Have you ever wanted to run your own gaming forum? Want to share your thoughts and talk to other people interested in the most recent Halo release or the latest Minecraft tricks? The internet delivers plenty of opportunities for you to play around with games and then publish your findings and thoughts. Whether you’re a die-hard fan of console gaming or you prefer the good old-fashioned tabletop RPGs, there are WordPress gaming themes for every purpose imaginable.
How to Choose a Theme
Choosing the right theme is an important step before building your gaming website, and the decision will be based on what you are hoping to achieve. Are you interested in publishing game reviews and ratings? Do you want to provide in-depth tutorials and game walkthroughs, or are you looking to create your own arcade site? Or maybe you’re simply looking to create a website for your game group, where you can chronicle your latest raid? No matter which direction you go, it’s important your chosen theme has all the features you will need on top of an attractive design.
Professionals and Hobbyists Have a Place
Don’t let IGN, GameSpot and PCGamer get all the recognition for video game knowledge! For those who plan on writing about video games or sharing videos on your recent conquests; for those seeking to create a home on the web for your gamer geekiness; for those striving to build a rep as a game guide, the following themes are certain to pique your interest and serve your needs.
Gamer Themes for WordPress
Arcane
Arcane gives you the power to create massive gaming communities. It provides a wide range of powerful online community features through its integration with the bbPress and the BuddyPress plugins. Users can create teams and tournaments and challenge each other, keeping track of the matches, share content and much more. The ratings system allows you to rate your favorite games, and you can display the ratings on your site using the custom ratings widget.
The theme comes with several stunning page templates, and you can easily create your own custom layouts using a drag and drop page builder. The pre-made layouts include a tournaments page, user profile, match page, team page, forums, and more. Besides, the Arcane theme includes eCommerce integration to easily sell your merchandise online, beautiful sliders and carousels, as well as social media integration so you can connect with gamers on different platforms.
Games Zone
The Games Zone WordPress theme is a wonderful option to kick off the list, as it comes packed with interesting features and stunning modules to display your favorite screenshots or videos. You can upload your own logo and show a handful of high-resolution photos in the homepage slider. The slider also incorporates layover text and buttons so you can push your readers to additional content. User ratings of various games can also be incorporated into a custom post type for reviews.
The ThemeFuse theme offers a fresh look for your gaming blog since you can use the color picker to modify color schemes and highlight shades. The two slider options let you include videos or animations to attract people upon landing on the homepage. The responsive theme has Google Fonts integration and a built-in events calendar for sharing upcoming gaming conventions or tournaments.
Game Addict - Clan War Gaming Theme
The Game Addict – Clan War Gaming Theme’s awesome fantasy imagery sets the bar for you to incorporate your own awesome images. It includes a drag-and-drop editor, making it a force to be reckoned with in the gaming theme market. Different modules can be placed in various ways to create unique layouts. This gem also lets you create and manage your own clan wars with different teams and maps. This feature is a great way to improve interactivity and generate a solid community around your website.
With bbPress integration your website turns into a full-fledged gaming discussion hub, and the fully responsive design is always nice for those browsing on tablets or smartphones. On top of that, GameAddict comes packaged with unlimited colors and backgrounds, providing you with all the tools you need to brand your website.
Orizon
Like many high-end gaming themes, the Orizon theme is bbPress compatible–a good thing, too, since most gaming blogs offer forums to keep user engagement high on their site. The premium parallax slider adds an interesting design element, and the premium Isotope Gallery plugin helps you display your coolest photos with ease.
HTML and PSD files come along with your purchase, so those of you who are more tech-savvy can customize them and create a unique look across your site. The theme also includes a responsive design, a powerful review system and a widget-ready sidebar and footer to include various widgets and feature additional content.
