gamer, but it’s not what we are aiming for if we want to have proper posture. If you continue ignoring the wrist pain, you risk developing carpel tunnel syndrome. 

So, ideally, your elbows should be bent at a 90-degree angle, just like your legs. Your knuckles should remain at the same level as your wrists. You want to avoid bending your bands as much as possible at the wrist. 

Now that we covered where your limbs and torso should be, what’s the height of your desk? Unfortunately, unlike the degrees of your limbs, we can’t say that there is a certain height that your table should be at that just fits everyone. 

Instead, you need to adjust your chair and your desk so that you can maintain good posture and avoid bending your wrists. 

Monitor Position

One more thing to cover is the position of the monitor on your desk. Now that you know how to properly position yourself, where should your monitor be? Ideally, no more than 2 feet or 60 cm from your face.

Now that you relieved pressure from your tights and wrists, you don’t want to create another problem: the strain on your eyes or neck problems. Tech neck is a real issue, guys! If you need to be hunting and bending to see the monitor, you might have eliminated one problem and created another. 

So, another thing to take into account when you ask yourself where to position your desk is your monitor’s size and position. Consider lifting your monitor if it is too low when you place yourself at the right 90 degree angles. You can give your monitor some extra height with extra drawers that can be used to store your keyboard or stationary. 

You can also buy a little platform and store the keyboard under it overnight. The cheapest option is putting some books or boxes below the monitor, but you have to be careful. The boxes or books have to be even. You don’t want your monitor falling in the middle of the night or in the middle of an intense gaming session! So, consider lifting your monitor but see what option works the best for you. 

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Some Helpful Tips

Now that we know some basics, here are a few more things that can help you. On average, the best desk for people who are 5’2″ or 157cm tall is around 24 inches or 61cm. On the other hand, the desk for a person who is approximately 6 feet tall should be at least 27 inches or 68.5 cm. 

Now, these are just average numbers. These measurements do not account for someone having a higher torso or longer limbs. Therefore, setting up the height of your desk based solely on your own height might not be the best. 

Instead, think of your angles. Think of where your elbows and knees can be the most comfortable and how to avoid bending and leaning forward to see the monitor. Now that you know your angles, one more thing you can do to adjust your desk is ditch the chair altogether. In this case, your knees should not be bending, obviously. 

žInstead, you should pay more attention to 90-degree elbows and the monitor facing your face, not your torso. There are several health benefits to ditching the chair. Mainly, standing forces you to move more than you would in a chair, and it’s an efficient way to avoid slouching. 

However, this is definitely not an option for everybody. It’s hard to imagine keeping up with fast-paced games like League of Legends while standing up. But, some people have tried it and said that it does not affect their aim. 

If you are cramped in an office all day, then sitting in the car or bus as you are commuting back and from work, you might want to enjoy a game while still burning some calories and moving around. If so, adjust your desk to account for the strain on your elbows and neck. No need to worry about your knee angles. 

Also read: Is MSI a Good Gaming Laptop Brand?

Conclusion

There is no such thing as one size fits all height of a gaming desk. If you are shorter, a shorter gaming desk is probably a better choice for you. You don’t want anything stopping you from getting your feet on the ground. If you are really tall, you probably need to give your monitor an extra boost too, so consider a desk with a lifted monitor. 

In short, pun intended, you need to be mindful of your posture and think of your joints in the future. The ideal height of a gaming desk is whatever minimizes the risk of you getting carpal tunnel or tech neck, and you are probably going to need to experiment to find your angles. One rule to keep in mind is 90-90-60, or if you don’t do metric systems, 90-90-2. 

What we mean by that is you want your knees at 90 degrees, you want your elbow and 90 degrees, and you want your monitor 60 cm or 2 feet away from your face. Think of finding the proper gaming desk height as a quest! Once you collect these achievements, your reward is faster response time, better aim, and no joint pain! Low risk, high reward – perfect. 

You can also check out our list of the best Ikea gaming desks right here.