From magazines to app stores to comparison sites and more, the world of gaming continues to expand with its overwhelming popularity. Whether you’re into mobile app games or first-person shooters on Xbox, you may find yourself wanting to create your own game and sell it online, or even make an online magazine to review the games you’ve played recently. Regardless of your motivation, the idea behind building a website for your gaming endeavor may seem a little intimidating.
However, when you use one of the many free WordPress gaming themes it minimizes the cost and time you’ll need to spend generating the site. Since most gaming blogs start out with few readers, a free theme gives you the opportunity to cut down on the expenses. Then, whenever you’re ready to expand, you can opt for one of the many premium solutions.
The Features to Look For in a Theme
A few of the themes are suitable for serving up ads, while others include ratings integrations that are great for showing users exactly what you think of the games. Most gaming websites are filled with media items, from pictures to videos. Therefore, it’s important to find a theme that supports high-resolution photos and embedded videos. Along with that, you’ll need widget support and a strong blog that lets you format however you want.
Who Might Be Interested in a Gaming Theme?
Video game blogs and review sites are the primary targets with the themes listed. We also like the themes for more expansive coverage from gaming magazines. On the other hand, some webmasters may want to develop eCommerce stores for selling video games or guides. Therefore, you’ll be looking for the themes with a WooCommerce integration. Since we’re listing free gaming themes, they make the most sense for beginners with small budgets.
The Best Gaming Themes to Choose From:
HotGames
The HotGames theme is one of our favorites, because it provides a stylish design with clean coding. The background is customizable for you to include a large picture of one of the more recent games you’ve reviewed, and the WooCommerce-ready functionality means that you can post and sell games or merchandise to your readers. As you may assume, the HotGames theme is primarily for running an online gaming magazine.
However, we also recommend this for people who want to sell their own games through the WordPress interface. A Contact page template is offered for keeping in touch with your customers, while several custom widgets are included for turning your template into a drag and drop interface. For example, it lets you insert social media buttons and ads, which are both useful in boosting conversions and bringing in more money for gaming publications.
Neongame
The Neongame WordPress theme includes a layout that’s primed for blogging about online games and physical gaming systems. The blog provides related posts to show people all the other games you’ve written about, and the eCommerce support comes through Ecwid and WooCommerce. A physical video game store could utilize the Google Maps shortcodes, and any type of gaming website will enjoy that readers can view images and all website elements on mobile devices.
The theme comes with a custom sidebar, so you can insert custom widgets like recent post lists to the hottest news articles in gaming. The social sharing bar comes in handy, since you might be able to get one of your video reviews shared several times. We particularly enjoy that the theme is optimized to support a slider, so large pictures of recent releases can grab attention from your users. Along with translations, custom menus, and antispam for protection, the Neongame theme aims to please.
Play
Consider the Play WordPress theme if you’re looking for a fun and modern design, with backgrounds and sliders for featuring screenshots from games. The responsive theme has support for both YouTube and Vimeo, improving your ability to insert trailers. The related posts keep people on your site for longer, and the translation files let your gaming site work with multiple languages.
The WooCommerce support allows you to sell anything from used games to books about how to work through Call of Duty. Furthermore, you get threaded comments on your blog, drumming up conversation about Nintendo’s new system. You get some demo content that is geared towards the gaming world, and the custom contact form keeps gaming manufacturers and fans in touch with you. We also like the custom drop down menus to showcase all of your categories and pages.
Gameadvance
The Gameadvance theme is built for those who would like to feature videos from their favorite video games. From trailers to demos, the options are endless with the video support and dynamic content loader. We feel the theme has a more professional/business look than the others on this list, but that might work perfectly for some magazines and businesses. Heck, if you’d like to sell video games, you have support from both Ecwid and WooCommerce.
The theme has a slider-ready interface, letting you upload your photos and watch them slide from side to side. The antispam protects your site, while the custom menus feature multiple categories like first-person shooters and online games. Select from multiple colors, and utilize the related posts to give people an idea of your other gaming reviews. The social share bar puts your reviews on social media, while you can also install shortcodes for quicker designing.
Grinch
The Grinch theme has nothing to do with the popular Christmas story. In fact, it’s more catered to video game builders who would like to start distributing information about their new game. As you’ll notice with many of the free gaming themes, you get Ecwid and WooCommerce support for peddling those games. The custom sidebars pair nicely with custom widgets, but in general, you have to go out and find your own plugins for these.
