Best Xbox Series X and Series S accessories 2023

Looking for the best Xbox accessories to add to your Series X or Series S console setup? After all, this current generation Xbox is one of the best consoles you can get and it deserves the best accessories.

Look no further. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S consoles continue to go from strength to strength.  Features like Quick Resume, incredible backwards compatibility, and Dolby Vision/Atmos support really make a difference, and that’s before we even get to Game Pass.

But here we’re talking hardware; not the machines themselves, but the accessories that complete the Xbox experience. From pads and headsets to storage woe solutions and remotes, we’ve got you covered. 

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The best Xbox Series X and S accessories you can buy today:

1. Xbox Wireless Controller

Sure it’s not as fancy as the PS5’s DualSense, but there’s a very good reason Microsoft hasn’t changed the Xbox pad much at all for several years now – it’s damn near perfect. Supremely comfortable in the hands, built to share gameplay content quickly, and easy to pair via Bluetooth with iOS, Android and PC devices as well as your Xbox, it’s really hard to find fault with the thing. 

The Xbox Wireless Controller comes in a variety of colours, and if you’ve got a bit of time on your hands you can even design your own. You’ll get one pad with an Xbox Series X|S purchase, but at some point you’re likely going to want another. 

2. Xbox Play and Charge Kit

You know when we said the Xbox Wireless Controller was damn near perfect? Well, if we were going to knock it for something it would be that it’s not rechargeable out of the box like most modern pads. Instead, Microsoft continues to ship its controller with AA batteries, so if you happen to go flat mid-Halo Infinite, have no spares in the drawer and can’t wrench a couple from the TV remote, then you’re out of luck. 

Avoid such a disaster by investing in a rechargeable battery pack that slots into the back of the controller where the batteries usually sit. You get up to 30 hours of juice on a full charge and four hours will fully recharge it. Luckily, you can charge while you play too.

3. Xbox Wireless Headset

PS5 owners get a reasonably priced and genuinely great first-party headset, and Microsoft’s version is just as good. The imaginatively named Xbox Wireless Headset pairs near pretty much instantly with your Xbox of choice (no dongle required), sounds great and features slick dial controls. 

It does Dolby Atmos sound too, but the best feature is support for two wireless audio streams at the same time, allowing you to listen to music or chat to friends on your phone without losing game audio. 

4. Backbone One

Did you know that your iPhone is an Xbox too? Well, sort of. Thanks to Xbox Cloud Gaming you can take your Game Pass library with you wherever you go, accessing games via a shortcut to your Safari browser. 

A lot of games on the subscription service support touch controls, but if you want the proper experience you’ll need to get yourself a controller, and the Backbone One is our favourite by some distance. It’s totally wireless, drawing power from your phone once attached, and feels great in the hands. What makes the Backbone One stand out, though, is its dedicated app, from which you can browse supported games across multiple services (Game Pass, Apple Arcade, App Store etc) and play with friends. 

If you’re interested in on-the-go Xbox gaming it’s a must-have, and the Razer Kishi is a (nearly) equally good option for the Android crowd. 

5. Seagate Storage Expansion Card

Whether you have an Xbox Series X or S, you’re eventually going to run out of storage space. Game Pass is just too good. If you want more room for downloads without losing anything from the next-gen Xbox experience you’ll need one of Seagate’s cards. 

Unlike the PS5, which asks you to do a little bit of DIY, expanding your SSD storage on Xbox consoles is as simple as plugging the card into the back of your machine. You can then set it as your default storage device in the console’s settings and just like that you have up to 2TB of additional storage. Because the Expansion Card is fully compatible with the Xbox Velocity Architecture it works without asking you to sacrifice those short loading times, high-end graphics or Quick Resume functionality. It’s not cheap, but if you have a big game library it’s worth the investment. 

6. Seagate Game Drive for Xbox

If you want to play Series S|X games directly from an external storage device then you’ll need Seagate’s Expansion Card. But there is a more affordable way to give yourself more storage. Designed to work with Xbox consoles and up to 4TB in capacity, Seagate’s drive is ideal for storing Xbox One and older games that you can’t accommodate on the main SSD. 

With the largest model you can play 100+ legacy titles straight from the drive (expect longer loading times, though), and if you want to move a Series X title back onto the SSD it’ll be much quicker to do so from the Seagate Game Drive than re-downloading it from scratch. 

7. 8BitDo Media Remote

With full support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, the Xbox Series X|S is worth considering as your primary streaming device as well as a games console. But if that’s the case you’ll probably want a proper remote to flick through your entertainment apps with ease.

8BitDo’s is designed for Xbox and even has an Xbox Home button that wakes the console when pressed. With HDMI-CEC support it can control your telly just like a normal TV remote, and we happen to think it looks pretty nice in white. 

8. SteelSeries Arctis 7X

While you really can’t go wrong with the cheaper Microsoft headset, we have to mention SteelSeries’ excellent Arctis 7X. It sounds awesome and delivers a lossless 2.4GHz wireless connection to your Xbox with ultra-low latency. 

The Arctis 7X is very comfortable and has one of the best microphones out there, while the USB-C dongle it comes with also makes it a great headset option for Switch, PC and Android users to boot. Check out our guide to the best gaming headset as well.

Fully kitted out with hardware? Now check out the best Xbox Series X and Series S games to play.