Sweaty hands are terrible for gaming and can make the difference between winning and losing. So how can we prevent our hands from sweating and save our games?
How To Stop Sweaty Hands While Gaming
You can prevent sweaty hands while gaming by using gaming gloves, using grip lotion, getting controller grips, getting a mouse grip, applying antiperspirant deodorant to your hands, using body or baby powder, using a fan, or by wiping your hands with a towel.
Now let’s talk about each of these in more detail so we can better help you solve your sweaty hands problem.
Gaming Gloves
Gaming gloves aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. Some people hate how they look, but they are effective at stopping the effects of sweaty hands.
Gaming gloves help you keep a grip on your controller or mouse even with sweaty hands since they are cloth gloves with grip located on the palms and fingers of the gloves. Here is what they look like below:
You can also get gaming gloves that don’t cover your fingers giving you a better feel of your controller, keyboard, or mouse. Here is what they look like below:
You can find all kinds of gaming gloves here on Amazon. So whether you prefer closed fingered gloves or open fingered gloves they have you covered.
If you don’t want to get a pair of gaming gloves for whatever reason (look, price, etc), then you could probably use workout gloves or gardening gloves, as long as they have grip on them.
When choosing gloves, you want something with grip while also being thin enough to feel your controller, mouse, keyboard, etc.
Grip Lotion
There are many companies that already make grip lotion. Grip lotion is useful in many places beyond gaming; Tennis, Football, Baseball, etc.
So there are plenty of brands out there to choose from and most of the products are about the same quality. There is even a grip lotion made specifically for gamers called “Gamer Grip”.
Just like the deodorant, you don’t want to use too much of the grip lotion or you run the risk of leaving handprints everywhere.
However, grip lotion should help keep your hands dry and keep your grip strong while gaming.
Controller Grips
If you play on a console then you can almost certainly find some nice controller grips for your controller.
There are many grips available of all sizes, shapes, and colors so you’re sure to find something that fits the style you’re looking for.
Controller grips offer more grip, which is great when your hands are sweaty. Controller surfaces are very slick, in general, so when you add sweat to the mix it can be hard to really hold the controller let alone play to your full potential.
You can find grips that wrap around the body of your controller, or grips that only attach to your joysticks. It really just depends what you are looking for.
I recently added some purple thumb grips from KontrolFreek to my joy sticks and they have been awesome so far.
You can find a bunch of awesome controller grips here on Amazon. Just make sure you find a grip with a grippy material otherwise you’ll be in the same position you were before, just with a thicker controller.
Mouse Grips
Similar to controller grips, there are also grips available for your gaming mouse (and keyboard if you wanted).
Most of these mouse grips are sold as a roll of grip tape which allows you to cut and fit them to your mouse size. You can put the grip tape on your clickers, or down the side of your mouse for better grip.
Some of the grip tape, like this one here, even comes in various colors so you can choose a color that matches your set up.
If your hand keeps sliding around on your mouse, it may be worth it to try and put some grip tape on your mouse and see if that helps.
Antiperspirant Deodorant
Yeah, deodorant is made for armpits, but there’s no reason you can’t use it on your hands. Whether you use spray-on deodorant or a stick, you can apply it to the palms of your hand to help prevent sweating.
You don’t really want to use just any deodorant, though, since your hands are going to be touching a lot of surfaces.
You want to use antiperspirant deodorant (for the sweat), and you probably want something without a strong scent. I found this one at Walmart that is non-scented.
When applying to your hands, make sure not to apply too much because you don’t want to rub excess deodorant on your controllers!
Rosin Powder Or Body/Baby Powder
Rosin powder is the powder that baseball and tennis players use to dry their hands and get a grip quick and easy.
You can buy a tiny bottle of rosin powder off of Amazon, for example, and use it when you’re gaming. As soon as your hands get sweaty, you can shake some rosin onto your palms and dry them pretty instantly.
Rosin powder is a classic sweat cleanser, and perfect for hands. The only major downside is that you may get some on your controller.
Body powder and baby powder follow the same logic, except these powders may be a bit (or a lot) more messy than rosin powder.
However, if you can’t get your hands on rosin, then body powder or baby powder should work as well. Even something like this which you can get at Walmart would work.
Using A Fan
Another thing you can try is doing your best to keep yourself cool while you play. Pick up a tiny desk fan that you can aim at your hands while you play or even a large fan you can aim at your whole body.
Something like this small fan on Amazon is perfect because it can clip onto the edge of your desk saving you lot of room. Or you can go for a big fan like this one on Amazon to cool your whole body.
A lot of people sweat due to nerves during clutch moments and not due to being too hot.
But a fan should help counteract your sweat regardless. Alternatively, you could open up a window and hope for a cool breeze!
Wiping With A Hand Towel
I’m not going to spend too much time on this option, since it’s pretty self explanatory, but you can always just keep a small hand towel around.
There are a lot of towels made especially for sweaty hands. You may also want to keep a moist towel around that you can wipe your hands on in order to cool them off a bit before you dry them off on a dry towel.
Paper towels are also an option here, but it can get pretty annoying ripping off paper towel after paper towel if your hands are sweating every single game.
I’d avoid tissues and toilet paper all together as they’ll crumble in your palms and leave residue everywhere.
These are the best ways to counteract sweaty hands. But if these solutions don’t help, I’ll explain below why your hands sweat while you game and maybe it will help you find your own solution.
Why Do Hands Sweat When Gaming?
Hands sweat when gaming due to heat or not having enough ventilation. Hands may also sweat due to nerves or emotions while playing an intense game.
Gaming brings out the competitive nature of players, and hands sweat in response to the stimuli, fear, determination, and other emotions brought by games.
Why your hands sweat when you game depends on a lot of factors. Some players sweat due strictly to having their hands in a cramped position in a room that isn’t cool enough.
On the other hand, many players sweat due to an emotional response to their games. This is just a primal instinct in humans, and also why people may sweat in uncomfortable or intense situations.
Games are no different. They bring out a lot of emotions, and you won’t be able to control how your body responds physically to these emotions.
I wish you nothing but non-sweaty hands in your gaming adventures my friend.
If you have any questions, or just want to hang with me, follow me on Twitch here. Also, for streaming tips and how to’s make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel here.
Eric streams 3 days a week on Twitch and uploads weekly to Youtube under the moniker, StreamersPlaybook. He loves gaming, PCs, and anything else related to tech. He’s the founder of the website StreamersPlaybook and loves helping people answer their streaming, gaming, and PC questions.