Oblivion
Oblivion is a multi-purpose gaming theme that offers a fully responsive design. The theme is ready for integration with bbPress to easily create your own gaming forum, build your community and encourage interaction. A portfolio may come in handy for some people, and the rating system cuts down on weighty 3rd-party plugins that you would need to incorporate this feature otherwise.
You can also upload a custom background and completely customize your website’s colors. The best part about this theme is a drag-and-drop page builder, so even the least techie person can design a decent site. Additionally, Oblivion comes bundled with a few premium plugins such as the Isotope Gallery and LayerSlider.
Gameleon
The Gameleon theme is a magazine-style theme that offers a responsive layout and the ability to connect with bbPress and BuddyPress to create your own personal gaming community. This allows for great scalability and potential user growth among fellow game nuts. The powerful theme options panel is fairly easy to use for beginners and advanced users alike.
A huge advantage to using this theme is the advanced review system, which allows stars, percentages and an endless amount of custom criteria. Also, play around with the seven header options to create a unique design. If you plan on sharing videos or actual games, responsive ads are included for you to monetize your efforts.
eGamer
The eGamer theme is a stylish and lightweight theme from the folks at ElegantThemes. The theme was designed for gaming bloggers in particular, so the custom author review system works wonders for sharing the recent games you’ve tested out. Video embedding is simple with YouTube integration, and the thumbnail resizing feature allows you to create feature your best content across your site.
Banner ads are available for monetization, and you can choose between a magazine-style layout or a classic blog layout. With four unique theme colors and quite a few shortcodes to choose from, it doesn’t take a web design whiz to create a professional-looking website.
TheSource
TheSource is another theme from Elegant Themes, and they never seem to disappoint. Designed as a gaming news theme, the flexibility of this layout helps you turn it into any type of website you want. The goal of the theme is to look vibrant, yet sophisticated, with a three-column grid layout for the ultimate control over your website’s look.
It also comes packaged with a full-width homepage slider to showcase new gaming articles or some cool new reviews. Similar to other Elegant Themes options, this one includes four unique colors for branding, and it includes quite a few page templates and shortcodes to keep your hands free of any messy coding.
Ithaca
The Ithaca theme is a strong choice for gaming bloggers looking for a bold, “in-your-face” theme. It comes with the ability to change your background, so you can integrate your brand seamlessly with your website. The custom homepage lets you tweak the layout any way your want, and custom modules allow you to show off your most important posts or pages.
The five color schemes work nicely for creating a unique look, and the rating system provides a great way to add your own gaming reviews. The theme also includes a customizable slider with over 10 visual effects and modification options.
Game Box
The Game Box theme is a wise choice for any gaming blogger, and since it comes from the reliable folks at Template Monster, it has a really cool layout for a simple blog or expansion into a large scale magazine. The Game Box theme is completely responsive, meaning it will look good no matter which devices your readers are using. The fully customizable theme doesn’t require you to mess around with source code, and the custom post types and post formats make it easy to add some variety to your website, like game reviews or recent news. The theme is translation-ready, allowing you to reach a global audience.
You can choose from over 80 shortcodes, which assist in placing items like buttons and columns on your site without having to know anything about coding. Along with over 600 Google Fonts and a fantastic slider to show off your images, you can’t go wrong with the Game Box theme. In fact, if you’d like to sell your own game design services, you can do that as well with the Game Box theme. Simply implement the filterable portfolio to let users view your work, and use the custom widget areas for anything from comments to social sharing.
IndiGamer
Indie gamers rejoice because here’s a WordPress theme just for you! In all honesty though, the IndiGamer theme can be used by any type of gaming blogger because it offers a functional review system and some fairly stylish pages. The theme has three layouts for the homepage and four layouts for the listings pages, meaning you don’t have to worry about messing with any code.
The developers created a custom widget that helps you display your top rated reviews, pushing your readers to the hottest games in the business. The responsive theme includes various color schemes for your own customization, and localization support means that translation is always possible if needed.
