In the esports-focused peripheral and gear space, few brands are as connected to FPS games as ZOWIE. The company is famous for its understated, no-nonsense and performance-oriented mice and displays, and its products are often used in global esports events. One such event was the recently concluded StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, where Team Vitality took its third Major trophy.
In the event’s expo area, ZOWIE presented its flagship products to its key audience, because more than 80% of CS2 pros and more than 70% of VALORANT pros use ZOWIE screens. According to ProSettings data, eight of the top 10 monitors for esports pros are ZOWIE-made. ZOWIE, as one of the event’s partners, presented its Level Up As One campaign, hosted fan activations at its booth, along with demonstrations of its new BenQ ZOWIE XL2586X+ screen.
However, we were more interested in the way ZOWIE does things, because the company has always been a peculiar player in the gaming hardware space. For example, while ZOWIE is a part of the BenQ Corporation, a large multinational hardware and tech manufacturer, the company itself remains rather small in comparison with some of its key competitors in the esports and gaming peripheral space, such as Razer or SteelSeries.
This puts it in a very interesting position: ZOWIE has, for years, angled itself as more of a dedicated niche manufacturer, rather than a big, do-anything brand like some of its competitors. Upon glancing at its product offerings, to an untrained eye, it looks like just a handful of mice, a few of them wireless, and several screens. The key here is that both the mice and the screens are probably some of the best in their class.
To further drive that point home, Zowie presented its new BenQ ZOWIE XL2586X+ display during the Budapest Major, featuring a 600Hz TN panel and a bearing-based stand for easy height adjustment. The screen still uses a TN (Twisted Nematic) panel, which has much faster response times and refresh rates than other panels, while still being cheaper to build. The downside, as many know, is viewing angles – but that matters little to esports pros who use the screens to compete, rather than watch movies or analyze spreadsheets.
Over the years, ZOWIE screens have become the standard in CS tournaments, with the ZOWIE representatives even hinting at the screens being used even on events where the brand isn’t a partner; the players and organizers allegedly want them so much that they will even rebrand them as other makes and models.
Image credit: ZOWIE
In mice, ZOWIE has long been a staple in esports, despite some other makes surpassing it in popularity recently. Its EC series of mice is one of the most famous in esports, and currently, the company makes five different models, which aren’t all that different to look at. They don’t offer flashy RGB, for a start, but focus on ergonomics instead. For example, the EC series is an ergonomic mouse while the ZA and FK are symmetric in design. Still, the ZA and FK look almost identical and differ only by the height of the “bump” of the mouse. Interestingly, while many of the competitors offer numerous wireless mice, ZOWIE was somewhat shy to release its first truly wireless mouse.
Currently, all of their shapes offer wireless, but the company noted that they did not want to “rush” wireless tech adoption until it met their strict expectations. All of the shapes are dialled in through work with esports professionals (such as Team Spirit’s donk) in the ZOWIE Sports Science Labs (the company’s research locations in Taiwan and the Netherlands). The slow and steady approach provides players with the sort of attention to detail not usually found in the peripherals space.
Speaking of rushing, ZOWIE also does not yet offer OLED screens in its lineup. Right now, the company is “exploring” the possibility of creating a screen with an OLED panel, but is careful as always. They won’t adopt OLED without a clear advantage in competitive play over TN, such is their vision. The same goes for ultra-lightweight mice, with ZOWIE noting that “lighter isn’t automatically better”.
While not available on the shelves of supermarkets and stores in every city and every country, ZOWIE is a brand that offers gear that was thoroughly researched and makes no compromises. Yes, the mice and screens are among the best for FPS players, but they’re the best for them, rather than being good enough for a wider range of players.
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