WordPress Gaming Themes
WordPress gaming themes are one of the very important aspects if you are aiming to create a state of the art platform; which should be the goal of every individual seriously taking themselves in the current fiercely competitive online gaming landscape, whereby gamers are asking constantly for more.
Although classic video games, requiring a console, such as Xbox and PlayStation, have lost their popularity, another gaming niche is constantly growing. Obviously, we are referring to the PC and mobile gaming community, which is one of the first groups that inhabited the online sphere and since then they are still an integral part of it.
If you are a gamer or a company, looking to build a strong foundation for your new entrepreneurial move – then you are in the right place. In this article (powered by the SkyWarrior themes team) we will be exploring a variety of gaming themes, both free and for people looking to spend a few bucks, for wordpress, that could give you a head start in the online gaming market.
What Can a WordPress Gaming Theme Offer you?
People use themes by wordpress for a variety of different gaming-related purposes. Some of these include news, reviews, guides, cheats and tournaments. Before you spent time going into our article in detail, it is important to clear the air around some things. By purchasing one of the themes we outline below, it is essential to know what you are looking for; if you are aiming to develop a complex site, or a small community or blog – you would need different types of wordpress themes. Keep that in mind as you are reading through.
Before you purchase any wordpress gaming theme, make sure to first test out the demo. This option offers you the ability to decide whether this is the right choice for you. Overall, you can keep in mind the features that are pretty standard across the best wordpress gaming themes.
Responsive Design
If the title doesn’t speak a lot to you, responsive design in a theme means that it automatically adopts to any screen and resolution size. Through the use of CSS3 media queries is the tool that makes this feature possible, changing the presentation while leaving the content identical. In terms of SEO, this feature is highly appreciated by Google, while you will also please the users. If you are looking to build a great a website for users employing different devices, then this is the most important feature that you should be paying attention at when looking for your new gaming theme purchase.
Cross-browser
It wouldn’t be nice if your website loaded on just Google Chrome right? Well, then cross-browser compatibility should be apparent amongst the features of the gaming theme for wordpress that you are looking to purchase. For your developer team it is useful as they won’t have to test it manually and the users will be able to access it freely from their preferred browser.
Rich Documentation
Even if you don’t understand this feature yourself, your developer will be definitely happy about it. A wordpress gaming theme should have rich documentation in the price package to allow quick troubleshooting and easy installation.
Theme Options
WordPress gaming templates come with a lot of themes if you make the right purchase. You wouldn’t want a template that would look identical across all the people that purchased it right? You want your community of gamers to be like no other. This feature will give you just that option, to play around and make your site look exactly like you want it.
Custom Post Types & Formats
If you are looking for a customized wordpress theme, then this is a pretty central feature. Information are one of the things that most sites try to communicate either to get new customers or get your message out in the world. Post types and formats are helping the users learn more about your business. The best deals, showcases of products, bios and testimonials are just some of the things you will use the post types and formats for.
Shortcodes
This is a practice amongst developers that makes the users’ lives easier. Through them you can embed different files into the site, from video and audio to grids and lists.
Custom Widgets
Widget in WordPress is a block that performs a specific action for the site. Every site, developed for gaming or other purposes, will have an area to insert widgets. Depending on where you want to add something, these widgets could be placed in the header, footer or elsewhere. As you change something through the widgets, you can preview it and see the results in real time before you update the site.
SEO Friendly
If your premium wordpress gaming site is not SEO friendly, then you shouldn’t be purchasing it. Anyone can build in our era a site for free that will run slow and will function badly. If you are paying for it though, you should be getting a perfectly optimized site that would shine in the eyes of google. To achieve that, a WordPress gaming theme should have special plugins that will make it ideal for the most major search engines.
Available for Different Languages
It doesn’t matter what target audience you are aiming your site to, it is essential that your theme is available in different languages. You can never know how much your gaming site might grow over time and most games attract users from different countries. WPML is the feature that allows sites to function in this way, so keep it in mind when looking at the premium features of your new potential WordPress template.
Best 7 WordPress Gaming Themes 2020
Now, we will outline some of the best wordpress gaming themes for a variety of different purposes that cover all of the above features within their standard price plan. Each of these have been used by users and have received the best feedback; this is exactly how they ended up in our list.
The companies behind these themes are pioneers within the gaming themes industry and will stand by your side if you face any issue with installation or bugs when you are using the site. Nonetheless, as these templates are undergoing updates often, bugs and other issues are almost non-existent.
Arcane Gaming Theme
Most players looking to create a site want to have a digital space to communicate, keep track and compete with their friends and foes. Arcane is the answer to all of the above requirements, as it can be used for the following:
- Creating communities
- Setting up tournaments
- Building a custom team page
- Reviews of games
- Portfolios
Those who are particularly interested in setting up tournaments amongst the players should spend to purchase the Premium Tournament Plugin, which comes on top of the 64$ initial price. It offers Round Robin, League and Ladder tables – besides the standard Knockout format.
