What Is a Good Ping for Gaming? Every Game Explained
Ping is the single most important internet metric for online gaming — far more important than download speed. Under 20ms is excellent; under 40ms is good; above 80ms causes noticeable problems in competitive games. But the exact threshold varies significantly by game type. Test your current ping with our free internet speed test.
Ping Thresholds by Game Type
| Game Type | Examples | Ideal Ping | Max Acceptable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitive FPS | CS2, Valorant, Apex Legends | Under 20ms | 40ms |
| Battle Royale | Fortnite, Warzone, PUBG | Under 30ms | 60ms |
| MOBA | LoL, Dota 2, SMITE | Under 50ms | 80ms |
| Sports/Racing | FIFA, Rocket League, F1 | Under 40ms | 70ms |
| MMO/RPG | WoW, FFXIV, GW2 | Under 80ms | 150ms |
| Casual/Turn-based | Chess, card games | Under 200ms | 500ms |
Why Ping Matters More Than Download Speed
During online gameplay, your device constantly sends your actions (movement, shots, interactions) to the game server and receives the world state back. With 10ms ping, your actions register in 10ms — imperceptible. At 80ms ping, there’s an 80ms gap between your action and its effect — you feel this as input lag. At 150ms, enemies appear to teleport, bullets don’t register, and you consistently lose fights you should win. A 10 Mbps connection with 15ms ping plays better than a 1 Gbps connection with 80ms ping. See our guide on what ping is for the full technical explanation.
How to Lower Your Gaming Ping
The most impactful steps: (1) Switch from WiFi to Ethernet — this alone reduces ping 5–20ms and eliminates jitter that causes worse problems than high average ping. (2) Select game servers closest to your geographic location — each 1,000 km of distance adds ~5ms minimum. (3) Close bandwidth-consuming background apps during gaming. (4) Enable QoS on your router to prioritize gaming traffic. (5) Switch to fiber internet for structurally lower latency. See our complete guide to reducing ping.
Related Guides
- What Is Ping?
- How to Reduce Ping in Gaming
- High Ping on Wired Connection
- Fix Gaming Lag Without a VPN
- Internet Speed for PS5 and Xbox
- Jitter vs Ping for Gaming
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 60ms ping bad for gaming?
For casual gaming — no, 60ms is acceptable. For competitive games like CS2 or Valorant — yes, 60ms puts you at a significant disadvantage versus opponents with 10–20ms. Ranked players at high skill levels where 20–40ms is the norm will consistently outreact you at 60ms. For casual or PvE gameplay, 60ms is barely noticeable.
Why is my in-game ping higher than my speed test ping?
Speed tests measure latency to a nearby test server — often the closest server available. Game servers are typically in specific data center locations (often US East/West, EU West, etc.) that may be geographically distant from you. A 15ms speed test ping reflects local server distance; your game ping to a server 3,000 km away will naturally be higher — this is normal and expected.
Does fiber internet make gaming better?
Yes — fiber’s dedicated infrastructure provides consistently lower latency (5–15ms) versus cable (15–35ms) and eliminates peak-hour congestion-induced ping spikes. The latency improvement is real and noticeable for competitive gaming. For a full comparison, see our cable vs fiber for gaming guide.