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Your Ultimate Guide for Gaming Energy Drinks

It doesn’t matter if you are looking to be a top esports pro, the next big Twitch streamer, or just play a few games with friends on a Friday night. Everyone wants that extra edge in life and in gaming (except if you use bots. Then screw you!). With the right gaming energy drink, it can be like getting a double XP boost for a couple of hours in real life. Let us help guide you to the perfect gaming energy drink for you!

WHAT IS A GAMING ENERGY DRINK?

Gaming energy drinks are made to help you get a natural edge at playing video games. What separates a good gaming energy drink from bad gaming energy drinks, coffee, other energy drinks, or even a pre-workout are the amount of energy and the additional vitamins and supplements that provide better focus, concentration, reaction time, memory, and even eye health.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A GAMING ENERGY DRINK?

More than just energy, the perfect gaming drink should help you do the following:

Energy

Not all energy drinks are equally effective since the amount and types of caffeine and additional supplements, like L-Theanine, vary significantly from drink to drink. A good rule of thumb for caffeine for gaming is 150-200 mg per serving. Keep an eye out for natural caffeine made from green leaf tea or green coffee beans for no jitters and crashes.

Focus

There are a few ingredients known to help you increase mental performance – from concentrating on the current game, staying relaxed under stressful situations, and improving reaction and memory recall. Be wary of proprietary blends that claim to do lots of things but don't show how much of any specific ingredient they are using . There is probably a good reason why they do that.

Healthiness

Energy drinks get a bad reputation for a good reason. Most are filled with cheap synthetic caffeine, sugars, high sodium, fillers, chemical coloring, and other nasty chemicals. All of which is easily avoidable if you know what to look for. On a positive note, some energy drinks also provide beneficial vitamins and antioxidants .

Eye Health

Staring at screens all day for gaming, work, and leisure can cause damage to the light-sensitive cells in your retina from the blue light. Some gaming powders have a supplement that has been shown to improve photo-stress recovery and contrast sensitivity.

All of these benefits will be given a visual score further down in the rankings. Green is the best, orange is average, and red is awful.

Mixability - There is nothing worse than taking a drink of an energy powder mixed with water and getting what feels like a mouthful of chalk. Powder drinks are commonly plagued with a chalky or gritty texture and don’t dissolve in the water very well. A good energy powder will blend easily and quickly into the water like it was made initially as a liquid drink.

Taste - Flavors are the most subjective part of any food or beverage. What's gross to one person is the next person's favorite. Overbearing flavors are typical for energy drinks.

POWDERED ENERGY PACKETS VS. CANNED ENERGY DRINKS

A drink is a drink right? There is more than meets the eye when it comes to drinks infused with supplements. Canned drinks can be very convenient to keep in the fridge and grab on the go. The issue with canned energy drinks is their inability to pack the ingredients needed for the best performance. Gaming powders are just more effective at providing supplements and the price is lower per serving too. One tub of energy powder typically has +30 servings, takes up very little space, and costs under $1.50/serving.

Gaming Energy DRINK Tier List

Tiered lists were created in the early 90s as a way to rank Street Fighter characters and have been used to rank everything from fighting game characters to your favorite fast food drive-throughs. We couldn't think of a more fitting way to rank Gaming Energy Drinks than a tier list.

If you aren't familiar to tiered lists, S tier comes for the top score or grade in Japanese culture. This is why red is considered the best down to green. Every tier below S-tier is a notch down, moving from A to D tier being the worse. There are no rankings within a tier. Anything listed within a tier are considered equals.

S

A

B

C

D

In-Depth Gaming Energy Rankings

S TIER: JUJU

Energy

Focus

Healthiness

Eye Health

JuJu was created with the intention of making the best formula for gaming energy on the market. They didn’t start from a pre-workout or any half-baked idea but focused on creating the best gaming energy formula from the start. JuJu teamed up with top tier biochemists and made a healthy, ultra-premium energy + performance formula specifically for gamers.

