Top 5 Sports TVs at a Glance

• Best overall: LG CX OLED
• Best LED: Samsung QN85A QLED
• Best budget model: Hisense A6G Series
• Best value: Hisense Class U6G Series
• Best that money can buy: LG Signature 8K ZX

If you're a sports fan, there’s nothing better than being there in person for a big game. The anticipation in the air, the roar of the crowd, the once-in-a-lifetime experience. And then there’s the extreme heat (or cold), the nosebleed seats, the sticky floors from spilled soda. Truth is, sometimes experiencing a live sporting event can be, well, uncomfortable.

But what if watching sports on TV is actually better than attending a game in person? Aside from it being cheaper, it’s also incredibly more convenient and you get a close-up view of the action that's unbeatable. In fact, with a modern, high-quality TV, your sports watching experience can be downright transcendent.

What Type of TV Is Best for Watching Sports?

When you’re sitting down to watch your favorite team, you’ll want a TV that’s fit to handle the action and quick movements of the players on the field. It’s important to catch every single detail of the event you’re watching. Because of this, one of the most important factors to consider when looking for a sports-specific TV is to find one with a quick response time and refresh rate. These help capture all that fast motion without any motion blur or stuttering that’s so common on average TVs.

Response time refers to how fast a TV pixel can change colors. When you’re looking for a good TV for watching sports, look for one with .2ms to 4ms response times. In general, OLEDs (organic LEDs) have the best response times on the market.

Refresh rate should also be a top concern when looking for a quality sports TV. It’s the number of images a TV displays each second. You’ll generally see two speeds on the market: 60Hz and 120Hz. While 60Hz is fine for most folks, 120Hz is desired by any discerning sports fan.

Of course, you’ll first want to determine the correct size TV for your room. Just measure the distance between the seating area and the screen and divide by 1.6. Most people sit roughly 9 feet from their screen, so a 67- to 70-inch screen would be perfect. It’s also worth considering the brightness levels in your room as well. Got a dark room? You’ll probably want an OLED TV. Does your room have lots of natural light? LED might be the right choice.

The Top 5 TVs for Watching Sports

In case you’re still undecided, we’ve pulled together our first-round draft picks for the best TVs for watching sports on the market today. Unless otherwise noted, all prices listed are for 65-inch TVs. Happy shopping.

Best Overall TV: LG CX OLED

There’s no doubt about it: OLED televisions have the best picture quality of any TV on the market today. That said, they also tend to be on the more expensive side. Luckily, the LG CX, one of the best OLEDs out there, is also one of the lowest-priced OLEDs, making it the best overall TV for watching sports.

Put simply, LG is a pioneer in the field of OLED technology, and the CX proves why. Included in the CX is LGs Alpha9 Intelligent Processor--it’s the most impressive processor in an LG to date and works to upgrade every image to as close to 4K as possible. With the addition of Dolby Vision IQ, which automatically adjusts picture quality based on the lighting conditions of your room, as well as amazing 3D surround sound supported by Dolby Atmos, you’d think you were actually in the stands.

Combine that with the TV’s “motion pro” setting and 120 Hz refresh rate, and you’ve got a virtually motion-blur and stutter-free viewing experience for those action-packed live sporting events.

Cost: $1,999.99

Best LED TV: Samsung QN85A QLED

While OLED TVs are generally seen as the cream of the crop in the TV market, they’ve also got some noticeable downsides, namely brightness levels and high cost. If you need a high-quality HDR TV for a bright room, you can’t go wrong with Samsung’s QN85A.

The QN85 is the flagship of Samsung’s “neo” QLED series. This means that, in addition to the quantum dot LEDs, this TV utilizes mini-LED backlighting as well as an ADS panel, offering wider viewing angles. The TV also boasts a fast response rate, making it especially great for watching sports with a group.

As we already mentioned, the QN85 gets dazzlingly bright with great reflection and glare handling. That said, because of the ADS panel, it has a low contrast ratio, making it less ideal for darker rooms.

Cost: $1,499.99

Best Budget Model: Hisense A6G Series

Hisense doesn’t have the brand recognition that some of the more popular TV manufacturers have, but that doesn’t mean their TVs are lacking in the quality department. Truth is, Hisense has been quietly making some great screens over the last few years and with the A6G Series, Hisense offers a fully loaded, feature-packed TV at a shockingly low price. Are you a sports fanatic on a budget? This is the screen for you.

This TV boasts a bright, clear 4K HDR image. Supporting Android TV with a host of apps and streaming options, you’re sure to be able to catch up on all those TV shows during the off-season. The A6G Series offers a large display that works great in large, bright rooms. Although it only offers a 60Hz display, it does offer support for Dolby Vision HDR.

Cost: $499.99

Best Value: Hisense Class U6G Series

Purchasing one of the best TVs out there can get expensive very quickly, because, well, OLEDs are expensive. At the same time, there are literally tons of cheap TVs flooding the market. But, where do you turn if you’re looking for an excellent sports-viewing experience without spending an arm and a leg? Say hello to the Hisense Class U6G Series Quantum ULED 4K UHD Smart Android TV.

This model is a great multi-use TV that’s fully loaded with apps and video streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube. It will easily handle your sports broadcasts thanks to its inclusion of Dolby Vision, 8.3 million pixels and a full-array LED backlight setup. Plus, thanks to a low-latency mode that's primarily designed for gamers, the action on the gridiron (or ice rink, or basketball court, or … well, you get the idea) appears smooth, no matter how fast-paced the action is.

Cost: $649.99

Best TV That Money Can Buy: LG Signature 8K ZX

When money isn’t an object, and you’re looking for the best possible display in the world, where do you turn? The answer is simple: The LG Signature ZX 8K. It’s the most advanced model LG has to offer and is cutting-edge at nearly every step of the way. At 88 inches, it’s the largest TV in LG’s lineup, and its 8K resolution is a taste of what’s to come in the world of televisions. Oh yeah: It’s also $30,000.

The ZX utilizes OLED technology with the capacity to upscale 4K content to 8K resolution. The set has more than 33 million pixels offering more than a billion colors combos with impossibly high contrast ratios and perfect black levels. There’s no motion blur or stuttering, and every image is life-like and color correct. It ain’t cheap, but if you want the VIP box-seat version of a TV set, look no further.

Cost: $29,999.99