How Much Bandwidth Does Gaming Use

Online gaming can take many forms, for example, we do have Local LAN gaming, internet gaming, online gambling, mobile gaming, and web gaming all of which require bandwidth for a responsive engagement. The distinguishing factor between the above online games is that some have earnings or winnings in, others you lose money, while others are purely for entertainment.  

Some people have also gone to the extent of making a career out of gaming, and while it can potentially turn into a professional career; gaming does not have any long-term prospects but has the capacity to provide the various pro gamers with wins from time to time. Online gaming is highly dependent on data and high-speed data for that matter if a gamer is to have any winning chances.

What’s more is that online gaming does not consume too much broadband data, and that is why you will find that some of the modern titles use between 40Mb and 300megabytes per hour.

How much bandwidth does gaming use has two answers, one that will respond to real-time gaming and the other one that will cover downloads.  Real-time gaming utilizes some considerable amounts of data, but cannot be compared to the amount of data that you will use when downloading games. Downloading a single game on the internet can consume up to 60GB, running updates on your online games will also consume a huge amount of your data allowance.

Online Games and Data consumption

Different online games, consume data differently and that is why it is kind of hard to generalize the amount of bandwidth that games use. We will, therefore, look at 5 popular games and the amount of data needed to run the games in a short time of one hour. First on our list is Dota 2, which needs up to 120Mb allocation per hour, if you, therefore, scout most of the online forums you will discover that many gamers, use between 50 and 100Mb of data in a 30 to 40-minute Dota 2 game.

So using the above statistics how many games can one play with 1 GB of mobile data; well, about 10 games on the minimum and 20 games on the max. The second online game is Fortnite which requires about 100Mb, most gamers have however reiterated that they used at least 45Mb and 100Mb every hour to play Fortnite.

Assuming that you will be using mobile data, a 15minute game will, therefore, consume 12 or 24Mb, and given that there are up to 1000Mb per GB, a gamer will have to play between 40 and 85 games to completely use the 1GB. Moving over to PUBG, a player will need up to 40Mb of data per hour, which is quite reasonable and gives gamers a chance to play as many games as they wish. Fall guys will need about 70Mb, while Microsoft Flight simulator 2020 will require about 700Mb, of the five games, the latter consumes the most data but can still afford players a couple of games per GB.

Best Bandwidth Providers for Gaming

Now that you have a rough idea of the amount of bandwidth that the various games require, it is time to look at the best internet providers for gaming. The idea here, is to settle with an ISP that offers the fastest upload and download speeds, coupled with low latency, and have good command in the various parts of the US.

First on the list is Xfinity, given its wide coverage and its ability to offer faster internet speeds with low latency. Xfinity should be every gamer’s choice, as it does run a breadth of choices as regards the download speeds, with the best prices for example gamers can get the Xfinity Internet-West that offers between 15-1000mbps for the download speeds and between 2-35upload speeds and a data cap of 1-1.2 TB. The above package is available starting from $19.99 a month.

Second is the famous Verizon Fios Home Internet, known to offer faster fiber speeds, the $39.99 per month package, offers download speeds of between 200-940mbps, and upload speeds of about 200-880mbps with no data cap. Other ISPs that you might want to look at, are such as AT and T fiber, Spectrum, and Mediacom.

Conclusion

Different types of games require specific bandwidths to run with minimal lag, overall, however, is that most of the titles use between 40Mb to 300Mb per hour. And for the above speeds to be at their best, gamers must ensure to optimize their equipment, thus they should ensure that they connect to an Ethernet cable, and use a router that has updated its firmware.

FAQ’s

1. If 50GB of data enough for gaming?

Yes 50GB is enough and will afford you about 12 hours a day; gamers can even add 2 friends to their network.

2. Will online gaming use a lot of my broadband data?

Depending on the hours that you plan on playing and the type of gaming, there will be some impact on your data.