TL DR – These are the Best Arcade Fight Sticks: We'll guide you through our top picks so you can find a quality fight stick, whether you want it for casual play or high-level tournaments. You can even snag models that offer up a bit of RGB lighting to tweak to your liking. Some offer a similar feel but are more affordable. A good many are made for serious play with quality mechanical switches and the same Sanwa parts you'd find in an arcade cabinet. You'll find a wide variety of fight sticks on the market.
A nice ball-top joystick can make the difference between reliably pulling off quarter circles and never figuring out the near-ubiquitous move. The best fight sticks have trusty joysticks that let you put your whole hand and arm into each movement, not relying on just your thumb to pull off the complex and quick movements of arcade fighting games. A fight stick can be your best friend in fighting games. When you're trying to smash your opponents and pull off the ultimate combos, even the best Xbox Series X and PS5 controllers likely won't do.
