What Is A Good Internet Speed For Gaming?

What is a good internet speed for gaming? Gamers don’t ask this question often since they prefer to try it rather than testing the Internet speed. But Internet speed is the only major aspect that highly affects gaming performance.

Although there isn’t a set data speed that game creators must adhere to, it does depend on the game, console specifications, and the resources it employs. Nowadays, the majority of games are multiplayer online games, which require strong Internet access to stream seamlessly.

Why does Internet speed matter in gaming?

Before we jump over what is a good Internet speed for gaming, let’s understand why we need the Internet at all. Internet speed is not a thing for all types of gaming but for online competitive gaming.

Suppose, you are playing Fortnite on your PS4 but you aren’t able to move at the right time and got killed despite full armored. Why does that happen? This happens due to severe lagging of the game which results in poor internet speed.

It’s possible that when your computer eventually starts and you log in, the game has already progressed without you. Also, you might already be damaged whereas others are engrossed in a hectic battle.

This is why you need a good Internet speed for online gaming. In PS4, you at least require an Internet speed of 3 Mbps and 2Mbps download and upload speed, respectively.

So, What is a good Internet speed for gaming?

Good Internet speed depends on the type of gaming and console itself but a good internet speed could be 20 Mbps for download and 3 Mbps for upload. However, speed up to 5 Mbps is okay for most games especially small games that won’t need many resources.

Also, it doesn’t need much bandwidth to play multiplayer games like Halo Infinite and Fortnite. For this situation, a download speed of up to 5 Mbps is acceptable. However, a good Internet speed for PC gaming, as low as 3 Mbps and up to 2 Mbps for download and upload, is sufficient.

Also, read – What Is Gigabit Internet? Speed, Uses, Pros, Cons Of Gigabit Internet

On the other hand, first-person shooter (FPS) games require much more speed than average internet speed. FPS games require fast Internet speeds to take fast actions to compete with real-time players.

Real-time games like PVP (players vs player) and PVE (players vs environment) also require decent speed. A little lag can measurably break your rankings. So, internet speed in these situations must be up to 30 Mbps for download and 5 Mbps for upload with a ping rate of 16 ms.

What is a good download and upload speed?

Typically, if I ask What is a good Internet speed for gaming? The answer will be 20 Mbps and 3 Mbps for download and upload respectively. But what does it mean? What are download and upload speeds in gaming?

No, it is not like downloading or uploading a video on the Internet. Both upload and download speeds refer to how quickly data is sent to and received from a server.

Since most of something you do online involve downloading, download speed is often substantially higher. In terms of megabits per second, upload speed is the amount of time it requires for data to travel from your computer or a mobile device to the Internet server.

Keyboard input, mouse input, controller input, player location, etc. are the critical data that are continuously exchanged between the server and computer. These all are uploading data and regularly collected to make your presence online.

Your upload speed does not have to be exceptionally fast, despite the fact that it is more crucial for gamers than for other users. For the majority of online games, until you start playing aggressively, a 1Mbps upload connection will be adequate.

Minimum internet speed requirements for different consoles

While you already know what is a good Internet speed for gaming online, you must know the minimum speed. For certain prominent consoles, the required minimum download speed is shown below in Mbps.

These minimum requisite speeds are taken from the HighSpeedInternet website. You can play games online if your Internet connection satisfies these criteria.

It takes a higher upload speed to Livestream your own content on services like Twitch than it does to play a typical online video game. For 1080p broadcasting, Twitch instructs a minimum upload speed of 5Mbps.

Is 500 Mbps good for gaming?

Yes, 500 Mbps is good Internet speed for high-intense gaming, however, it depends on the number of users connected. But if you are hardcore online gamers, the lesser the household/users is better for gaming.

This could be insane to have 500 Mbps speed for gaming while we are talking about just 20 Mbps as a good Internet speed. But it all depends on the number of users if a large number of gamers is connected then you might require 1 Gbps or higher Internet speed.

Remember that the ideal Internet for gaming will have far higher speeds than the minimal and extremely low latency than the highest.

Final Thoughts

It is all about what is a good Internet speed for gaming online. For online multiplayer games, if you have an Internet speed of 20Mbps or higher, it considers a good Internet speed for smooth gaming.

However, the scenario is different for downloading or uploading the speed of games. For different devices or consoles, the downloading speed of up to 5Mbps and uploading speed of 2Mbps is sufficient. Keep in mind, that Internet speed for gaming also depends on ping rate and latency.