Gaming is on the upswing in recent years, prompting the creation of myriad fitting WordPress themes. It’s no wonder since this CMS (Content Management System) is used by over 40% of websites indexed on the Internet. Users want to start a blog or an online business around their favorite game title, genre, or industry in general, and the most convenient (also free) way to do so is the CMS. Therefore, they install WordPress and add content and plugins before they begin worrying about their inability to code or design. That’s precisely where an extensive repository of gorgeous but functional designs comes into the picture. We’ll present the best WordPress themes for gaming websites to help.
1. PlayerX
PlayerX is self-described as a “high-powered theme for gaming and eSports” and one look tells you why. We believe it to be the top dog among themes for WordPress gaming websites. The theme is full of striking colors, dark designs, flashy headers, fancy animations, and remarkable images and videos. The best part is that you can pick among myriad templates, then import and edit them to minute details with Elementor. To make modification easy, it comes with custom blocks for portfolios, headers, footers, contact pages, blogs, social media, scrolling, widgets, and icons. The theme also brings complex shortcodes to easily turn features or elements on and off, 800+ Google Fonts, 7 icon packs, sample pages, and paid WPBakery and Slider Evolution plugins for free.
2. Arcane
Arcane is one of the leading WordPress themes for gaming news websites news but also serves as a template website for gaming developers, studios, tournament organizers, and streamers. It is compatible with Elementor, so the whole thing relies on drag-and-drop, and easily adjusts to screens of all sizes and resolutions. It comes with a plethora of demos you can install in one click and lots of language and translation options. You can create user pages, teams, scoreboards, and tournament boards, and use the built-in rating system. Moreover, the theme has a color palette option, and comes with WooCommerce support and blocks for videos, animates icons and images, and parallax backgrounds.
3. Blabber
Do you plan to start a gaming blog, hence you’re looking through WordPress themes? Your search likely starts with Blabber, a vibrant, functional, lightweight, mobile-friendly, responsive, and multipurpose theme. Though there’s a game blog template, you can also modify over 25 demos for tech, gadgets, sports, science, fashion, and technology to your liking. It boasts easy Elementor drag and drop editing, and comes with shortcodes, sidebars, widgets, header and footer layouts, and other premade stuff you can add or exclude. Most importantly, it is SEO-friendly, letting you outperform competition and bring traffic.
4. GoodLife
We mostly covered Elementor-based ones, but GoodLife is a theme compatible with WPBakery page builder, previously known as Visual Composer. Though it’s intended for general magazine/news sites, it boasts many demos for a blog, forum, or newspaper, and keeps adding new ones and improving the old. The site has a dedicated typography section, supports translation and AMP, and has high scores for SEO and speed on sites like Google Page Speed, Pingdom, and GTmetrix. Its Fuel Studio lets you apply over 300 premade elements and configure them to your taste.
5. Blackfyre
Blackfyre is a theme for owners who want to start a news site, blog, or build a massive gaming community. It comes with plenty of templates, from minimal to advanced, but you can also build it the way you want to. Additionally, it has a clan feature, letting users create profiles, group up, challenge each other, and keep the score. In terms of visual appeal, it boasts animated images, icons, and videos, and lets users add a parallax block to upload or embed videos. Finally, you’ll enjoy social media integration, SEO friendliness, responsive and mobile-friendly design, and compatibility with bbPress and WooCommerce.
6. Respawn
Are you browsing the esports gaming WordPress themes looking for a perfect candidate? Look no further, since Respawn is precisely what you need. It comes with a plethora of templates you can install in one click, edit with Elementor, and configure with a custom Admin panel. Most importantly, the theme is fully responsive, translation-ready, SEO friendly, and boasts a section for team matches that includes clan pages with member names, scores, scoreboards, and news. You’ll also like the 300 Elementor blocks that come bundled, letting you experiment to your heart’s desire.
7. Plaxer
Another theme frequently described as “high-powered” is Plaxer. Like PlayerX, it’s immediately apparent why that is. It has a distinct, dark style, and 6 top-notch premade demo pages that let you imprint your style through components such as menus, shortcodes, header, footer, on-page images, videos, and typography. It remains lightweight and thus fast, yet optimized for SEO and translation. The theme was built with HTML5 and CSS3 and comes with premium plugins and 50+ paid elements compatible with WPBakery page builder. Unsurprisingly, it’s mobile-friendly and even has a custom side menu.
8. Eldritch
Eldritch may look a tad depressing at first glance since it features a dark, DOOM/Dark Souls design, but don’t let that fool you. It boasts a masterful mix of beauty and functionality since it has a huge background image (or a parallax video/scrolling animation) with minimalistic menu items. Scrolling down reveals more content and the reason it’s a leader in the eSports/gaming niche. You can import 6+ templates and custom pages for home, blog, about us, contact us, player profile, game profile, and so on. It’s compatible with bbPress, custom Admin interface, WooCommerce, translation, and mega menu, too.
9. Armadon
We understand not every user desires the complexity and versatility of Elementor, WPBakery, and other page builders. Thus, we present Armadon, one of the few popular WordPress gaming themes that can be edited solely with WordPress Block Editor, i.e., Gutenberg Editor. It’s adequate for game reviews, blogs, eSports events, and tournaments. However, instead of a plethora of demos, you get one template to modify for your needs.
10. Oblivion
Since it carries a part of the name of a popular game (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), you know what to expect from this theme. It has an MMORPG look to it, with lots of menus, blog, review, and product pages, gallery, video gallery, and even a BuddyPress/bbPress compatible forum. As usual, it comes with a drag-and-drop Page Builder, and a parallax background slider (LayerSlider Premium, included in the theme). If you decide to start selling anything, its WooCommerce compatibility will surely be useful.