Recommended upload speed for gaming

The FCC was a source for some of the most comprehensive studies of internet latency. However, 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 still an emerging wireless technology —especially its gigabit millimeter-wave connections— it promises to have lower latency than any other wireless connection.

Wireless connections, even fast wireless connections, will add a bit more delay to your connection. Physically plugging into your router with an ethernet cable will bypass this delay, making your connection that much more responsive.

If you must use Wi-Fi, make sure that your computer or gaming device is as close to your Wi-Fi router as possible and that you have a clear line of sight with as few obstructions as possible. Also, be sure to connect your wireless device to the 5 GHz band.

Just keep close to the router, as the 5 GHz band has a shorter reach than the 2. With the Nintendo Switch, we recommend playing it docked and using a USB-based Ethernet adapter to connect it to your network. For an expanded explanation, we pit wired connections against wireless in our Ethernet vs. Wi-Fi comparison. Power cycling your router and modem can sometimes improve their performance. To power cycle, unplug your modem or wireless gateway, wait 30 seconds, and plug it back in.

Do the same with a standalone router when your modem comes back online. Hardware manufacturers are constantly trying to improve the performance of their products, so updating your devices regularly will guarantee the best performance possible.

Updates can also fix bugs and incompatibility issues that could be interrupting your connection. Be sure to do the following:. If your connection is still struggling while playing games online, try to reduce the amount of traffic on your home network. Distance is one of the biggest factors in latency. Even if every device on your connection is running at peak efficiency, it still takes time for a signal to travel to a remote location and back.

You may need to switch servers if the current one is experiencing issues. 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, you can tell the router to forward data to that address through specific ports. Gaming networks typically send and receive internet data through specific ports. To create a static IP address and open ports to that address, you must make the changes in your router or wireless gateway.

Port forwarding works with any device—not just gaming consoles. You can allocate more bandwidth to your gaming devices by making a few adjustments in your router or wireless gateway.

Cable internet connections can experience a slowdown based on the amount of traffic in your neighborhood. This means that download speeds can be significantly lower than normal during peak hours, which can also increase latency.

If you experience more lag while playing games right after work than you do late at night, local internet traffic might be to blame. Also, check your internet connection to the modem, as a loose cable will cause lag-inducing instability.

Many modern games take up 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 also eat through monthly data caps in no time flat.

Updates can be data hogs too. Latency should still be your number-one priority in choosing an internet plan for playing games online , but choosing a plan with unlimited data will save you a lot of headaches. Fast download speeds also help out with those big new games. Your internet needs become a bit more 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 you need to keep a steady bitrate on your livestream.

For more information on what to look for in an internet connection for livestreaming, check out our guide to internet speed for live video game streaming. We also provide a guide on how to stream on Twitch that offers all the information you need. Cloud 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 or console, you stream them from the cloud. This eliminates any hardware bottlenecks that could prevent a game from running at its highest quality on your device.

Instead, you just need a browser or an app, depending on the platform. 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 be an issue. To play these services without any major issues, you need a good internet connection to support game streaming.

Here are the internet speed requirements for the four major gaming streaming services:. Note that Microsoft suggests an upload speed of at least 4. If you have a highly utilized network, subscribing to a higher speed tier will decrease latency and give you an overall better gaming experience. But wait, want to go beyond the gaming console and start streaming the Street Fighter movie?

Xfinity customers can catch Street Fighter the movie and even more great films, TV series, and beyond on Peacock through an existing Xfinity subscription. Essentially, a good Internet speed for gaming comes down to what kind of gaming you're doing. If you're into competitive gaming i. That said, an Internet speed of above 20 Mbps is usually ideal for gaming , and especially multiplayer or "competitive" gaming.

Anything lower than 20 Mbps falls into the danger "lag zone", and there's nothing worse than lagging just when you were about to pull off a sick kill shot and you get PWNed, womp womp. Internet speed , latency, and ping rate can all affect your gaming performance and are essential when it comes to having the best internet for gaming.

Xfinity can help you find the ideal broadband Internet speed for gaming and reduce your latency to help take your gaming to the next level. Test your internet speed with the Xfinity Internet Speed Test today. Again, the distance to the server, the path your data gets sent through, and the type of internet connection you are using play a significant role. You can have a better experience with a 3MB line that travels through fiber than you can with the 10MB line that goes through copper. When talking about wireless internet, you could be referring to different setups.

So, you could be talking about someone gaming with a mobile connection, or you could be talking about someone who has fiber in their home but plays wirelessly from the router. Those factors are different from each other, and they are essential to remember. The best way to play online games is to have a wired connection to your PC or console.

If you are playing on wireless internet, your experience will be a lot less enjoyable even if you have a cable connected to your gaming device, but the router is an LTE or 5G router. You will experience packet loss and higher latency. The difference comes in with stability because wireless internet is much less stable than wired, so you might have random disconnects, which is terrible in games like Fifa and COD.

You would have seen this, especially if you play Battlefield 4 or Apex Legends. Some servers have a 30 Hz tick rate, while others have a 60hz to rate. Try not to confuse this with frames per second. If the server has a tick rate of 30hz, that means it refreshes 30 times every second.

A 60hz server will refresh 60 times every second. This means that on a 60hz server, the connection is a lot more stable and a lot more responsive. It all goes to a server that has a tick rate of 30Hz. There is a higher chance the server will not register your data in good time. The faster it refreshes, the better your experience will be. This is a question that can cause debates amongst even the best of friends.

Your router does matter for gaming in my experience, and it is not just about upload and download speeds, but that is relatively important, and that is what we will discuss first. However, a gaming router is vital for stability. If you have an old router that is a cheap brand, you might have a significantly less stable connection, and this can cause issues while gaming.

Also, suppose you do have a proper gaming router. In that case, you can prioritize your gaming sessions above any other connected devices in the house, which again makes a significant difference.

The internet is becoming more accessible every day. At the same time, those already connected are seeing the quality of their lines increase, while the cost is decreasing, which means they can get faster internet. We are also at the birth of an exciting service called Starlink, which should give people internet access worldwide at high speed.