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Best broadband for gaming UK 2023 - Uswitch

What's the best broadband for gaming? Unlimited broadband? Fibre broadband? The broadband with the fastest download speed? We take you through what to look for to get the best broadband for gaming.
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The type of broadband you have at home should reflect what you plan to use it for, and online gaming is one of the most bandwidth-hungry activities you could do. The best broadband for gaming is going to be significantly different from the best broadband for simple social media browsing or Netflix streaming.

Many of the major broadband providers know that gamers are in a class of their own and will place high demands on their broadband connections. There is a range of fast broadband packages on the market that are ideal for gamers, so there are a few things to think about first when you compare broadband deals.

Full fibre broadband deals for gaming

If you can get an ultrafast full fibre deal, your gaming will be much faster and smoother than ever before.

While slower part-fibre speeds can still handle multiplayer lobbies just fine, full fibre speeds are best if you're a competitive gamer, or if you like to stream your gameplay on Twitch.

What broadband speed do I need for gaming?

gaming online controller

The good news is you can technically game online with almost any broadband speed. The bad news is, if your broadband speed is slow, it will likely be a terrible gaming experience and you’ll probably get taken out pretty quickly.

As a minimum for basic games, you should have at least 3Mbps of broadband speed, but you should bear in mind others in your home that might be using the internet too. If family members or housemates are also online, your bandwidth will be even more limited. So a broadband speed that accounts for everyone's usage would let you have a better gaming experience online.

Plus, when you're competing against others, faster can often mean better. Not only will downloads be faster, but your 'ping rate' will be much faster (more on that later) — which can significantly improve your performance one-versus-one.

What should I consider when looking at broadband for gaming?

Another important factor in having the best broadband for gaming is having a reliable connection. A consistent connection that won’t drop out is even more important than broadband speed when gaming.

Certain types of broadband are better at this than others — fibre broadband, for example, is a lot more reliable than ADSL, due to its more modern infrastructure.

So as a general rule, if you’re interested in online gaming, you’ll need some kind of fibre broadband connection. Gaming with a cheap ADSL connection will lead to excruciatingly slow load times, terrible lag and latency that will make gameplay less than optimal. (More on those later).

Ernest Dokuquotation mark

Having a decent internet connection is essential for the ideal online gaming setup - checking your download (and upload) speed - as well as ensuring low latency (measured in 'ping' where lower is better) - is key.”

Ernest Doku, Broadband and mobiles expert

How to get the best gaming internet

In order to get the best gaming internet, you’ll need to make sure that you have the right broadband connection and that you’re making the best use of it.

1. Choose a fibre broadband package

A superfast fibre broadband deal should be plenty for steady online gaming, just be sure to check the average upload speed is at least 9Mbps.

2. Try a wired connection

Finally, you could switch to a wired Ethernet connection, which is a lot more reliable than connecting wirelessly via Wi-Fi and is the only way to achieve the fastest broadband speeds currently available in the UK.

Even wireless internet means few cables and more flexibility where you can play, if you are able to connect via Ethernet cable you could dramatically improve your gaming experience.

For one thing, the direct connection can help to lower your ping rate, and as Wi-Fi signals can be affected by interference, they can increase your latency, packet loss and jitter. Interference can come from any number of household devices, so using a wired connection will make gameplay faster and smoother.

Ready to make a decision on the right broadband for your gaming needs? Compare broadband deals with Uswitch to find the right package for you.

3. Make sure you have a good ping for gaming

One of the biggest factors to impact your gaming experience is lag and latency which are caused by having a slow ping rate.

Your ping rate is the reaction time of your internet connection and the speed at which you get a response after you’ve sent out a request. This is usually measured in milliseconds (ms). For example, if you have a ping rate of 100ms, your device takes 100ms to respond to a request by another device.

Lag will often make it seem like your online opponent is standing still, while in fact, they’re moving in to attack you. Latency is the time it takes for the input from your controls to register in the game. The longer the time between pressing punch/jump/fire and that moving taking place on the screen, the lower your sensitivity and the worse your gaming experience will be.

Best ping for gaming

For gaming, you’ll need a ping rate of at least 150ms or less. The lower the ping rate the better, and the lowest ping rate available is about 2ms, which will make your gaming feel incredibly smooth.

How do I lower my ping?

In addition to upgrading to a faster, more reliable broadband connection, you can reduce your ping rate by reducing the number of devices connected to your home network. If you’ve got laptops, tablets, phones, smart watches, smart fridges, and a hundred more devices all feeding off the same broadband connection, your console’s reaction time will ultimately be slower.

