A guide to broadband speeds for gaming

When it comes to online gaming, speed isn't just a luxury—it's practically a necessity. 

Whether you're in the heat of an intense battle, a sporting contest or exploring vast open worlds, your broadband connection plays a critical role in your gaming experience. 

But what speeds do you actually need for a seamless, lag-free gaming experience?

For the ultimate gaming experience, you’ll want a high-speed connection. Ideally, a download speed of at least 25 Mbps and an upload speed of 3 Mbps are recommended. 

These speeds are likely to ensure smooth gameplay, quick loading times, and stable multiplayer interactions. If you're competitive gaming or streaming your gameplay live, then even faster speeds—around 50-100 Mbps—are preferable. This is especially important when multiple devices are connected to the same network.

Exact requirements will depend on the particular game and platform involved, but for a casual gaming session, the minimum speed requirements are thankfully much lower. 

Most online games can run smoothly with a download speed of 3 Mbps and an upload speed of 1 Mbps. While this won’t give you the competitive edge, it’s usually sufficient for a casual gaming session, especially single player. 

However, you may expect higher latency which might lead to occasional lag. To sum things up, while the minimum speed may suffice for basic gameplay, you should definitely consider the higher speeds and lower latency that will enhance your online gaming experience. Investing in a reliable broadband connection will ensure that your skills, not your internet, determine the outcome of your game.

Data usage might not be a concern if using a home broadband connection, but if you ever need to use mobile data for your online gaming, you may be interested in how much data it is likely to use. 

Going straight to the hosts of one of the biggest gaming platforms Microsoft figures say that online gaming for an hour a day uses 3-12GB of data per month, while playing for several hours a day uses anywhere from 10-50GB per month. More specific usage amounts will depend on the exact amount of time and whether the picture quality is SD, HD or 4K.

It's also worth being careful that all of those game-based updates that download do so on Wi-Fi as much as possible, as they can often be several GBs per update.

Thankfully, we can say with confidence that our broadband speeds are more than equipped to deal with all your gaming needs. With average download speeds of around 150Mbps[1] and estimated maximum speeds of over 500Mbps, our reliable and superfast 5G connection can handle online gaming, and much more, within the same household.

So, if you need a consistent connection for an all-day gaming session while someone else is watching their new favourite TV series and another person is on a work videocall, then don’t worry. Three’s 5G broadband is equipped to deal with all that and still allow you to game without lag. If you want to find out more, take a look at Three’s 5G broadband options.

Also, to find out more about how 5G is impacting gaming, take a look at our recent piece on the 5G gaming revolution.