The world’s first gaming chairs came out in 2006. At around the same time, pro esports began to emerge as a global entertainment juggernaut. The two industries have a symbiotic relationship that has disrupted several legacy ones. This article covers the history of gaming chairs from 2006-2020. Learn how gaming chairs grew from humble beginnings into a thriving direct-sales global business.
The gaming chair origin story starts with a Korean economic crash in 1997, then a USA one in 2001. In Korea, waves of jobless youth filled their free time with Starcraft. Spending so long sitting, back problems arose. In America, desperate luxury car seat makers took notice. They slapped wheels onto car seats and gaming chairs were born.
The earliest gaming chairs were affordable and effective. They exceeded healthy ergonomic seating standards and were well-received by gamers. In hindsight, it was a stroke of genius that filled a serious gap in the ergonomic chair market.
Before 2006, the only ergonomic chairs on the market were pricey Herman Miller-style models. Car seats on wheels provided an ergonomic solution for the masses. As competitive esports grew, players turned to gaming chairs for a performance edge. Eventually, gaming chairs became staples among most top teams and tournaments.
History of esports
The rise of pro esports created the need for a new type of seating. This section explains how pro esports grew into a billion-dollar juggernaut between 2006-2020.
The esports origin story begins in 1980. That year, Atari released Space Invaders for the Atari 2600. To promote the game, the company held a national championship. A total of 10,000 people turned up to the finals in New York, making it the first large-scale esports tournament.
As pictured below, the gaming ergonomics of the time were horrendous. Players sat on fixed steel chairs while craning their necks to see TVs positioned too high.
Esports simmered on low for 20 years after the Space Invaders tournament. Then, in the early 2000s, things heated up in South Korea.
1997: South Korean economic collapse
The birth of pro esports was the result of a South Korean economic crash. From the 1960s and 1990s, four “Tiger economies” arose in Asia. Hong Kong and Singapore became international financial centers. South Korea and Taiwan developed into high-tech electronics hubs.
A quote from the book Those Who Remain explains the cyclical nature of a society’s success.
Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.
In Korea, that’s exactly what happened. Power had corrupted. Prosperity led to cronyism and corruption between chaebols (Korea mega-corporations like Samsung) and the government. Chaebols wasted huge sums on wasteful projects like luxury hobby cars and feature-length films. They also maintained bloated rosters of overpaid, unionized employees.
In late 1997, several chaebols were unable to pay off their loans. Staff cuts began, and protests broke out. Then, the stock market crashed and the Korean currency lost half of its value. The South Korean government got an emergency $58 billion loan from the IMF, but it wasn’t enough. Japan, America, and others also lent cash to save the Korean economy from collapsing.
1998: Starcraft in South Korea
A year after the financial crash, Blizzard Entertainment released Starcraft, a complex strategy game. Gameplay involves tactical thinking and crisp resource management. Success demands a high-level of manual dexterity. The best Starcraft players can execute hundreds of discrete actions per minute.
This proved a perfect fit for hordes of overeducated, underemployed Korean youth. Before the economic crash, Seoul had hundreds of stock trading cafes. After the crash, many trading cafes converted into “PC bangs” (gaming rooms). Across hundreds of backalley Seoul cafes, the modern concept of competitive esports was born.
Starcraft exploded in popularity. Big business interests got involved. In 2002, Samsung and SK Telecom started putting money into pro esports teams. Korean TV channels Ongamenet and MBCGame started running Starcraft tournaments.
Players competed for cash prizes, with games broadcast live on each channel. Record audiences tuned in as their idols played their favorite games for high stakes. Despite all the buzz, player ergonomics remained an afterthought.
Early esports ergonomics
As the South Korean Starcraft frenzy took esports to new highs, ergonomics were brutal. Pictured below is the setup for the 2005 Cyber Games, with white plastic chairs for the players.
In 2003, Call of Duty arrived and quickly became an esports classic. A year later, COD esports tournaments offered $2.8 million in cash prizes. In 2005, COD tourneys offered $4.3 million in prizes. But despite growing prize pools, player ergonomics remained crude.
In 2005, a study of UK internet users found that the average time spent online had increased to around 10 hours. As seated computing time went up, so did back pain cases.
