How to Lower Ping in Games: 9 Fixes

What makes up your ping

Ping is the time a small message takes to reach the game server and come back, in milliseconds (ms). It's made of a few parts, and knowing them tells you which fixes can work:

• Distance. Signals travel fast but not instantly. A server on another continent adds a lot of ping that no setting can remove.
• Your home network. Wi-Fi adds a few milliseconds and, worse, adds jitter — ping that jumps around.
• Queues under load. When someone else downloads or uploads, your game packets wait in line at the router. This is the cause of most sudden lag spikes.
• Your provider's route. The path from your provider to the game's data centre. You can't change it directly, but you can report it.

Plan speed isn't on the list. A 1 Gbps plan and a 100 Mbps plan to the same server usually have nearly the same ping. More in what is ping.

1. Measure first

Run the ping test for a baseline. It runs for 30 seconds and shows the median, the lowest and highest values, jitter and a live graph, so you can see spikes as well as the typical number. Then run the bufferbloat test to see how much ping rises when the connection is busy.

Compare the two. Low idle ping that jumps under load points to bufferbloat — fix 4 below. High ping even when idle and wired points to distance or your provider.

The fixes

1. Use Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi. A cable gives lower and, more importantly, steadier ping. If you can't run one, powerline or a mesh unit with an Ethernet port next to the console is the next best thing. See Wi-Fi vs Ethernet.
2. Pick nearby servers in the game's settings. Many games let you choose a region or show the ping to each one. Distance is the biggest part of ping you can control.
3. Stop background traffic: game updates, cloud backups, photo sync, and 4K streams on other devices. Schedule big downloads for overnight.
4. Enable SQM or adaptive QoS on the router. Smart queue management keeps queues short so game packets don't wait behind downloads. It's the single best fix for lag spikes when others use the connection. Look for "SQM", "Smart Queue", "adaptive QoS" or "gaming mode"; some routers need the line speed entered, and setting it a little below your real speed works best.
5. Close launchers and apps that download in the background on your PC or console — game stores, cloud drives, voice apps updating themselves.
6. Restart the router and update its firmware. Old firmware can have bugs that hurt latency.
7. On Wi-Fi, use 5 GHz or 6 GHz and sit closer to the router. The 2.4 GHz band is crowded and causes jitter. See Wi-Fi bands explained.
8. Turn off VPNs unless they route you closer to the game server. Most add distance and ping.
9. Ask your provider if ping is high even on a quiet, wired connection. Bring results from the ping test at different times of day.

What good looks like

Steadiness matters as much as the average. A steady 50 ms often feels better than an average 25 ms that spikes to 150. Check jitter with the jitter test, and read what is jitter if it's high.

Console and PC tips

• Consoles: turn off automatic downloads while playing, or set them to happen only in rest mode.
• PC: pause Windows Update and game store downloads during sessions, and check Task Manager for apps using the network.
• Both: use the console or PC's own network test to confirm it's connected over cable or 5 GHz, not 2.4 GHz.

What doesn't help much

Upgrading to a faster plan rarely changes ping — unless your current plan is so slow that it's constantly full. "Gaming" DNS servers don't change in-game ping either; they only affect how fast names are looked up when a connection starts. Paid "ping reducer" apps can't shorten the physical distance to the server, and only help in the rare case where your provider's route is unusually bad.

For a full guide to the speed gamers actually need, see internet speed for gaming.

Questions