What Upload Speed Is Needed for Gaming

How Much Speed Do I Need for Online Gaming?

Mar xviii, 2022 Share
Make Guides, Gaming, Internet Speed Guides

You don't need a lot of speed to play games online. It's not a bandwidth-intensive activity, and so all you need is a 5 Mbps connection or faster.

But keep in listen that no corporeality of speed is going to stop your game from lagging if your latency ranges into hundreds of milliseconds. There's a lot more to having a good gaming experience online than signing up for the fastest internet program on the planet.

Nosotros've boiled downwards the nearly important points of internet speed for gaming online, so you know exactly what kind of connection you lot demand to get the almost out of your online gameplay.

Looking for the best internet provider for gaming?

Verizon Fios has the lowest latency in our tests. If it'southward not in your area, see if 1 of our other best internet providers for gaming is.

Download speed and upload speed

Playing games like Halo Infinite and Fortnite online doesn't require a lot of bandwidth. Unlike an online video—which is streamed over the internet to your device—the graphics flake in your figurer, game console, or mobile device renders (draws) the virtual globe locally and displays information technology on your screen. In fact, very piddling information passes between the gaming server and the gamer. Both sides exchange the following data:

Keyboard input
Mouse input
Controller input
Player location (you lot and everyone else)
The current globe state
Player advice
Server notifications (similar in-game announcements)

Out of the items on the higher up listing, player location can introduce slowdowns, especially in massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. These games tin have more real on-screen players than the typical online gaming scenario, causing frame charge per unit drops and "teleporting" players.

Overall, many modern games with loftier-definition graphics need a download speed of at least 3 Mbps to play online.^i,2,3

Upload speed plays an of import role too

Since games are interactive, yous also have to consider the speed at which information from your computer or console travels to a remote server. Even a poor connexion tin usually meet the necessary speeds, which is why upload speed frequently takes a backseat to more important factors.

The typical game with high-definition graphics needs an upload speed of at least 1–ii Mbps.^1,2,iii

Do you need a connexion with better upload speeds?

Nosotros prefer fiber over other internet connections because it has symmetrical speeds. Enter your null code to observe out which options are available to you lot.

Minimum speed requirements beyond game platforms

* Based on suggestions made past Bungie for Destiny 2 on PC. ¹⁰

As long as your internet connectedness meets these requirements, you can play games online. However, if you desire to accept a consequent online experience, we suggest having a slightly better connection.

Our speed recommendations for playing games online

Since the actual speed requirements are so low, games and game systems often don't give specific recommendations. Instead, they only require a "broadband net connection."

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines a broadband connection as having a download speed of 25 Mbps and an upload speed of iii Mbps—more than than plenty for you to accept several consoles playing online simultaneously.⁵

If you're not sure you lot take a broadband connexion, you can take a speed test to make certain. Unfortunately, speed requirements don't affect the critical question for playing games online: latency.

Loftier latency is your worst enemy

Latency is the corporeality of time a information bundle uses to make its trip to a remote server and back. Picture a racquetball bouncing off a wall—how long does that brawl take to come back to yous?

The ping utility answers this question by throwing a ball of data at a specific destination and recording the entire trip's duration—in other words, it pings the server. Latency is also referred to equally "ping charge per unit."

Then, if your latency gets also high when you're playing a game online, you start to experience lag.

For example, you move a mouse and your game reports that movement to a remote server. The server acknowledges the movement and sends a response showing your movements along with all the other role player movements. Your game renders the response, but because your latency is high, your movement appears delayed compared to the other players.

Factors that impact latency

At that place are a number of factors that impact latency. These include the following:

The physical distance between you and the server

Games that support co-op and multiplayer utilize regional servers because geolocation does affair, even if a server is just a few states away.

Why? Because y our point moves through multiple "hops" as information technology travels between you and the server. The more hops your indicate must traverse, the longer its journey takes—which translates to a higher latency. Traffic congestion between you and the remote server can also cause a slowdown, also, delaying your controller input.

Your net connection blazon

Certain types of internet connections inherently take more latency than others.