The theme is customizable and if you are the owner of the website you can play around with the colour, the layout and the theme through Visual Composer.
Purchasing this theme will save you a lot of time from setting up your own site, pulling together plugins from all over the web that will work in mediocre fashion. The price that we mentioned above also includes lifetime support, which is a guarantee that only those who are truly confident in their products would offer.
Respawn – by Players for Players
This a theme that recently entered the market and is dedicated to eSports fans. The Respawn theme was created in 2019 and is a high-resolution theme compatible with IE11, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome and Edge browsers.
If you own this theme and employ it within your gaming website you will be able to set up tournaments, team matches, custom pages (such as a store) and many other features. The above are all available with the standard plan, so you could get it under the Regular License for $59. Support will be available for the first 6 months under the standard plan.
Crystal Skull WordPress Gaming Magazine
This particular theme comes for a lifetime with $59. If review blogs for games are what you are looking for, then this is a 100% your best pick. It can also be employed for portfolios and shopping websites amongst other uses.
Crystal Skull comes with an unlimited variety of colours, CCSS3 styling and animations and a long list of 20+ other features. It looks amazing in the demo version, but you can adjust it to fit exactly what you aim it for!
Blackfyre Gaming Theme
The Blackfyre gaming theme is another great option for those looking to create an awesome wordpress site. This theme has been developed to assist in creating a hub for gaming communities. Social networking is something we all engage daily, but how much it can be if it is developed for people with the same interests as ours, right?
Blackfyre offers also the option to create clan sites, gaming groups, discussion channels and content sharing sites. It is user friendly and can be managed very easily. The Clan War system is also available, allowing you to set up and manage tournaments amongst your gaming community. Key features in the standard plan include:
- Clan management
- Clan war system
- Easy to create clans
- Rating system
- Translate ready
And more features to improve your gaming experience.
Game Addict WordPress Theme
Playing with your team in an easy to coordinate fashion is something that can only make your gaming better. To be frank, some only engage in gaming to spend time and compete with their friends. The Game Addict theme is pretty much making this so much easier for you.
This premium wordpress gaming theme can be used for team playing, blogging, community building and clans. Game Addict also allows switching across different maps, teams and games in a pretty straightforward fashion. It is customizable and if you purchase the premium version you also get lifetime support.
It is also SEO friendly and cross-browser compatible amongst other things.
Oblivion Multi-purpose Gaming Theme
Created with the latest tools, Oblivion is a perfect theme if you are unsure about what you want your website to be. It can be used as a review site or portfolio, while it can be employed as a forum for your team too.
Oblivion is integrated with WooCommerce, BuddyPress and bbPress creating a next level website. It can be customized and transformed to whatever you want to use it for within the gaming realm.
Some features that come with the $49 version include:
Unlimited colours and backgrounds
- Portfolio
- Rating system
- Forum
- Rating system
- Parallax slider
Instead of pulling from all over the web different widgets to make the site of your dream, why not get it ready and set up just for you?
Orizon
Orizon is the last one of the premium wordpress gaming themes we truly liked and believe that you will love too. It’s a multipurpose gaming theme, mainly created for gaming, news and entertainment content. It has been pioneered through the latest CSS3 and has two different colours and unlimited backgrounds.
It’s bbPress compatible and has a rating system ideal for tournaments. It is a fully responsive theme, looking good in all devices. It is customizable and there is also a demo version that you can try to see how your site could look if you purchased it.
Best 3 Multi-Purpose WordPress Themes
If you want a wordpress theme for a website that is focusing on gaming or another niche, then you should take a close look to the multi-purpose wordpress themes and templates below. They have widgets installed already and come with a lifelong license.
Social Search Theme
If you want to reach millions through your campaign, then you obviously have to invest some time to make your message easy to share and internalize. The Social Search WordPress template does just that for you.
Upon purchase you will get a full tutorial on how this template works, but you can see it live through the demo mode too. Basically, it is a crowdspeaking tool, making it easy for users across various social media platform to share your message. It is perfect if you feel that you got what is needed for your message to go viral. Some of the futures include:
- Rich documentation
- No need for external plugins
- Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr campaign support
- 3x different display blocks for your campaign
Fundingpress WordPress Theme
Although this template is not a really multi-purpose theme, we incorporate it under this category as it can be used for a variety of different funding projects; which tend to be more and more common, as people even launch fundraisers for their birthdays nowadays.
It comes with a very easy interface to customize each individual feature to make it perfect for your goals. The design is as good as it gets, since Elementor along WPML are both working in alignment here.
