Best VPNs to Reduce Ping in Gaming 2024
If you are a gamer, you are likely to value stable network connections and low ping. After all, the lower the ping, the lower the lag, which means smoother gameplay for you. But how does one achieve lower ping? Let’s take a look in detail.
TLDR: A high ping while playing games online is caused by poor internet connections, overloaded servers, and long distances between gaming servers, which puts you at a disadvantage. You can enjoy a smooth gaming experience through NordVPN, which lowers your ping.
What is ping in gaming?
First things first, what exactly is ping in gaming?
It is a software application that you can run from the command line. It shows you the round-trip time for messages sent from your computer to an IP address online. This time is measured in milliseconds and called ping time. It is basically the estimate of how much latency you’ll experience when gaming.
A high ping ruins your gameplay with frequent lags and negatively affects your ranking. You need fast upload and download speeds to avoid latency in games.
As a pro gamer, especially if you play online multiplayer matches and want to push your rank, you need to lower your ping.
As for what causes high ping times, a poor internet service provider (ISP) is a prominent reason. Additionally, if ISPs, workplaces, and schools throttle peer-to-peer internet traffic to combat file-sharing or stop people from playing games on their networks, it will also affect your ping times. Problems with the online game server due to higher than expected traffic may further jeopardize your ping time.
Geographic location also has a significant impact on ping time. For instance, connecting to a European server from the US may result in high ping.
Difference Between Lag, Latency, and Ping
The reaction speed of your internet connection is latency. It is a technical term for the delay between your action and your computer’s response. Low latency means you get fast responses, while high latency means you have to wait long for your response. It is worth noting that latency is dependent on the quality of your internet connection rather than the speed.
Lag refers to the delay in the arrival of a response/packet from the source to the destination. In a game, this means a delay between sending a command and receiving a response. If you have high latency, then you will experience lag. A laggy game is extremely hard and frustrating to play as you are constantly waiting for a response to your commands.
Besides high latency, lag is also caused by the issues related to the computer running the game, such as insufficient power in the central processing unit (CPU) or lower system (RAM), graphics card (GPU), or video (VRAM) memory.
Ping, meanwhile, is a tool to measure latency. It sends a network packet called an ICMP packet to a destination and back again. If it takes a long time, then latency is high, which means either the network is slow or the destination is a long way off. Factors affecting your ping include internet service provider quality, internet connection speed, inadequate bandwidth, faulty Wi-Fi, firewall configuration, and geographical location.
What is a good ping for gaming?
Any ping over 60 ms is considered to be a high ping. High ping puts you at risk of latency, lag, and delays. This will be the case if you are not really placed near a server that’s close to your geographical location, as that would mean the data travels a long distance to answer your requests.
Everything below 50 is typically considered a good ping and speedy for gaming. So, how do you lower your ping? There are different ways to do so, and using a VPN is the most convenient.
Do VPNs help with ping?
VPNs or virtual private networks are becoming increasingly popular as privacy, and personal data issues become a big concern.
Using a VPN also helps you increase your ping time as you get to choose among tons of available geographical location options. By connecting to a server in the same territory as you, there will be a significant decrease in the ping time, making your game run smoother. You can also change the location of your VPN server if many people are using the same server as you.
Moreover, a VPN improves your network connection speed and bypasses ISP throttling to lower the ping time for longer gaming sessions by masking your IP and spoofing your geo-location. As such, VPN allows you to enjoy interruption-free gameplay with one click.
The way a VPN manages to do this is by routing traffic through a safe tunnel allowing you to bypass any network congestion, node failure, and void region. Popular VPN providers usually offer multiple servers in different locations worldwide. While VPNs tend to slow down the connection, many popular ones are known for their fantastic speed while safeguarding you online.
Most VPNs do not log your browsing activity or store the browsing history either. They use military-grade encryption to ensure no one knows what you’re doing online.
Best VPNs to reduce ping for gaming
Now you know that a VPN is the best solution for you if you want to experience low ping time and smooth gameplay while keeping your personal details safe, but which VPN should you use. Here are our top picks!
1. NordVPN
This privacy-conscious VPN provides over 5,400 servers in 59 countries. Its NordLynx protocol supports faster and more secure network connections with minimal lag and ping. NordVPN’s key features include a no-log policy, DDoS protection, split tunneling, a kill switch, double VPN servers, CyberSec malware, ad-blocking protection, Netflix unblocking, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Read our full NordVPN review.
2. ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN comes with over 3,000 servers in 160 locations across 94 countries and is perfect for reducing latency thanks to its fast speeds and reliable connections. Its key features include a strict no-log policy, unlimited streaming for Netflix, Hulu, BBC, and iPlayer, strong military-grade AES 256-bit key encryption, kill Switch, split tunneling and 30-day money-back guarantee.
Read our full ExpressVPN review.
3. Surfshark
Another prime choice for lowering in-game ping and lag provides over 3,200 servers in 60+ countries.
Its key features include:
- No-logs policy
- Private DNS
- Whitelister
- Multi-hop VPN
- Advanced kill switch
- Netflix unblocking
- Split tunneling
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- The ability to connect an unlimited number of devices simultaneously
If you need a VPN for a short while when traveling for example, you can get our top ranked VPN free of charge. NordVPN includes a 30-day money-back guarantee. You will need to pay for the subscription, that’s a fact, but it allows full access for 30 days and then you cancel for a full refund. Their no-questions-asked cancellation policy lives up to its name.