For example, satellite cyberspace has the highest latency because information technology'south a wireless transmission that travels int o infinite and dorsum to reach a remote server. Insulated cable connections have lower latency than uninsulated phone lines, while fiber optic cables have lower latency than both.

Go on in mind that the speed at which your signals travel dorsum and forth is different from your download speed or bandwidth. A motion picture will download at a slower rate over a 5 Mbps DSL connection than it volition over a 50 Mbps satellite connection.

When playing games online, however, the DSL connection would be much more than responsive than satellite because the gaming data doesn't launch into space and back. The high latency of the satellite connection would cause and so much lag that most fast-paced games wouldn't fifty-fifty be playable online.

The best internet connections for gaming online

A fiber-to-the-home (or building) internet plan from a provider like AT&T, Google Fiber, or Verizon Fios is the best connection for playing games online. Cablevision net comes in at a shut second, with some 5G networks also providing stable connections with low latency. Other wired connections generally introduce more latency but are still improve for gaming than wireless connections.

Consequent and reliable latency information is difficult to gather. The FCC was a source for some of the most comprehensive studies of internet latency. Withal, the agency has since stopped including latency in its annual broadband reports, so newer technologies like 5G and home 4G LTE are not included.

Although 5G is nonetheless an emerging wireless engineering science —particularly its gigabit millimeter-moving ridge connections— it promises to have lower latency than any other wireless connection . 4G and 4G LTE connections by and large accept much more lag than wired connections but are capable of reaching our recommended latency of below 100 ms.

How to reduce lag

If your latency is high enough that you lot're starting to experience lag when playing games online , you can take a few steps to help reduce your latency and go along your game running smoothly.

Don't apply Wi-Fi if you can

Wireless connections, fifty-fifty fast ones, will add a bit more delay to your connection. Wi-Fi is convenient, but it adds an additional translation step between your gaming devices and your internet connection. Plus, you lot'll see a delay if there are more wireless devices connected to your router than information technology can handle at once.

To bypass this filibuster, connect your gaming device to your router using an Ethernet cable. Y'all won't come across the latencies associated with Wi-Fi or the dramatic speed fluctuations, making your connection that much more responsive.

If you must apply Wi-Fi, connect your wireless device to the v GHz band. It has a shorter range than a 2.4 GHz connection but is faster and less congested, resulting in reduced latency. Stay close to your Wi-Fi router, too—inside 50 feet or and so, depending on the router—and keep a clear line of sight to the router with as few obstructions as possible for a amend connexion.

With the Nintendo Switch, we recommend playing it docked and using a USB-based Ethernet adapter to connect information technology to your network. The Nintendo-approved Dual USB Playstand works with the Switch and Switch Calorie-free.

You tin use a similar adapter on a notebook or desktop that doesn't have an Ethernet port.

Power cycle network devices

Power cycling your router and modem can sometimes meliorate their performance. Since very small differences in latency can make a big bear on on the amount of lag you experience in a game, information technology'south worth restarting your equipment.

To power cycle, unplug your modem or wireless gateway, await thirty seconds, and plug it dorsum in. Do the same with a standalone router when your modem comes back online.

Update drivers and firmware

Hardware manufacturers release updates to improve device performance. Updates typically include security fixes, code optimizations, improved device compatibility, and increased stability. You lot should always proceed your firmware and drivers electric current to forbid issues that can slam the brakes on your internet connection. Be sure to do the following:

Update your computer'due south drivers and operating organization, particularly the graphics drivers
Update your console's operating system
Update the firmware for all controllers and peripherals
Update your router'southward firmware

Turn off unnecessary applications and devices

If your connection still struggles while playing games online, attempt to reduce the amount of traffic on your home network. Brand sure that someone isn't streaming 4K video in another room when yous're about to showtime a new match.

Yous tin too preclude other devices from bogging down the network by turning off smart devices and pausing software and OS updates while yous play—merely remember to reactivate everything when you lot're washed.

Use the closest server

Distance is i of the biggest factors in latency. Even if every device on your connection is running at top efficiency, information technology all the same takes time for a signal to travel to a remote location and back.