That’s because as esports grew in popularity, gamers spent longer periods sitting at computers. With the crude seating of the era, back pain was inevitable.
Despite the growing need for healthier seating, it wasn’t until 2006 that someone stepped up to fill it.
2011: Twitch streaming
This year was a major turning point for the esports industry. Before the arrival of streaming services, esports were only broadcast on TV. Market penetration hit another level when streaming service Twitch launched in 2011. Twitch began broadcasting tournaments online. That gave casual gamers easy access to a new spectator sport based on their favorite video games.
Over the next few years, games like League of Legends, Overwatch, and Dota 2 exploded in popularity. Millions began tuning in.
Best Official Video Game Chairs
Twitch era sitting disease
A year after it launched, Twitch averaged 6 billion minutes of content watched every month. Aspiring pros would spend full-time hours sitting to build an audience. Any time they left their computers, they’d risk losing viewers to another channel.
Former streamer Joe Marino nearly died pursuing a streaming career. His advice: “Find that balance. Get up, move around do something other than sit. Standing desks help but it wont fix it. You have to move.”
In 2012, a 23-year old Taiwanese gamer ignored that advice. Chen Jung-yu paid for 23 hours at a Taipei Internet cafe. At the end of his 23 hours, the clerk noticed him sitting rigidly with a blackened face, stone cold dead.
With sedentary behavior on the rise, DXRacer proved to have excellent foresight. For a few reasons, their models proved the perfect solution for the era. First, gaming chairs are good for your back, supporting long periods of sitting.
Second, gaming chairs promote good posture. Third, good posture yields many benefits that help gamers perform at a higher level.
2018: esports becomes big business
In 2018, esports industry revenues reached $777 million. In 2019, revenue rose to $957 million. Big business interests started getting involved during this period. According to Deloitte, investors put $490 million into esports in 2017. In 2018, that number rose to a staggering $4.5 billion.
League of Legends is one of the leading esports titles. Corporate sponsors for its 2019 Finals included Mastercard, Alienware, Louis Vuitton, Red Bull, State Farm, and Secretlab. The 2019 Finals became the most-watched esports event of all time. Over 7 days of League of Legends finals play, viewers watched 24.6 million hours of content.
The average audience per minute during the LOL finals was 21.8 million viewers. To put that in context against other 2019 events:
- Stanley Cup 2019 finals: averaged 3 million viewers over seven games.
- Wimbledon men’s final: 3.3 million viewers.
- MLB 2019 All-Star game: 8.14 million viewers.
- Super Bowl 2019: 98 million.
As tens of millions tuned in to watch the 2019 LOL Finals, they saw their esports heroes using custom Secretlab chairs.
Corporate sponsors get involved
In 2018, esports industry revenues reached $777 million. In 2019, revenue rose to $957 million. Big business interests started getting involved during this period. According to Deloitte, investors put $490 million into esports in 2017. In 2018, that number rose to a staggering $4.5 billion.
At the same time, many corporate sponsors stepped up. For instance, the 2019 League of Legends finals boasted an elite list of sponsors. Those included Mastercard, Alienware, Cisco, Louis Vuitton, Red Bull, State Farm, and Secretlab. In 2020, all of those sponsors returned for the 2020 Finals, while Mercedes Benz joined the party.
History of gaming chairs
The preceding section summarized the history of pro esports. That began in South Korea during the 1997 South Korean financial crisis. In 1998, Blizzard Entertainment released Starcraft. The game became wildly popular among jobless Korean youth. Local TV stations cashed in on the craze by broadcasting tournaments.
The history of gaming chairs starts with economic turmoil in America. First came a 2001 recession, followed by the Sept. 11 attacks. The result was a stock market decline that crippled the auto industry. During the 2000s, America lost 5.7 million, or 33% of its manufacturing jobs. It was a pandemic of industrial plant closings. Here’s the Packard Automotive Plant, on East Grand Boulevard on Detroit’s east side, 2006:
Also in 2001, an American startup company called DXRacer began making luxury car seats. Their timing was terrible. That same year, Chrysler discontinued its Plymouth brand. In 2004, GM canceled its Oldsmobile division.