  • Strong energy from a natural (45mg) & synthetic caffeine blend (135mg) for 180mg of caffeine, and L-Theanine (50mg), L-Taurine (500mg) plus B vitamins (260mg) for sustained energy with NO crashes or jitters
  • 18 premium ingredients that work together at the right dosage
  • HUGE cognitive boost from Cordyceps (100m), Alpha GPC (150mg), and Bacopa (50mg)
  • Vitamins C & D, plus antioxidants to support immunity & bone health
  • Lutemax2020 (40mg) protects against blue light damage and supports eye health

All of these things are bioavailable in delicious flavors that blend into water like magic. Lutemax2020 and Alpha GPC are clinically backed by research to support eye health and improve mental function and memory. JuJu is the one of the very few listed that doesn't have Acesulfame Potassium (referred to as Ace K). Ace K contains a carcinogen that can cause issues like weight gain, gut microbiome shifts, headaches, depression and nausea with enough long term exposure. While we are more than a little biased that JuJu is the best, we give props where props are due throughout this list.


POPULAR JUJU FLAVORS

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A TIER: ROGUE ENERGY

Energy

Focus

Healthiness

Eye Health

Rogue Energy seems to be a generic gaming energy brand according to their why us page but they take a unique approach on their formula.

  • High level energy with 175mg caffeine, L-Carnitine (700mg), L-Citrulline (500mg), Taurine (400mg), Glucuronolactone (200mg), & B vitamin blend (27.4mg and mostly B3)
  • Strong focus boost from 1.51g from N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine (1,000mg), L-Phenylalanine (200mg), L-Theanine (200mg), Mucuna Pruriens (100mg), and a tiny amount of Bacopa Monnieri (10mg)
  • Fairly healthy with low calories, 0 sugar, natural flavoring/coloring, limited additional vitamins and 70mg of sodium.
  • No eye health protection 

Rogue takes a unique approach with energy and focus. The high amount of caffeine is balanced out by a bunch of L-Theanine and Taurine. On top of that, they add L-Carnitine, L-Citrulline, and Glucuronolactone for a little extra extra. By extra extra, we mean you probably wouldn't notice if the mix didn't have these but they aren't a bad addition. Very similar things can be said for the blend of "focus" ingredients.

B TIER: MIXT ENERGY

Energy

Focus

Healthiness

Eye Health

Mixt energy is a purpose made gamer energy formula that prides itself on not using sugar and transparent ingredient labeling. Each tub has double the normal tub with 60 serving.

  • Strong energy formula with 166mg caffeine, 830mg L-Taurine, & 32mg B vitamin blend but expect a crash and some jitters
  • Mild focus boost with 830mg of Tyrosine but no clinically proven ingredients or nootropics
  • Fairly healthy with low calories and 0 sugar, but has artificial flavoring, artificial coloring, and contains Ace K
  • No eye health protection 
  • Overall affordable energy mix with some up and downs

The flavors do a good job on flavor with little to none of the weird aftertaste some other drinks have. They don't have much originality to their flavor, but they have all of the flavors you would expect to see like Fruit Punch, Blue Raspberry and Lemonade. Sadly, the powder doesn't tend to mix that well when we tested it. Overall good bang for the buck if you want some tasty energy with little to no additional benefits.

B TIER: SNEAK ENERGY

Energy

Focus

Healthiness

Eye Health

Sneak is a UK based brand that also sells in the US. They have undeniable style that can be felt when opening a tub of their energy powder. They are a more affordable brand on the list per serving. Each tub has 40 serving compared to 30 servings of other brands.

  • Mid level energy with 150mg caffeine, L-Taurine (1,361mg), and L-Theanine (100mg)
  • Strong focus boost with 1,500mg of Tyrosine and 200mg GPC
  • Fairly healthy with low calories, 0 sugar, natural flavoring, and coloring. The downside with Sneak is no additional vitamin, sustained release properties, tons of sodium (200mg), and contains Ace K.
  • No eye health protection 
  • Overall affordable energy mix with some up and downs

We found the Strawberry Watermelon flavor to be a little chalky and overly sweet.