Games nigh always connect you to the nearest server, only if you lot're experiencing unexplained latency issues, double-bank check that you're not connecting to the European server when yous're playing in North America. You lot may demand to switch servers if the current 1 is experiencing issues.

Use port forwarding

Online gaming networks like Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network advise that gamers assign "static" IP addresses to their consoles and route incoming and outgoing traffic to those addresses. While routers typically assign dynamic addresses to your devices which change over time, a static address never changes.

When you assign a static IP address, yous can tell the router to forwards information to that address through specific ports. A port is merely a "dock" that handles a specific type of "ship" (information) arriving to and leaving from your router. Gaming networks typically send and receive internet data through specific ports.

To create a static IP address and open up ports to that address, you lot must make the changes in your router or wireless gateway. Port forwarding works with any device—not just gaming consoles.

Utilize Quality of Service (QoS) controls if bachelor

You may be able to allocate more bandwidth to your gaming devices past making a few adjustments in your router or wireless gateway. The router will consider this traffic as "critical" and will prioritize your gaming data over other applications, like Netflix and YouTube.

On some routers, yous tin only plant one specific bandwidth corporeality and list the devices that tin can use that bandwidth. In that location are no means to prioritize specific traffic, like gaming or streaming.

Avert peak hours

You may see a slowdown during peak hours when everyone in your dwelling house accesses the internet at the aforementioned time. Plus, a router is limited to how many wireless devices information technology tin can handle simultaneously before slowdowns occur. This heavy load is why we e'er advise using a router with 4 or more streams to better handle busy homes.

Tiptop hours are also associated with cable cyberspace, but it'south no longer the case now that providers like Spectrum and Xfinity use fiber as their network backbone. Rural areas that are still 100% cablevision may still feel top hour slowdowns, even so.

We advise that you play games afterward in the evening, or upgrade your router if it has less than four streams.

Check your connections

A bad Ethernet cable can lead to gaming lag woes, whether it's the cablevision connecting your router to your modem or cobweb ONT, or the 1 tethering your computer to the network. Also, check your modem's internet connection, as a loose cablevision will crusade lag-inducing instability.

Upgrade your internet

If you've tried all these steps and are still experiencing more lag than you tin can tolerate, you may need to upgrade to a better net connection.

Want to see what providers are bachelor in your area? Enter your zip code below.

Downloads can also strain your connection

Playing your games online will button the limits of your internet connection more than any other online activity, but it's not the only style that games can put a strain on your connection.

Many modernistic games accept upwards a lot of storage space on your computer or console . This means that downloading games from an online distributor like Steam or the Microsoft Store can take a long time. It can too eat through monthly data caps in no time flat.

Updates tin be data hogs also. For example, Bethesda'south Steel Reign update for Fallout 76 weighs a hefty fifteen.nine GB when downloaded from the Microsoft Store, and 7.1 GB when downloaded from Steam. ^eight Bethesda'south long-awaited Doom Eternal Update 6 patch adding ray tracing to the visuals is around 4 GB on Steam.

Latency should still be your number-1 priority in choosing an cyberspace plan for playing games online , but choosing a plan with unlimited data will save yous a lot of headaches. Fast download speeds too assistance out with those large new games. Later all, having extremely long download times on Day One isn't much fun.

Livestreaming

Your net needs become a fleck more than complicated if you stream your games on Twitch or YouTube. Streaming has all the normal requirements for a low-latency connection for playing games online, plus the additional upload speed y'all need to keep a steady bitrate on your livestream.

For more information on what to look for in an net connection for livestreaming, check out our guide to internet speed for live video game streaming. Nosotros also provide a guide on how to stream on Twitch that offers all the information you need.

Game streaming

Deject gaming services like Stadia and PlayStation Now store and run their games in a virtual machine you stream from their servers. Rather than download and run these games locally on your computer, console, or mobile device, you stream them from the cloud. This eliminates whatsoever hardware bottlenecks that could forestall a game from running at its highest quality on your device.

That said, you don't need a $4,000 desktop or the latest console to play these games. Instead, you but need a browser or an app, depending on the platform. For example, you can stream Stadia on a low-terminate Chromebook or a Chromecast—Google's servers exercise all the heavy rendering, not your devices.