In 2005, oil prices began rising. Sales of gas-guzzling American cars plummeted. Facing dwindling returns in a shrinking market, desperate engineers at DXRacer took action.
2005: stagnant office chair ergonomics
Since the 1970s, healthy sitting standards have been well-established. For example, a 1994 study by Hoekstra et al. showed how “nonadjustable furniture universally promoted undesirable postures.” Even so, standard office chairs have fixed parts with no customizable lumbar support. That configuration forces users to sit in static positions for long periods. Consequently, users suffer from low energy, overworked back muscles, and poor posture.
Despite the health risks, cheap office chairs are ubiquitous. Selling them is lucrative. As a result, the multi-billion-dollar office chair industry focuses on B2B sales to corporations, schools, and government offices.
Facility buyers for schools and offices focus on price, style, and durability when buying chairs in bulk.
For these reasons, the massive office chair industry ignored the rise of esports completely.
2006: world’s first gaming chairs
When the auto market crashed, DXRacer engineers were stuck with thousands of luxury car seats that would never sell. Luckily, luxury car seats were on the cutting-edge of ergonomic science.
Racing seat developer Recaro launched their first ergonomic racing seat in 1967. That broke new ground with a body-hugging seat shell, adjustment options, and foam upholstery. In 2005, Recaro revolutionized luxury upholstery with a new lightweight PU leather shell.
According to DXRacer company lore, it was “inspiration and curiosity” that brought a groundbreaking idea to life. In 2006, DXRacer released the world’s first gaming chair.
There aren’t any photos of that original model, but it became the blueprint of all gaming chairs to follow:
The high backrest with curved edges supported the shoulders. Removable neck and lumbar cushions kept the spine aligned. Caster wheels attached to a 5-pointed base with adjustable height. Adjustable armrests and backrest recline let users change position without standing up. Finally, thick padding and faux leather tied the whole thing together.
The result was very well received. These new chairs allowed users to sit better, work harder, and game longer. The modern gaming chair had arrived.
2008: AKRacing
Over the next two years since the DXRacer launch, the esports industry hummed along. Annual prize revenues jumped from $4.6 million in 2006 to $6.4 million in 2008. But the player ergonomics were still very basic.
Also in 2008, AKRacing launched as the second big gaming chair company in the industry. Like DXRacer, this Taiwanese outfit made luxury car seats in a crumbling auto market.
Seeing the success of DXRacer and the growth of the esports market, it was a no-brainer. They started making their own versions of DXRacer’s blueprint.
They also jumped into esports promotion. In 2013, AKRacing sponsored the World Cyber Games.
A year later, they partnered with pro team Ninjas in Pyjamas. In 2015, they added Team Dignitas to their roster.
2009: DXRacer esports partnerships
In response to AKRacing’s challenge, DXRacer stepped up their game. At the 2009 World Cyber Games in Chengdu, China, they provided chairs to all players.
That began an active run of DXRacer partnerships. They went on to sponsor many other major tournaments.
DXRacer also went on to partner with several teams, such as Natus Vincere and Ninjas in Pyjamas. Most recently, DXRacer became the official gaming chair for the 2019-2020 Gears 5 Major Circuit.
2012: cheap knockoffs
As the esports scene heated up, DXRacer and AKRacing remained the only two gaming brands on the market. But several cheap DXRacer knockoffs started flooding Chinese websites.
These looked like DXRacer gaming chairs, but only on the outside. Inside, they used cheap plywood stuffed with surplus foam. It was the same build as cheap office chairs, but with flashy DXRacer-inspired styling.
For most people, DXRacer’s concept was too new and too expensive (around $300 per chair). Those who tried cheap knockoffs were disappointed. As a result, gaming chairs remained a niche product only of interest to hard-core gamers.
That kept gaming chairs out of reach of the masses – until Homall showed up in 2012.
Homall Classic
In 2012, Chinese furniture company Homall launched a gaming chair division. Their mission was to reverse-engineer the best features of DXRacer chairs to sell cheap but solid products.