Gauge Game Review Theme
The Gauge Game Review Theme is one of our favorites for its flexibility and feature integration – it has everything you could ask for in a gaming themes: bbPress integration, an online shop, categories, and a stellar rating system. This system uses sleek, circular graphics that display average user ratings and author ratings for every review on the site. This fully responsive theme is integrated with the premium Visual Composer plugin, so generating your homepage and review designs is rather simple.
Front-end posting is also supported, allowing your users to chime in on what they think about a particular game. A really unique feature of this theme is called hubs, which is a central page for every game you review, linking to all relevant information such as reviews, latest news, videos, and images.
MEGAMAG
MEGAMAG is a solid choice for those who want to design a magazine or blog based on gaming. With responsive elements and beautiful designs, it looks great on just about all types of devices. Also, MEGAMAG provides a built-in review system which is ideal for showing your readers the best games and offering honest opinions on themes worth buying. The six pre-made skins are a great starting point, while the ability to create your own skins brings the customization options to a new level. Keep in mind that the pre-made skins are hyper targeted to certain niche markets, so you can only get one that’s catered to the gaming world. The theme also provides a custom ad widget which is a great way to display ads on your website and earn extra income.
The slider is set to play automatically, but users can click around and navigate to certain pages or posts through the slider. Several social buttons are provided with your purchase, and widgets are easy to implement. You can change the site background to completely brand your website, and use the back-end admin area to modify anything from colors to logos.
GameOn
GameOn is another gaming WordPress theme with BuddyPress/bbPress integration that allows you to build a community around your website. The unique feature of this theme is the integration with MyArcadePlugin, which allows you to fetch and publish over 70,000 free games from 16 game distributors with ease and create your own outstanding WP Arcade site. MyArcadePlugin, together with BuddyPress and bbPress, will ensure your visitors keep coming back to your site. Offer scores and leaderboards, allow your users to register and fill out the profiles, engage in a discussion, and your community will soon grow and evolve.
GameOn has a responsive, attractive design with five different homepage layouts, and the ability to insert multiple sliders offers up a great way to present a lot of content without cluttering your homepage. The admin control panel allows you to customize your theme with unlimited color schemes, custom typography, custom post type display, and more. There are several places to display ads to allow for monetization, and you can display ads on the game loading screen as well. GameOn is a solid choice if you want to create a unique gaming website and impress your online players.
Explicit
Explicit is a multipurpose theme that’s bound to impress anyone landing on your website. The fact that it’s a magazine theme makes Explicit a great choice for a gaming site publishing the latest news and reviews in the gaming industry. Since it comes integrated with the ability to add ratings and reviews as well as a powerful page builder, adding a review of your favorite game is extremely easy and your posts can take on any layout. What’s more, your users can leave their own rating on any article you choose, or you can disable editor ratings completely and let your users have the main say.
Aside from leaving ratings, users can leave their reactions on any posts, not just reviews. Social sharing and seamless integration with BuddyPress adds multiple social and community elements to your website. You can monetize your website in a couple of ways: either by setting up your own online store, or by featuring advertising networks and sponsors with one of the many widgetized areas on the site. Every aspect of the theme is completely customizable, and you can get a head start on building your website by importing demo content.
Blackfyre
Blackfyre should be one of your top choices when you want to develop a gaming community website. With complete BuddyPress and bbPress support, this theme enables the visitors to form their own clans and challenge others. The professionally designed template will provide all the necessary information about the clans.
Visual Composer is bundled with the package, allowing you to create custom post and page layouts within a short period of time. Take full advantage of the animated images, icons, and parallax effects to keep the visitors hooked to your site. As Blackfyre features native WooCommerce support, it is also possible to sell your own items from the website.
electra
Looking for a suitable theme for creating your gaming blog, news, review, or promotional website? Check out Electra, an excellent multi-purpose WordPress template powered by the Tesla Framework. It comes with ten custom post types that allow you to publish different types of content.
