Internet Speed for Apex Legends — The Ping Guide for Apex Predator
Apex Legends runs its own matchmaking infrastructure through Respawn, and unlike most competitive shooters, it deliberately runs at one of the lowest server tick rates in the genre. Respawn's own lead engineer has publicly confirmed the reasoning — with 60 players simulating a full world state every tick across huge maps, a higher tick rate would triple bandwidth costs for a gain the studio itself called barely noticeable. That tradeoff makes your actual connection quality matter more here than in most shooters. Test your baseline above, or run a full check at instantspeedtest.net.
Apex Legends Network Requirements — By Rank Tier
| Rank Tier | Usable Ping | Competitive Ping | Jitter Max | Packet Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rookie – Silver | Under 100ms | Under 70ms | Under 35ms | Under 2% |
| Gold – Platinum | Under 70ms | Under 45ms | Under 20ms | Under 1% |
| Diamond – Master | Under 45ms | Under 25ms | Under 10ms | Under 1% |
| Apex Predator | Under 30ms | Under 18ms | Under 5ms | 0% |
Why Apex's 20Hz Servers Make Your Ping Matter More
Apex Legends officially runs at 20Hz — noticeably lower than Fortnite's roughly 30Hz or Valorant's 128Hz — and Respawn has confirmed there's no plan to raise it, since the studio's own testing found that jumping to 60Hz would only shave off about two frames of accuracy while tripling server bandwidth costs. Respawn published the actual math behind this: at 50ms ping, a player experiences roughly 75ms of real delay once you factor in the full round trip plus processing, which works out to about a five-frame lag between your input and its effect on the game at 60 FPS. Because the tick rate itself is fixed and won't improve, ping is the one variable in this equation you can actually control — lower ping directly shrinks that delay window, while a higher tick rate never will. You can track your own ping and frame timing in-game via the Performance Metrics menu, which Respawn added specifically so players could see what they're experiencing in real numbers. See our full ping guide for how this compares across other titles.
Related Guides
- Gamer Hub — All Game Ping Tests
- Internet Speed for Fortnite
- Internet Speed for Valorant
- Internet Speed for CS2
- General Server Ping Test
- What Is a Good Ping for Gaming?
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Apex Legends feel laggier than other shooters at the same ping?
Apex's 20Hz tick rate means the server only updates the game state 20 times per second, versus 64-128 times in most competitive shooters — so even with identical ping, Apex has more inherent delay baked into how fast the server processes what's happening. This is why players sometimes describe getting shot behind cover or missing hits that felt clean — it's a real, documented tradeoff Respawn has acknowledged, not something ping alone can fully fix.
Will Respawn ever raise Apex's tick rate?
Based on Respawn's own public statements, it's unlikely in the near term. Their lead engineer has explained that raising the tick rate to 60Hz would triple bandwidth and server costs for what their internal testing showed was roughly a two-frame improvement in accuracy — not enough of a gain, in their view, to justify the cost at Apex's scale of 60-player lobbies running full world-state simulation every tick.