Instead of cheap plywood, they used a cheap steel frame. In place of cheap foam, they used high-density foam blocks. The result was a hit, bringing the concept of gaming chairs to the masses.
Today, Homall’s Classic Series is Amazon’s best-selling gaming chair of all time.
Homall Brand: review of all models
GTRacing Classic
As Homall chairs began selling like hotcakes, another aspiring Chinese brand watched from the sidelines. A year after Homall’s launch, a Chinese furniture manufacturer called GTRacing joined the fray.
After two years of R&D, they released the GTRacing Classic in 2013. That model copied Homall’s low-cost formula and improved on it.
The result was a chair with better features and a slightly higher price. Today, the GTRacing Classic is also one of Amazon’s all-time best-selling gaming chairs.
2014: pro chairs from Secretlab and Maxnomic
2014 was a massive year for both esports and gaming chairs. In esports, a Dota 2 tournament prize pool equaled that of a PGA tour. Also that year, more people tuned in to watch esports finals than the NBA finals.
The gaming chair scene also took a huge leap forward with the launch of Maxnomic and Secretlab. Both companies introduced high-quality chairs optimized for pro esports players. New features introduced by both brands:
- Integrated lumbar support: internal lumbar like a pneumatic luxury car seat.
- Cold foam padding: a superior form of padding with greater resistance and durability.
- Larger sizes: wider, deeper seats to fit bigger and taller users.
In the early days, Maxnomic aggressively pursued high-profile partnerships. By 2018, Secretlab started to pull ahead.
2015: more pro class brands
While DXRacer set the precedent, Secretlab and Maxnomic raised the bar with a higher level of esports chair. Two more high-end brands joined the industry with products matching up to the same level of quality.
Vertagear
In 2015, Vertagear met that level when they launched from a base in Los Angeles. They took the advanced features perfected by Secretlab and Maxnomic and came up with their own interpretations. Vertagear chairs are colorful, solid and thickly padded. They also hold up very well under intense gaming loads.
Soon after launching the company, Vertagear plunged into the esports world. In June 2015, they set up a display at an ESL One Dota 2 tourney in Frankfurt.
They continued showing up at European gaming conventions for a few years. In 2017, they signed a deal with Team Immunity, their first of many pro team partners. Today, Vertagear sponsors the Capcom Cup and works with several pro teams including Team Splyce.
Vertagear Gaming Chairs: Brand Review
Noblechairs
In 2016, a group of German designers came together to launch Noblechairs. Unsatisfied with what the gaming chair market had to offer, they released their own. Noblechairs offered upmarket seats with subtle styling.
Like Secretlab, Maxnomic and Vertagear, Noblechairs made high quality, pro-calibre chairs. But they banked on a demand for sophisticated designs that never materialized. As a fallback, Noblechairs plunged into esports, offering custom designs for partners.
In 2017, they partnered with Endpoint, a pro team from the UK. In 2018, they added Berlin International Gaming as a partner. Today, their partners include top German teams like SK Gaming and mousesports.
2018-2020: Secretlab rises to the top
In Singapore, a pair of Starcraft players saw a quality gap in the gaming chair industry. In 2014, Alaric Choo and Ian Alexander Ang decided to form a startup and do something about it. By 2017, the company was generating $15 million in chair sales.
In 2019, Secretlab ascended to a higher level. First, the company secured a round of venture capital from Heliconia Capital Management. Next, they released 2020 Series chair upgrades offering big improvements over previous models.
After that, the company focused on high-pofile partnerships and new chair designs. For instance, among the top-10 highest-earning esports teams of all time, six are Secretlab partners. Top teams using Secretlab chairs include Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, OG Esports, G2 Esports, Cloud9, T1, and more.
Secretlab also produces several custom designs for popular video games. For example, in 2020, Secretlab released six League of Legends gaming chairs.
Beyond video games, Secretlab has also penetrated into mainstream entertainment markets. Via an HBO partnership, Secretlab offers three Game of Thrones gaming chairs. A Warner Bros. deal resulted in a Batman, Joker, and Harley Quinn chair.
In 2020, no gaming chair brand enjoys such a massive level of exposure. This has resulted in benefits for all gaming chair brands as demand has surged industry-wide.