B TIER: ADAVANCED

Energy

Focus

Healthiness

Eye Health

A US company that is on a mission to make product that does as advertised. They have two lines of caffeinated energy powders, an energy blend and a focus blend. We are going to focus on their focus mix. (To be fair, we should compare their Energy mix)

  • Weak energy - They have the lowest caffeine dosage (100mg) & ~11mg B vitamins
  • Strong focus boost with 800mg NooLVL™
  • Fairly healthy with low calories and 0 sugar, but has artificial flavoring, artificial coloring, and contains Ace K and Sucralose.
  • No eye health protection 

NooLVL™ is a third party patented complex that has been clinically proven to boost cognitive performance in esports. They have a wide range of flavors. If you are looking for a nootropic with some mild energy, Advanced is the one for you!  

C TIER: GFUEL

Energy

Focus

Healthiness

Eye Health

The big elephant in the room when it comes to gaming energy drinks. GFuel is the one that started it all, almost by accident. Most think the "G" in Gfuel stand for gamer or gaming. It actually stands for Gamma as the company started out as Gamma Labs. Back in those days, they were a pre-workout that just happen to gain traction with gamers. That was then and this is now as their formula has improved throughout the years.

  • Mild energy because they use a lower dosage of caffeine (140mg) and go heavy on the L-Taurine(1,000 mg) plus a splash B vitamins (20mg).
  • Mild focus boost from L-Tyronsine (999mg) and couple of other amino acidss
  • Not awful for you with low calories and 0 sugar, but has artificial flavoring, artificial coloring, and contains Ace K and Sucralose.
  • No eye health protection 

GFuel has a proprietary blend of antioxidants and splash of vitamins to give the impression of it being healthy but the dosages are too small to notice. They have the biggest selection of flavors on the market but the powder mix is known to not blend well and leave a chalky taste in your mouth.

C TIER: GAMER SUPPS

Energy

Focus

Healthiness

Eye Health

Gamer Supps is a keto option to sip on while playing video games that is more of a hydration than an energy drink when looking at their label. They have one of the largest servings per tub at 100 servings!

  • Mystery energy as they blend organic caffeine into a proprietary blend with a bunch of other ingredients.
  • Very mild focus boost from the small dosage of their proprietary nootropic blend (69mg)
  • Fairly healthy with low calories and 0 sugar, but has artificial flavoring, artificial coloring, and contains Ace K and Sucralose.
  • No eye health protection 

Gamer Supps has a great mix of flavors from the expected to unique. Sadly, we think the the best thing they sell is heir Waifu shaker cups 🤭.

D TIER: MOUNTAIN DEW GAME FUEL

Energy

Focus

Healthiness

Eye Health

Mountain Dew came out with their own line of canned energy drinks aimed towards gamers.

  • Low energy with 90mg of caffeine and a tiny amount of L-Theanine per can
  • No focus boost from any ingredients listed
  • Not healthy with 90 calories, tons of added sugar (23g), tons of sodium (180mg), and carbs. They pack it with high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavoring, artificial coloring, and contains Ace K and Sucralose.
  • No eye health protection 

Game Fuel does come in a cool can that has a resealable lid to help prevent accidentally getting your gear sticky. If you love the flavor of Mountain Dew, take it up a notch with Game Fuel. Just know it is only a tiny notch up from normal Mountain Dew.

D TIER: MONSTER ENERGY

Energy

Focus

Healthiness

Eye Health

Monster Energy wants you to unleash your inner beast with their unique sweet and salty flavor. They have expanded into seven different categories with plenty of subsets and flavors for each. We are looking at the original green Monster Energy for this ranking.

  • Low energy as the original only has 80mg of caffeine per serving
  • No focus boost from any ingredients listed
  • Not healthy with 90 calories, tons of sugar (58mg), tons of sodium (370mg), and carbs. They pack it with high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavoring, artificial coloring, and contains Ace K and Sucralose
  • No eye health protection 

D TIER: BANG ENERGY

Energy

Focus

Healthiness

Eye Health

One of the newer large canned energy drink companies to hit the market. Bang has bold flavors and even bolder packaging.

  • Too much energy with 250-300mg of caffeine per serving will leave you jittery and crashing
  • No focus boosting ingredients
  • Not that healthy despite being sugar free and 0 calories, there is a reason they have a warning label on the can. Beware of the sodium level per serving as well
  • No eye health protection 

If you need to pull an all nighter and health isn't a big concern, Bang Energy will get the job done.