There are seven page templates and lots of shortcodes to help you create the necessary pages. Feel free to use the built-in drag-and-drop page editor to build your own content layouts. Show off the beautiful images by using the bundled Revolution Slider or choose any of the attractive gallery styles. Electra also features several transition effects, animations, and 3D effects to make your posts look more interesting.
GameWorld
This fully featured WordPress theme could be a great choice for developing your next online game store. GameWorld enjoys full WooCommerce compatibility and features multiple homepage layouts to help you get started as quickly as possible. Thanks to the mega menu feature, you can create an advanced, stylish menu within a few minutes.
Head towards the powerful admin section to manage the various style options for your site. The template works perfectly with all Google Fonts, FontAwesome icons, and uses an AJAX-powered searching system. As it is developed on the infamous Bootstrap framework, you can rest assured that the website will look great on all screen resolutions.
xGames
xGames features a clean, simple design which is uncommon in games themes, but that doesn’t mean it’s boring. On the contrary, it looks classy and organized. The full-screen hero image on the homepage is the perfect way to highlight the latest game, event, or any other promotion. Use the featured sections to provide more information about the available games or show the recent blog posts.
The multilingual theme supports several custom post types and formats so that you can publish different types of content on your site. Thanks to the inbuilt video and audio players, you won’t have to install any third-party plugin for media posts. The theme customizer section offers one-stop access to all the personalization options.
Games
Games enjoys a grid-style homepage that allows you to display featured, latest, and popular posts along with a dedicated top games section. You can use the built-in sliders to showcase the game posters, screenshots, and other relevant images. There are several professionally designed page templates and 80+ custom shortcodes so that you can create the starter pages with a few mouse clicks.
The customizable typography options offer total control over your fonts, while multiple color schemes allow you to experiment with different colors. Games is properly integrated with various social media platforms and has full support for Ecwid.
Kappa
This premium gaming theme enables you to publish in-depth game reviews, latest news, display fan artwork, and sell your merchandise, all on the same website. You can highlight the latest or most popular posts by adding these to the full-width featured posts slider. Use the flexible review features to create your own criteria and publish detailed review posts.
Kappa is provided with the necessary page templates and lots of custom widgets. Thanks to complete WooCommerce integration, you can easily sell digital or physical goods from your website. Check out the step-by-step video tutorials to know more about the various features.
Youplay
Featuring four attractive demo designs, YouPlay is a creative WordPress theme for developing gaming news, reviews, clan war sites, or online game stores. It comes with the Visual Composer and Revolution Slider plugins to make your job easier. The built-in mega menu will be handy to enhance the browsing experience of your visitors.
Add parallax blocks to enhance your posts and use the dedicated social media widgets to connect with your visitors on various social platforms. The powerful admin panel offers 230+ theme options to manage the website style. YouPlay supports WooCommerce, BuddyPress, and bbPress.
CrystalSkull
This fully featured gaming magazine template comes with a featured posts slider, news ticker, and a beautiful popular posts widget to help you promote the best content on your website. The built-in review system will be a great help for publishing detailed game reviews with rating points for different criteria.
Enhance your regular blog posts by using the animated images, icons, parallax effects, and video blocks. Create a thriving forum with bbPress or sell various items with the WooCommerce shop. Head towards the extensive theme options panel to find all the styling options. The fully localized theme also comes with the necessary files to translate it into other languages.
Applay
Applay will be a great choice to create game showcase and online game store websites. The theme comes with several professional demo designs for the homepage and app store. There are multiple navigation styles and header variations for you to choose from. Use the CSS3-powered hero section to promote the latest game, while the features slider enables you to show more information in different styles.
The built-in custom widgets will come in handy to decorate the sidebar and footer. Applay supports all FontAwesome icons and Google Fonts along with impressive CSS and parallax effects. It also allows you to integrate a multi-vendor marketplace with your website.