A social sharing bar gets the word out to gaming fans on Facebook and Twitter, while the related posts are sure to intrigue people to read more about the features in your game. A slider can be implemented on the theme, and the translations are there for when you’re attempting to sell a video game in other countries. Along with that, the Grinch theme includes features like antispam, SEO optimization, and responsiveness.
Gamelab
The Gamelab theme delivers a simple, yet powerful, blogging interface, suitable for beginners who would like to start sharing thoughts on how the World of Warcraft movie was nothing compared to the video game. The dark and inviting design is something you would find in most premium gaming themes, and the beautiful slider gets gaming fans pumped with interesting graphics. The menu even creates a sense of coolness.
Selling your own blog merchandise or video game apparel comes easy with Ecwid and WooCommerce support. You can even utilize a Google Maps shortcode if you want to share information on an upcoming gaming convention. The responsive theme has support for shortcodes, sidebars, and custom widgets, while the social sharing bar connects you with the rather strong number of gamers who constantly chat up their favorite topics online.
Cybergames
Cybergames presents a solid layout with pixelated demo content for a throwback look. I wouldn’t use this simple theme for anything crazy, but it’s certainly calling out to beginners with thoughts about video games. The flexible design lets you share walk-through tips about games or even programming knowledge. Both videos and images look nice on the blog, and a simple written review does well, too!
A custom background could show a picture of the most recent game you developed, or you could reveal a high-resolution screenshot from Halo. The custom headers and menus come in handy for customization as well. Not to mention, all of the blog post previews reveal featured images, and the right sidebar can deliver information about the author or anything from social media buttons to recent post lists. Along with translation support and clean, threaded comments, the Cybergames theme crushes it in the simplicity department.
Gegame
The Gegame theme presents a dark and modern vibe, with slider support and a simple blog for getting your thoughts about the next big PlayStation game online. The responsive template connects nicely with both WooCommerce and Ecwid. So, you’ll have an excellent system for presenting product pages for games and collecting money from purchases. What’s more is that the theme includes related posts so that your old gaming posts don’t sink into oblivion.
It’s amazing how so many free themes are packed with premium features. For example, the Gegame theme includes support for custom sidebars and widgets. This expands the possibilities for plugins since you can find custom widgets and plugins for star ratings, social buttons, and more. Along with that, the theme has a Contacts page, and you can mess with the translation options, just in case you have some gaming fans from the other side of the world.
Retro
The Retro theme brings an easy nostalgic style with a dark color scheme that makes it a great pick for gaming bloggers. The template supports audio posts and video, so you can easily share game trailers and demos. We also like that it features solid code and a fully responsive design to cater for users on mobile devices.
Animated GIFs and neon colors add to the Retro theme’s attractiveness, while the sidebar provides space to display useful content such as your recent posts and comments, which will help increase engagement on your site. Furthermore, the Retro theme is social media friendly, and you can easily translate it into other languages.
MH Joystick
The Joystick theme is a great option for online gaming magazines, considering it has a well-thought design that allows you to feature lots of content about your gaming endeavors. Whether it’s game reviews, trailers or demos, you’ll find space for it all. You’ll particularly enjoy how ad-friendly this template is – it contains many different advertisement spots in optimal areas to help you generate more revenue from your gaming website.
A stylish slider is included with the Joystick theme, allowing you to highlight your best content on the main page. Besides, you’ll find social media icons to connect your site with platforms like Facebook and Twitter, translation tools to display your site in other languages, and support for the Contact Form 7 plugin that makes it easy for interested visitors to get in touch.
Paraxe
From Inkhive comes Paraxe, a responsive and professionally designed WordPress theme. Suitable for gaming blogs and magazines alike, the template has a dark color scheme and cool parallax effects that will leave a lasting impression on your visitors. Social icons sit pretty at the top, making them unmissable and enticing visitors to connect with you on other platforms.
Featured areas and sliders allow you to highlight your best gaming reviews, promotions and other important information. Moreover, you can easily translate the Paraxe theme into other languages thanks to the included translation tools, and the template is highly customizable so you can easily modify it according to your needs.
HungryOrks
HungryOrks is one of the coolest, feature-rich free gaming WordPress themes on the market. To start off, the header design is absolutely amazing, with an innovative frontpage slider that contains overlaying texts and links to your featured posts. We recommend this template for gaming reviews and to those who want to sell games and related merchandise online, since it integrates perfectly with WooCommerce and the Ecwid eCommerce plugins.