2018-2019: consistent, predictable growth
In 2019, market research experts predicted a 5% annual growth rate for the gaming chair industry. Google trends in 2018-2019 show a low level of interest in gaming chairs throughout most of the year. Then, during the end-of-year holiday season, interest spikes.
The trends suggested that gaming chairs remained a niche item mainly for gamers. Moving into 2020, the continuation of that trend seemed logical. After the Xmas sales peak, gaming chair interest would hibernate again until the next sales season.
But then, a pandemic hit, a work-from-home trend became necessary. As a result, consumer demand for gaming chairs skyrocketed — and hasn’t yet let up.
2020: gaming chairs go mainstream
The global switch to working from home brought mainstream attention to the gaming chair industry. In late February, chair sales spiked and never let up. By early spring, many top brands were out of stock and struggling to keep up with demand.
Throughout the year, demands for chairs remained high. Some brands (DXRacer Noblechairs, Opseat) struggled, going long periods without restocking. Others (like Secretlab, GTRacing, and Akracing) thrived. Those brands able to keep up with demand have enjoyed three times more sales than expected throughout the year. As a result, 2020 also saw many big brands expanding their global operations.
As gaming chair sales spiked in the pandemic era, office sale sales plummeted. Herman Miller and Steelcase were reporting sharp losses. Mid-year, Herman Miller released its own line of gaming chairs. Shortly after, Ikea announced that they would be making gaming chairs as well.
For a more detailed look these 2020 developments, check out this feature:
2006-2020 recap
In 2020, the gaming chair industry turns fourteen years old. Once dismissed as gimmicks for nerds, gaming chairs have become essential to esports.
Here’s a summary of the whole story:
Prologue
- 1997: South Korean financial crisis.
- 1998: Blizzard releases Starcraft. Jobless Korean youth make the game a huge hit that marks the birth of pro esports.
- 2000: American recession.
- 2001: DXRacer launches as maker of luxury car seats.
- 2001: American auto industry crashes. DXRacer’s luxury car seat market evaporates.
2006-2020 bullet points
- 2006: DXRacer launches the world’s first gaming chair with an industry-defining blueprint.
- 2008: AKRacing expands on the DXRacer blueprint with their own brand of gaming chairs.
- 2009: DXRacer responds to the challenge by developing pro esports partnerships.
- 2012: Homall and GTRacing release cheap but sturdy versions of DXRacer’s blueprint. These models introduced gaming chairs to the masses.
- 2014: esports enjoyed one of its biggest years to date. Two new major players emerged. Secretlab and Maxnomic took gaming chairs to the next level with new pro features.
- 2015: Vertagear and Noblechairs launch as rivals to Secretlab, Maxnomic and DXRacer.
- 2019: the pro esports industry generates $1 billion in revenue. Viewership numbers break records. Secretlab steps forward as a dominant brand, forging powerful global partnerships.
- 2020: the global lockdown resulted in a massive spike in demand for gaming chairs. This makes the end of gaming chairs as a niche item for gamers, and the start of mainstream appeal.
Conclusion
In March 1998, Blizzard Entertainment released StarCraft, a science fiction video game. Success required strategic thinking and clever execution. This provided the perfect means for jobless, over-educated Korean youth to spend their time.
As a result, many flocked to the game. Big business began to take notice. At the same time in America, the auto industry was imploding.
Three seemingly unrelated factors provided the spark. First, Starcraft-crazed Korean marathon gamers. Second, an auto industry crash in America. Third, a DXRacer warehouse full of unsold luxury car seats. These factors led to the birth of the gaming chair industry.
The entire story resembles a classic story plotline. It begins with the introduction of a problem (poor seating). Then it leads to a climax. What follows is a lower-intensity resolution.
Moving forward from 2020, we predict steady, consistent growth without many more new developments. Episode II looks to be shaping up already: mega-corporations are descending on the gaming chair market.
The benefit for consumers is a wider range of gamer-friendly, work-from-home products. As a result, we can look forward to a buyer-friendly ergonomic chair market.
The cap to the story is that 2020 was the most successful year in gaming chair history. To see which chairs and brands performed the best during this breakthrough, check this article:
