What are gaming energy drinks and are they worth the hype?
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Mixt - Best Gaming Drink Overall
Rogue Energy - Best Tasting Gaming Drinks
G-Fuel
- Most Popular Gamer Drinks
Nau Energy
- Best Caffeine Free Gaming Drink
Hunter Focus - Best Gamer Nootropic
Gaming drinks are generally powdered zero sugar energy drinks, designed to be used by gamers as an alternative to traditional energy drinks.
The best gaming energy drinks should increase your mental focus, reaction time and be pleasant for your taste buds. Whilst the last point is always going to subjective, the rest is pretty well researched when it comes to which ingredients will work. A lot of gamers tend to use them as an alternative to consuming traditional energy drinks which are often high in sugars, seeking them out as a healthier option.
The question is do these energy drinks really live up to the hype and the rather aggressive marketing campaigns that we've seen in recent years.
What Are Gaming Drinks? What Do You Need To Know?
Whilst it is going to depend on the brand, 3 in one day should be an absolute max. Taking Gfuel as an example 3g of taurine spread through the day is actually the ideal dose for maximum efficiency and the 420mg of caffeine is well within the safe range. However, if you're consuming energy drinks along with coffee you should make sure you consider the additional caffeine.
They're going to help a little bit if you're tired and can definitely improve focus, but so could a cup of coffee in a lot of cases. Generally speaking a lot of the gaming energy drink market uses very similar recipes to the general energy drink market, there's just a lot more sugar free options.
Well that depends, there's no reason that you can't use both, but the main difference is a lot of nootropics don't contain taurine and it's a mixed bag as to whether or not they contain natural caffeine. The best gaming energy drinks tend to contain both of these, as you'd expect, but there are other ingredients which could be beneficial to reaction time or even prolonged eye health.
Mixd tops our list of the best gaming energy drinks for a number of reasons, and to be honest, if we had a list of the best energy drinks it would probably be top of that as well.
Mixd is sugar free, relatively high in caffeine coming in at 166mg per serving, and it's actually quite well priced as gamer energy drinks go, coming in at just 50c per serving. Whilst we recommend the rainbow candy flavor, they do offer a selection pack so you can try them all to figure out which one you like the best.
Aside from the obvious caffeine, it comes packed with b vitamins, taurine and tyrosine, which all work to boost energy levels.
Whilst Mixd does have a few less active ingredients than some of the other gamer drinks on this list, it takes the top spot due to it's value and taste, making it a great start for first time buyers looking to cut some calories and improve their mental focus. It also mixes incredibly well, something that is a complaint with other energy drink brands.
They were also nice enough to reach out give us a discount code after we rated them number one, so you can use TRT10 for 10% off.
Rogue Energy drinks are definitely not the cheapest option available, but they do taste good, and have a great list of active ingredients. They're zero sugar as are most of the other energy drinks on this list. Besides the fact that they have one of the highest caffeine contents on the market, and the highest on our list their formula also contains L-carnitine, L-citrulline, Taurine, Glucuronolactone, N-acetyl-L-tyrosine, L-phenylalanine, Choline L-bitartrate.
Most of these ingredients wouldn't be out of place in a nootropic supplement, although if we're being honest the dosages are a little too low on most of them to be particularly effective and if you're looking for a top tier gaming nootropic we'd recommend then you get hunter focus which is going to be far more effective on that front.
Even with that in mind Rogue Energy deserve their spot on our best gaming energy drink list. Their flavor range isn't as extensive as the likes of G Fuel, but they've taken far more time on each to make sure they got each one right, there's no chalkiness, odd aftertaste and they all mix incredibly well, so if you're looking for a premium option then Rogue is head and shoulders above the rest.
They also have a caffeine free option that's packed with other nootropics to boost focus, although this would be less effective.
G-Fuel is by far the most famous gaming drink, most likely due to the huge volume of partnerships that they've run over the years. In terms of what's in GFuel they get a few things right, 1g of Taurine is an optimal dose, the 140mg of caffeine isn't too high and the 1mg of ATP salt are all great.
They also contain zero sugar, which makes them a lot better option than most energy drinks on the market in terms of overall health. They also contain some antioxidants, but not a substantial amount, this is more marketing gimmick than anything.
G fuel also have a massive range of flavors, which could leave you a bit overwhelmed, but the shiny splash and sour nightmare are our two favorites and often considered some of the best. G Fuel do also have a range of ready to drink options available although these are going to come in at a much higher price point as you'd expect and not priced comparatively to other gaming drinks.
Nau energy drinks provide something of a unique spot in the market by avoiding caffeine, something that you don't see in a lot of gamer energy drinks or even normal ones for that matter.
They focus more on other ways to give you a natural energy boost, using spanish sage to boost alertness and L-theanine which is common place in nootropics, it also has some benefits to mood regulation and sleep which is an added plus.
This does make it more expensive than most options though, coming in at $1.35 a serving. It's not going to be as effective as a caffeinated energy drink and unfortunately it isn't sugar free. So, it's really only recommended if you want to improve mental focus, without caffeine.