Support for video means you can easily share game trailers and demos, while the floating social sharing bar will help get your content on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google plus effectively. Along with translation tools, dynamic content loading, advanced editing options and anti-spam protection, the HungryOrks theme packs quite a powerful punch for a free template.
Gameplay
The Gameplay theme has a sophisticated design with attractive layouts that will impress gamers, especially GTA V fans. The fully responsive theme features an awesome slider on the main page, which you can use to highlight your best game reviews, stories, and promotions. The template has strong support for video content, which means you can easily embed trailers and demos from YouTube.
Another impressive feature of the Gameplay theme is the compatibility with two of the best WordPress eCommerce plugins – WooCommerce and Ecwid – which make it possible to sell games and related merchandise from your website within minutes. You’ll also find a floating social sharing bar, custom sidebars and widgets, translation options, contact pages, and much more when you download this theme.
Gamescript
The Gamescript theme was designed for game magazines and blogs. It comes with many beautiful features that will impress gaming enthusiasts, including large sliders that are perfect for highlighting game screenshots and luring visitors to your inner pages. Support for video is included, so you’ll have no problem posting game trailers and demos.
To add on that, the Gamescript theme is eCommerce-Ready, meaning you can easily sell your games or merchandise straight from your website. Physical game stores will love the Google maps integration, as it allows potential customers to find your exact location in no time. Furthermore, the theme includes a sticky social sharing bar and social icons to make it easy for your fans to follow you and share your gaming content on platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Google plus.
MineFun
Minefun is a creative gaming WordPress theme inspired by Minecraft, the popular sandbox video game. The template has a greenish color scheme and features a stylish slider on the homepage. The slider supports overlaying text and links, which can be quite useful in driving people further into your website.
The floating social sharing bar makes it easy for your fans to promote your website on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, while support for video means you can easily add game trailers and demos. The custom sidebar looks stylish, and it provides space to display things like your recent posts and comments, categories, and other useful elements that will increase engagement on your site.
Game Center
Meet GameCenter, a fresh-looking WordPress gaming theme with amazing features and lots of easy to use customization options. Gaming enthusiasts will love the black and blue colors, stunning frontpage sliders and large featured images as well as the ability to share video reviews, trailers and game demos.
eCommerce support is provided through the Ecwid plugin and WooCommerce as well; therefore, you can start selling your games and merchandise online within minutes. Additionally, the Gamecenter theme includes translation files, which come in handy if targeting gaming fans in other countries. You’ll also notice the sticky social sharing bar and the social icons in the footer, which encourage your visitors to follow you and share your content on different social platforms.
GamesPad
From Flexithemes comes GamesPad, a classic WordPress gaming theme suitable for gaming blogs and magazines alike. You’ll immediately notice the stunning background, which looks perfect with game screenshots. A featured posts slider is included in the header area, allowing you to highlight your best content in style.
The top section includes a spot to display your social icons, and you can also add a Facebook widget in the sidebar. You’ll also love the advertisement options provided by the GamesPad theme – you can display ads in the header or in the sidebar. Besides, the template comes with over 7 custom widgets, and it’s WooCommerce-Ready, meaning you can easily add an online shop to your website.
FunnyGames
FunnyGames is another beautiful, highly customizable WordPress gaming theme from the folks at Flexithemes. This one is designed specifically for games websites and blogs. It comes with a featured posts slider that will immediately capture your site visitors’attention, beautiful backgrounds, social media integration, and much more.
An online shop is included with the FunnyGames theme, so you can quickly start selling your games or merchandise online. Moreover, the template features two sidebars on the right as well as custom widgets to easily add things like adverts, social links, recent posts and other useful content to the sidebars.
Skt Magazine
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The Skt Magazine theme has an awesome design, and it’s simple and easy to edit. Perfect for gaming magazines, the template has a well-organized frontpage that allows you to feature lots of content without looking clunky. The featured section looks perfect for highlighting your best game reviews, and it includes sliders and image thumbnails.
Several layouts are provided for the homepage, so you can choose one that matches with your style. You’ll also find social icons in the sidebar and footer. Besides, the Skt Magazine theme is ad-friendly to help you generate revenue from your website, and it’s compatible with many popular WordPress plugins, including WooCommerce, Nextgen Gallery, Facebook Comments, and more.
Epicurean Theme
Fazli
January 11, 2017 at 12:44 pmNice list of a good gaming blog themes. Maybe someday I want to buy one of your nimbus themes.
Sarah Bishop
January 11, 2017 at 5:15 pmThanks for the feedback and your interest in our themes. Let me know if you need help picking one out:)