The downside to game streaming is that games are rendered on the server and then streamed across the internet in Full HD or 4K resolutions. And because these experiences are interactive and not passive (like Netflix and Hulu), input latency can exist an issue.

To play these services without whatever major issues, you need a good internet connection to support game streaming. Here are the cyberspace speed requirements for the four major gaming streaming services:

Annotation that Microsoft suggests an upload speed of at least iv.5 Mbps for Xbox Remote Play. An upload speed of ix Mbps or more is ideal.^ix

What virtually Steam Remote Play?

Valve Software suggests speeds but in regards to Steam Remote Play Together. This service allows one Steam gamer to run a purchased multiplayer game locally on a PC then invite iv or more than Steam friends to play remotely. It's optimized to stream games to four other players at 1080p and 60 frames per second, so Valve suggests using a connection of 10–xxx Mbps at the least.

This speed proposition probably also applies to Remote Play Together+Anywhere, which even so streams the multiplayer game from a PC, just now the game owner is streaming remotely also. Meanwhile, Remote Play Anywhere streams to one customer merely, so the necessary net speeds shouldn't need to go across 10 Mbps.

Online games vs. playing games online

Nosotros spend a lot of fourth dimension discussing games you tin play online, which are games that target the unmarried-thespian feel first and include multiplayer components. Games that fall under the "play games online" umbrella would include Doom Eternal , Pokemon Sword and Shield , Destiny ii , and Halo Space . They tin can experience latency when played in co-op and multiplayer modes, especially when more than than a few players are moving on the screen.

Online games, however, can be highly susceptible to latency. These include The Elder Scrolls Online , Globe of Warcraft , and similar MMOs. The thespian count is typically high, which means both the server and the customer (your game) must keep track of every player. This can be a huge processing load even if yous have the all-time connection available. Your frame charge per unit may drop and your input may feel wearisome.

The bottom line: keep your latency low

If gaming online is your chief concern when choosing an internet plan, option the one that gives you the lowest latency, similar Verizon Fios. Merely keep in listen that other online activities like downloading games, livestreaming, or cloud gaming (not to mention things like watching video, working online, or doing schoolwork) have their own requirements that you should consider.

Sources

Nintendo Customer Back up, "Troubleshooting Tiresome Download and Upload Speeds," Accessed December 3, 2020.
Xbox Support, "Troubleshoot your network connection speed," Accessed December iv, 2020.
PlayStation Assistance & Support, "PS4 Error Code NP-37667-9," Accessed December 4, 2020.
PlayStation Help & Support, "PS4 Mistake Code NP-38497-1," Accessed Dec 4, 2020.
Federal Communications Commission, "2015 Broadband Progress Report," February 4, 2015. Accessed December 4, 2020.
Stadia Help, "Bandwidth, data usage, and stream quality," Accessed December 5, 2020.
Federal Communications Committee, "Seventh Measuring Broadband America Fixed Broadband Report: Appendix F-1," May xx, 2011, Accessed Dec 16, 2020.
Bethesda, " Fallout 76 Update Notes ," July 7, 2021. Accessed July xiii, 2021.
Microsoft, "Agreement Your Remote Play Setup Test Results," Accessed December 22, 2021.
Bungie, "Network Setup: Wifi vs. Wired Connections," Accessed December 22, 2021.

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Writer - Peter Christiansen

Peter Christiansen writes about satellite internet, rural connectivity, livestreaming, and parental controls for HighSpeedInternet.com. Peter holds a PhD in communication from the University of Utah and has been working in tech for over 15 years as a computer programmer, game developer, filmmaker, and writer. His writing has been praised past outlets like Wired, Digital Humanities Now, and the New Statesman.

Editor - Cara Haynes

Cara Haynes has been editing and writing in the digital space for seven years, and she's edited all things internet for HighSpeedInternet.com for five years. She graduated with a BA in English language and a modest in editing from Brigham Young Academy. When she's not editing, she makes tech accessible through her freelance writing for brands like Pluralsight. She believes no one should feel lost in internet land and that a skilful cyberspace connexion significantly extends your life span.

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