Rocket League is a competitive game, so when you’re trying to eke out every little performance gain possible, you might have obsessed over your car’s wheels. After testing out different wheels, you might think that certain wheels perform better than others. But is this true?
Key Points
- While some players argue that their car feels different after changing the wheels, there is actually no performance benefit to the wheels you use.
- However the car that you use does matter, because they have slightly different hit boxes.
- Cristiano and Titanium Whites are the most common wheels used by Rocket League Pros.
- Goldstone wheels are the most valuable Rocket League wheels to buy/trade.
Do Wheels Make A Difference In Rocket League?
The wheels you choose for your Rocket League car do not make any difference to your performance. Whether you win (or lose!) comes down to skill and a bit of luck, not your wheels.
Some players say that their car’s performance feels slightly different when changing the wheels, but there’s never been an provable link. If you start winning more after putting new wheels on your car, it’s almost certainly down a placebo effect.
In other words, maybe your old wheels felt a bit boring and stale:
But you then change them to something cool (or over the top?!) like Pyrrhos wheels:
This might cause you to feel better when you start playing, resulting in more goals and a better win/lose ratio. However the actual wheels really don’t change how well you do in Rocket League matches.
PSA: The Car You Choose DOES Matter Though
Since wheels are purely cosmetic, you’d be forgiven for thinking that your car choice also has no bearing on your performance.
Weirdly, though, the car can benefit your gameplay – at least a little. That’s because each car has a slightly different hitbox, meaning that the way that you hit the ball will vary slightly depending on the car you choose.
This varying hitbox – or body type – is why so many Rocket League pros use the Octane car (or similar shape cars), because the Octane body type is considered to be a good all rounder for moving around and controlling the ball.
Just don’t go obsessing about what wheels you put on it!
Does “Distance Driven” Affect Wheel Performance?
Real car tires are only rated for a certain number of miles/kilometers, before they wear out and become unsafe to use. Does this concept also apply to Rocket League? Luckily not.
The “Distance Driven” tracker on a Rocket League’s wheels has zero impact on your car’s performance. Wheels also do not ‘expire’ after a certain distance. This range tracker is purely used as a fun bit of knowledge so that you can see how active you are in the game.
What Wheel Is Most Popular Among Rocket League Pros?
It’s not always easy to tell what wheel the pros use in Rocket League, plus they often change up their wheel choice, but a range of helpful YouTube videos and Reddit comments have allowed me to work out the following:
Clearly there’s not really a ‘most popular’ wheel among Rocket League pro players, because they vary their selection so often. However Cristiano and titanium white painted wheels are the most common selection in general.
Which Wheel Is The Most Valuable?
Before answering that question, time for a quick history lesson. Back in 2014, Rocket League was still in development (the developer Psyonix was also planning on calling it Battle Cars 2). However it still had a small, very loyal following, and so some of these players were invited to test out an early beta version: which was known as Rocket League Alpha.
This allowed players to test out the fairly buggy initial release, and to give their feedback. In exchange, they received a range of alpha items – including a boost, and Goldstone wheels:
These items are tradable, however many of the original alpha testers don’t want to sell them. They are dedicated early players to the game, after all, and they have some really rare alpha items to show off! As a result, the Goldstone wheels are very rare and hard to purchase.
When they do go for sale, though, Goldstone wheels are often incredibly expensive. GameRiv spotted some Goldstone wheels sell for the equivalent of $4,000 (yep, four thousand American dollars!), while other sources have seen them sell for just over $3,000.
This is a crazy amount of money, but they are so rare that they are basically a collectors item (unless you’re a World champion like Squishy, who proudly shows off his Goldstone wheels every so often)!
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