Gauge
This specialized review theme features full integration with schema markup and rich snippets so that your game reviews get better ranking on the search engine result pages. Thanks to the front-end review submission feature, you can accept reviews from the visitors as well. The unique hub page will offer all the necessary information including the news, images, videos, forums for a particular game.
The AJAX-powered filtering system makes it a lot easier for the visitors to find their desired content. Complete BuddyPress and bbPress integration will be very helpful to create and nurture an active gaming forum. The retina-ready theme also has multiple ad spots on different strategic locations.
GamingMag News Theme
As the name indicates, this is another gaming magazine theme with a simple, minimal look. GamingMag supports a featured slideshow to showcase the latest or most popular reviews. The drag-and-drop menu builder system will come in handy for creating custom navigation menus. You can create the basic pages by using the professional page templates.
Enable threaded comments to encourage the visitors to join the ongoing conversation. The template features several widgetized locations to place the custom widgets. As it supports AdSense and other ad platforms, you can display advertisements on your website and earn some extra money.
ReviewIt
We have removed this review becuase this theme is discontinued.
Score
We have removed this review becuase this theme is discontinued.
News Setter
We have removed this review becuase this theme is discontinued.
Up Down Left Right
We have removed this review becuase this theme is discontinued.
Zeehan
December 3, 2015 at 5:07 amThis is a great collection of gaming themes. I’m looking for a theme for my new project and I’ve got exactly what I was looking for. I think I will use newssetter theme for my new site.
Sony PlayStation Dude
September 16, 2016 at 3:20 amYour collection is awesome…I’m a little confused but I like the 2nd theme. Thanks…
Sarah Bishop
September 16, 2016 at 10:26 amHi,\n What are you confused about? Can we help you with anything?
Agência de sites
October 7, 2016 at 2:07 pmThanks for some other fantastic article. The place else may anybody get that kind of
info in such a perfect approach of writing?
I have a presentation subsequent week, and I’m on the search for such information.
Sarah Bishop
October 10, 2016 at 9:50 pmHi Agencia,\n I am so grateful for the feedback, and glad you found the content helpful!
Rosa
November 16, 2016 at 10:48 pmHurrah! At last I got a webpage from where I be capable of in fact take useful
data concerning my study and knowledge.
Sarah Bishop
November 17, 2016 at 11:00 pmGreat! I am glad you found what you were looking for. Can we help with anything?
Situs Poker Online
December 19, 2016 at 9:42 amMy coder is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP.
I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses. But he’s tryiong none the less.
I’ve been using Movable-type on a variety of websites for about a year and am anxious about switching to
another platform. I have heard good things about blogengine.net.
Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress content
into it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Sarah Bishop
December 21, 2016 at 4:11 pmThanks for reaching out, and unfortunately I am not familiar with this process. I am sure you can reach out to blogengine.net for resources on how to accomplish this.
T I Antor
January 12, 2017 at 11:34 amHaving a list of likable theme is great to minimize the difficulties of finding the perfect one spending for a long time. The list you have shared here has made free from the irritation of doing so. I got the right theme in this list that I was looking for to make my younger brother’s gaming website.
Thank you for helping me by providing this luxurious list.
Sarah Bishop
January 12, 2017 at 6:31 pmHappy to help! What theme did you pick?
T I Antor
January 12, 2017 at 11:55 pmI picked Gameon but yet to be bought.
Sarah Bishop
January 13, 2017 at 5:52 pmGood choice, show us the site when you are all done with it 🙂 Would love to see this theme in action.
Krizlay
February 26, 2017 at 5:50 amNice collection. I like WP GameOn most. Thanks for sharing
Sarah Bishop
March 1, 2017 at 5:22 pmWhat makes WP GameOn your favorite?
barbi games
September 26, 2017 at 11:41 amI use GamingMag News Theme
Sarah Bishop
September 27, 2017 at 7:46 amNice, how would you rate it?