What Are Good Upload & Download Speeds For Gaming? | WTFast
One of the main things that people discuss with their ISPs while getting a new internet connection is the download and upload speed that they will be getting. Here is our version of a detailed look at what they both are and what are the recommended download and upload speeds for gaming.
What Is Download Speed?
As you play online video games, your computer is actually receiving tons of data about the game every second. Also, when you download a new game, what you are actually doing is retrieving the files for that game from the internet.
The download speed is basically the rate at which your internet connection provides data to your computer from the internet. In other words, the download speed of your internet connection determines how fast you can acquire data from the internet.
What Is Upload Speed?
As you play online video games, you also transmit or send data to the game server over the internet. For example, if you are playing Apex Legends and you shoot an enemy, the data that contains the information about you clicking on your mouse to fire your weapon will be sent to the game server.
The upload speed of your internet connection is the rate at which your internet connection is able to send data to the internet. In other words, it determines how fast can you send data to the internet.
Download & Upload Speeds VS Bandwidth
MBps and KBps are short for megabytes or kilobytes per second with a capital "B" for bytes. Download and upload speed is measured in MBps and KBps. On the other hand, Mbps and Kbps are short for megabytes or kilobytes per second with a small "b" for bytes. Bandwidth is measured in Mbps and Kbps.
This is an important distinction to be made as 10 Mbps bandwidth is equal to 1280 KBps download or upload speed. Most ISPs advertise bandwidths in Mbps and users get confused about why they are getting speeds of only a few KBps while downloading a file.
How Download And Upload Speeds Affect Gaming
You will mostly see the effects of the download speed of your internet connection when you either have to download a new game or download a new update for the game.
When it comes to the upload speed of your internet connection, you will mostly see its effects as you try to live-stream your gameplay.
Other than these two instances, you will rarely see your download or upload speeds affecting your gameplay experience. However, if you have really low download or upload speeds, you will experience issues like lag, jittery gameplay, or even rubberbanding.
What Download Speeds Are Recommended For Gaming?
The download and upload speeds that you should aim for while getting an internet connection greatly depend on your use case. For some gamers, a low download and upload speed would be sufficient. For other types of gamers, they might need high speeds.
Single User vs Multiple User
If only you use the internet connection, you can get away with low download and upload speeds. A bandwidth of 2 Mbps or, in some cases, even 1 Mbps would be sufficient for you. It is because most online video games do not require a lot of data to be sent or received.
When you have other people using the same internet connection as you, you might need to get a high bandwidth of up to 10 Mbps for faster download and upload speeds. It is because there will be tons of congestion on the network connection, which may cause packet loss or even lag.
Playing Only One Game vs Playing Multiple Games
If you are a competitive gamer, you probably stick to one game for a long time. Also, you probably prefer games like CSGO or Dota 2. If that's the case, you can again get away with a bandwidth of 2 Mbps or even 1 Mbps because most online games do not require more than that.
However, if you play multiple games and play a new game almost every other week, you will have to download a lot more files. For this reason, gamers that play multiple games must get download speeds of at least 2.56 MBps, which is a bandwidth of 20 Mbps.
Playing One Game With Large Updates
Online games usually get updates every month or every other month. For most games, these updates are the size of just a few Megabytes or MBs. However, some games can get updates of up to a hundred Gigabytes or GBs. A popular example of this is Call of Duty Warzone.
So if you play games like Call of Duty Warzone, where you may get large updates, you will require download speeds of around 1.28 MBps or 2.56 MBps. However, these kinds of updates don't come that often. So, you can make do with a bandwidth of just 5 Mbps, which results in a download speed of 640 KBps.
Gaming Plus Live Streaming
If you are a gamer who likes to live-stream while gaming, you should think about getting upload speeds of at least 1280 KBps. It is even more important to get higher upload speeds if you are thinking about making a living through live-streaming video games.
When you live-stream, you send large amounts of video data to the internet. If you want to be able to live-stream your gameplay in high definition, high upload speeds are a must, or else you may get choppy or laggy live streams.
The Bottom Line
For the most part, nearly all gamers are going to be ok with a download and upload speed of 768 KBps (Megabytes per second), which is 6 Mbps (Megabits per second) in terms of the bandwidth. It covers almost all kinds of gamers and almost all kinds of use cases.
However, you can add or subtract around 4 or 5 Mbps of bandwidth from this number depending on your specific use case. Take a look at our use case examples above and add additional bandwidth with every use case that you add to your bucket.
Download & Upload Speeds Vs Latency
The internet connection that most people use already has enough download and upload speeds that meet the standards for gaming. The one feature of your network connection that you should care the most about is latency.
Latency is the measure of the time it takes data to travel from your computer to the game server you are connected to and then back to your computer from the game server. It is measured in milliseconds or ms for short.
Latency is more important than your download or upload speeds because it directly relates to the lag that you will experience in-game. The higher the latency, the more lag you will experience while playing online games.
Do Download & Upload Speeds Affect Latency?
Since download and upload speeds are measured in Megabytes per second, going from 10 MBps to 20 MBps would mean that latency has to go down. Just as a car would reach its destination quicker if it starts traveling faster.
In other words, it will take less time for data to go from your computer to the game server and then back if you increase the download and upload speed because the distance from your computer to the game server will remain the same.
However, increasing your download and upload speed or bandwidth does not work like this. Think of increasing your bandwidth as adding more lanes on the road. In this way, it takes the same time for more cars can go from A to B.
Increasing bandwidth won't change latency as it will take the same time for one packet of data to reach the game server and then back to your computer. The only thing that will change is the number of packets that your internet connection can carry at a time.
Do Download & Upload Speeds Affect Lag?
Unless you have any kind of network congestion issue, increasing your download and upload speeds won't affect the lag you are facing while playing online games. Network congestion issues include multiple users being connected to the same internet connection or high load during peak hours.
WTFast
High latency and lag are often the results of bad routing. If you have bad routing for the game server that you are playing a particular video game on, there is not much you can do besides getting an ISP with good routing. Increasing the download and upload speed won't do much good.
If you are dealing with bad routing, lag, or any other kind of network-related issue, WTFast is the best solution for all of them. WTFast is a gamers' private network that fixes all kinds of network-related issues like ping spikes, lag, rubberbanding, and jittery gameplay with the press of a button. For an unmatched gaming experience, get WTFast today.
