Check if your ping is good for gaming. Find out what your latency means for competitive FPS, battle royale, MMO, and casual games — and how to lower it.
Check in-game or run a ping test to a server near you
| Game type | Excellent | Good | Acceptable | Poor | Very poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competitive FPS (CS2, Valorant, Overwatch) | ≤20ms | ≤40ms | ≤60ms | ≤100ms | >100ms |
| Battle Royale (Apex, Warzone, Fortnite) | ≤30ms | ≤60ms | ≤80ms | ≤120ms | >120ms |
| MMO / RPG (WoW, FF XIV, ESO) | ≤50ms | ≤100ms | ≤150ms | ≤200ms | >200ms |
| Strategy / RTS / MOBA (StarCraft, LoL, Dota) | ≤50ms | ≤100ms | ≤150ms | ≤200ms | >200ms |
| Casual / Co-op / Story | ≤80ms | ≤150ms | ≤200ms | ≤300ms | >300ms |
Physical distance to server
The further you are from the game server, the higher your ping. Light travels through fibre at about 200,000 km/s — a server 5,000 km away adds at least 25ms one-way just from physics.
Wi-Fi interference
Wi-Fi adds variable latency (jitter) and packet loss. Thick walls, neighbouring networks, and microwaves all cause interference. A wired ethernet connection is always more stable than Wi-Fi for gaming.
Router and modem quality
Consumer-grade routers can introduce 5–20ms of processing delay. Older or budget routers are worse. A modern gaming router or quality mesh system can reduce this noticeably.
Network congestion
If other devices on your network are downloading, streaming 4K, or on video calls, your available bandwidth shrinks and your ping rises. This is called bufferbloat.
ISP routing and infrastructure
Your internet provider's infrastructure quality varies massively. Some ISPs route traffic inefficiently, adding 20–50ms of unnecessary latency. Switching ISP can sometimes halve your ping to certain servers.
Background apps
Software updates, cloud backups, and streaming apps running in the background consume bandwidth and can spike your ping mid-game. Close them before playing.
Switch to wired ethernet
A Cat-5e or Cat-6 cable eliminates Wi-Fi jitter entirely. This is the single biggest improvement most gamers can make. If running a cable is impractical, a Powerline adapter is a strong second option.
Connect to the closest server region
Most games let you choose your server region. Always pick the one geographically closest to you. In Europe, choosing EU West vs EU East can differ by 30–60ms.
Enable QoS on your router
Quality of Service (QoS) settings prioritise gaming traffic over background downloads and video calls. Most modern routers have this option in the admin panel — look for "gaming" or "priority" settings.
Close background applications
Pause any cloud backups, stop OS updates, and close streaming apps before gaming sessions. Windows Update is a common culprit for sudden lag spikes.
Upgrade your router
Routers over 3–4 years old may struggle with modern connection speeds and add processing latency. A modern router with low-latency firmware improves consistency.
Use a gaming VPN (selectively)
Gaming VPNs like ExitLag or WTFast can re-route your connection along more optimal paths. This helps when your ISP's routing is poor but adds overhead in other cases. Try the free trial before paying.
Contact your ISP
If you're getting consistently high ping despite a wired connection, the fault may lie with your ISP's infrastructure or modem config. Many ISPs will run a line test and can sometimes resolve routing issues.
Ping is the round-trip time (in milliseconds) it takes for a data packet to travel from your device to the game server and back. Lower is better. It is also called latency. Jitter is the variation in ping over time — a steady 50ms ping is better than one that spikes between 20ms and 120ms unpredictably.
Packet loss happens when data sent to the server never arrives (or vice versa). Even 1–2% packet loss causes rubber-banding, teleporting players, and failed actions. Ping tools only measure the packets that arrive — packet loss is a separate issue. If your ping looks fine but the game feels laggy, packet loss is likely the culprit.
Jitter is inconsistency in your ping. A connection with 40ms average ping that swings between 10ms and 90ms every second feels worse than a stable 50ms connection. Wi-Fi is the primary cause of jitter for gamers at home. Wired connections have far lower jitter.
Download/upload speed and ping are different things. You can have a 1Gbps fibre connection with 80ms ping and a 30Mbps ADSL connection with 20ms ping. Gaming uses very little bandwidth — typically 50–100 Kbps per session. What matters for gaming is latency (ping), not raw speed.
Ping is the round-trip time between your device and a server. This page helps classify a reading, but browser tests cannot represent every game server, route, or moment of network congestion.
How to interpret it
A low average with large spikes can feel worse than a slightly higher but stable reading. Look for jitter and packet loss when a game feels inconsistent.
Distance creates a lower bound for latency. Changing DNS may help name lookups, but it usually cannot make the physical route to a game server shorter.
Under 30ms is excellent for competitive gaming. Under 60ms is good for most games. Under 100ms is acceptable for casual and co-op games. Above 100ms becomes noticeably laggy in fast-paced titles, and above 150ms is poor for any online game. For competitive FPS like CS2 or Valorant, aim for sub-40ms.
Random ping spikes are almost always caused by background network activity (downloads, updates, streaming), Wi-Fi interference, or congestion on your home network. The first step is switching to wired ethernet. If spikes continue on ethernet, the issue may be with your ISP or router.
Sometimes, but rarely. A VPN routes your traffic through an extra server, which usually adds latency. However, if your ISP has poor routing to the game server, a gaming-specific VPN (ExitLag, WTFast, Mudfish) that uses optimised routing paths can reduce your ping to certain servers. It is a niche fix, not a general solution.
Yes — significantly. Every 1,000 km of physical distance adds roughly 5ms of latency (due to the speed of light through fibre). A UK player connecting to a US East Coast server should expect 80–120ms minimum. Always connect to the server region closest to your physical location.
The CS2 professional standard is under 20ms (LAN-level). Most high-ranked players play on sub-30ms connections. Under 40ms is comfortable for competitive play at any rank. Over 60ms will put you at a slight disadvantage in gunfights against lower-ping opponents.