If you’re gaming on a PC or Mac, a quick fix is to close as many tabs and programs as possible, since there will be fewer requests for data coming from apps and programs running in the background.

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What broadband speed do I need for downloading games?

person wearing headphones gaming online at night

Video game files are enormous, and will continue to get larger as graphics and features get more and more complex. Video games with high-res graphics or those that play in 4K will place the biggest demands on your home broadband, and an ADSL connection with 3Mbps will not be able to cope.

To put things in perspective, Final Fantasy XV is roughly 100 GB and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare is almost 175 GB. This means Call of Duty: Modern Warfare would take about 132.7 hours to download on a 3Mbps connection. That’s five and a half days waiting for the game you purchased to download before you can start playing, and that’s if there are no interruptions and you don’t use your broadband for anything else that week.

Did you know downloading times differ wildly from country to country? Check out our video game download times guide to see how the UK compares to its neighbours.

Broadband deals for better gaming

Don’t let unreliable broadband ruin your next gaming session.

What does Mbps mean?

Mbps stands for ‘Megabits per second’ and is a simple way to compare average broadband speeds from different providers and different broadband packages. For example, a standard ADSL connection typically has average speeds of around 10Mbps.

It’s a basic measurement of how much information you can access via your broadband connection, the higher the number, the more megabits of data you can download in a second.

Take a look at our download speed calculator to see how long it takes for different internet speeds to save different file sizes.

What's the minimum broadband speed for gaming?

So, technically, for online games, you’ll need a broadband connection with a minimum of 3Mbps.

This will be just about enough but with little bandwidth to spare, especially if you live with other people. Online gaming will chew up most of your bandwidth, making streaming or video calls pretty much impossible for anyone else in your home.

The slowest broadband package you could get away with for online gaming supply is around 10Mbps, but you could get six or seven times that speed for about the same price nowadays.

The slowest broadband package you could get away with for online gaming supply is around 10Mbps, but you could get six or seven times that speed for about the same price nowadays.

Download speed isn’t the only factor that affects your online gaming experience, as you’ll need a decent upload speed too. Typically, upload speeds are significantly slower than download speeds on all but full fibre connections, but most internet tasks require less to work.

The latest broadband statistics show that Virgin is the best internet service provider when it comes to both download and upload speeds, with speeds of 97.6% and 98.8%, respectively. Regionally, London is the best with an average download speed of 93.6%, and an average upload speed of 101.6%.

How much data does online gaming use?

While online gaming does, of course, use up data, normal gameplay takes up a surprisingly small amount. Most video game titles use somewhere between 40MB to 300MB per hour which, even at its most extreme, is still less than a third of standard definition Netflix streaming.

Game streaming services

If you’re using game streaming services like Microsoft xCloud which doesn't rely on a console or computer to run games, or you're looking to live stream your gaming on platforms like YouTube or Twitch, you’re going to need a little more bandwidth.

Since all the processing happens on remote servers and is then streamed back to your TV or computer, cloud gaming places higher demands on your broadband and needs significantly faster upload and download speeds to function smoothly.

What speed do I need for a game streaming service?

Xbox Cloud Gaming – formerly known as xCloud – has a minimum download speed of 10Mbps or 20Mbps for iPad users. Services like GeForce Now suggested a minimum of 25Mbps for HD/1080p gameplay.

A minimum upload speed of 5Mbps is also the standard, but we'd say you'd need about 10Mbps to be safe.

Not sure what your current broadband speed is? Try our broadband speed test to see what you’re currently getting and if you’re able to get better.

The best broadband for the PlayStation 5

person gaming on a playstation 5

The arrival of the Sony PlayStation 5 means that gamers have been exploring new online worlds, delighting in incredible graphics and fantastic action on their new PS5 consoles. This also means that the demand on broadband in your household have likely jumped up.

Curious about the real-term cost today of the original PlayStation compared to the new PS5? Check out our legacy consoles vs modern gaming guide to find out which is better value.

How much broadband speed do you need for the PS5?

According to Sony's official stats, you technically need a download speed of 3Mbps for the PS5. This means that almost all broadband deals, including standard ADSL connections, will be enough to accommodate the new PS5.

However, this 3Mbps of broadband speed will need to be shared between all your other Wi-Fi-connected devices, including smartphones, streaming sticks, TVs, and smart hubs. In this case, 3Mbps will not be enough to enjoy your shiny new PS5.

Therefore, for the best gaming experience, you’ll need at least 50-100Mbps to properly use the PS5.

Broadband deals for better gaming

Don’t let unreliable broadband ruin your next gaming session.

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