Check out more of the year's best tech in our PC Gamer Hardware Awards 2025 coverage.
My favourite hardware award category is the wildcard by a wide margin. Each year, all bets are off for what to expect from these nominations, and every now and then you may even come face to face with some tech that makes you go, "They make those, now? What a time to be alive!"
Suffice to say, the wildcards are full of surprises, shining a spotlight on the hardware hits that otherwise don't neatly fit into another award category. Your best graphics cards and your best handheld gaming PC are all well and good, but the best gaming router is a decidedly more niche category that doesn't always enjoy quite the same amount of fanfare.
But don't worry, this year's category isn't two kind of good gaming routers and a gaggle of Mesh Wi-Fi devices—though, spoiler alert, the TP-Link Deco BE68 BE14000 does actually feature below. If you're wondering "But why?" or even "Wait, what exactly is a mesh Wi-Fi device anyway?" then read on—there's plenty more insightful surprises among this year's wildcard nominees.
Best of the rest 2025: the nominees
And those are the three wildcard nominations for 2025. Though each bit of kit is definitely for someone, which will claim the crown? You won't have to wait long for the answer, as we'll announce the winners on New Year's Eve.