The FundingPress WordPress Theme is a great tool if you want to raise some funds and spread your message neatly across massive audiences. Bring this idea to life, by leaving the underground work to a team of experts and just rip off the benefits. Some of the features included in this premium theme are:
- Unlimited colours
- Blogs
- Support forum
- Social login
- Stripe, WePay and Paypal payments
- Easy to translate
This wordpress theme has been recently updated and the version 6 was released just this year, taking into account users’ feedback. Order it now or check the live free demo to be 100% sure that this is the right website theme for you.
Creatica WordPress Theme
This theme is built to run quickly and smoothly, while it is highly adoptable for a variety of purposes. Creatica is an inspirational project that has about $100 of plugins installed and included within its $59 theme price.
Users will be able to set up pages easily by employing the visual composer and a shop is ready for you to sell your products. A variety of themes are available that have been crafted with the end result in mind.
Extra Features that you can get on A Premium WordPress Theme Plan
All of the gaming themes we outlined above come with a standard plan that also carry a lifelong license. They cover all the basic aspects that a WordPress gaming site should have (which we reviewed in the beginning), but they also come with an advanced plan that includes some extra features that we will explore below.
Forums
Your premium wordpress site should surely offer a forum. Most free sites tend to offer just a blog or a review page. Nonetheless, if you go with one of the premium choices above, then you will be able to not only play with your friends – but also get a space where you can communicate and exchange strategies, tips or just talk about anything you fancy.
Shops
If you are buying a premium wordpress theme, then you are almost 100% looking to eventually make some profit out for your site. Why not buy a theme that has installed an online eCommerce store plugin already? We believe it’s a major aspect that you should always check when looking to purchase a wordpress gaming theme for real money.
Social Options
Social media are central to all websites. There is no singular online presence in our current digital environment. If you want to promote your gaming business or offer a variety of communication channels to your users – then you need this option. It will also benefit you, as users will be able to easily share your site or content on their social media platforms and bring you more new customers.
Lifetime Support
When purchasing a WordPress gaming theme, you are probably doing that to avoid the hustle of building it on your own. Why not make sure that you won’t have to deal with the developing aspect in the future too?
We believe that support for your site is one of the most important aspects of a premium plan, as many things could come up along the way.
7 Free WordPress Gaming Themes
Up to this point, we have covered all the basic and advanced features that are incorporated in the best themes for gaming WordPress sites. We believe that you should go with one of the above if you are aiming to do some serious business. However, there are also some popular free themes for gaming options that you could also consider.
HotGames Free Theme
A stylish design and clean coding come with this wordpress theme. The background can be customized and include images, while there is an eCommerce function ready in case you want to also sell merchandise.
This theme is best if you are looking to build a magazine related to online gaming; we believe that the above premium themes are better, but this one comes for free – so it’s worth considering.
Neongame
Blogging for gaming is the best use you can put into this theme. It’s great for game reviews, as it provides the related posts function. It also has an eCommerce support included and comes with a side bar to insert the widgets of your choice.
Social sharing bar is apparent too here, which is great if you want to share your posts with your audience.
Play
This free gaming theme for WordPress comes with the ability to get translated in different languages and is ideal if you want to insert Vimeo or YouTube videos in your posts. The owners can also sell merchandise and other products through WooCommerce support.
Content for this site, optimized towards gaming topics, is also apparent in case you don’t want it to look empty in the beginning.
Gameadvance – Gaming Videos
Another great free wordpress theme to feature videos related to gaming is Gameadvance. The theme has a custom slider interface, giving you the freedom to upload photos and watch them in a slideshow. There is no unlimited option of colours, but you get enough options for a free plan.
PlayerX eSports Theme
This multipurpose WordPress theme is ideal to make sites for game studios and eSport teams. Portfolio carousels and parallax scrolling are available with this free WordPress theme.
Gaming Mug
Free WordPress gaming themes are gaining good reputation with themes such as Gaming Mug. It is perfect for eSports and gaming websites, while a blog can also be set up easily here. The appearance is not the best you can get, but it’s pretty decent.
The paid version of Gaming Mug opens a world of extra features that raise the quality level at rates similar to the first 10 WordPress Gaming themes we reviewed above.
WP Mint
If you are looking for magazine theme, then WP Mint might be the right choice for you. It is offered for free, unlike most gaming themes through WordPress, and you can use it to post blog posts (either short or longer pieces). There are various grid layouts and this magazine got quite a few widgets installed.
Our Last Thoughts on the Top WordPress Gaming Themes
These top-rated premium, as well as free, themes for Gaming websites are pretty versatile and highly functional. They can help you build your clan system, a magazine, a review site, a forum for your friends and co-players or your new battleground to compete with other teams.
Some of the multi-purpose themes that we reviewed are the best if you want to share your message across social media platforms, launch a campaign or start your business.
Keep in mind all the important aspects of WordPress themes for Gaming that we also looked at and make sure that you purchase a theme that comes with exactly what you need.
If you have any questions you can always reach us through the comment section below!
