Is 100 GB enough for gaming?

The gaming industry is quickly becoming intensive and shifting to a multiplayer experience in online spaces. Therefore, it always helps to have enough bandwidth to use during these sessions.

Playing an online game will consume some data, though it will not make significant dents in your broadband allowance – especially if you are working with a seemingly limitless amount of 100 GB. Most modern games use an hourly limit between 40 MB to 300 MB. Even though this will add up eventually, it will hardly limit what you can do, but it always helps to know the data amounts that different games require.

100 GB data caps should be enough for most extended gaming sessions, as you will likely not use more than 10 GB in playing them, and it should last for several weeks when doing so. Each game will have differing bandwidth demands though, so it is important to keep this in mind if you are working within data limits.

What should you look at when looking at bandwidth use for gaming?

When looking at the use of your bandwidth limits or choosing a data plan for gaming, two key factors to look at are speed and performance.

The performance is the most essential, even though it is largely out of your control because it determines the lags between the game server and your device. It should not matter as much though if you are a casual gamer or only play games on Android or iOS.

The other factor to keep in mind is the speed of the network – even if a faster plan does not have a great impact on the gameplay, it will allow you to download your games faster and use less bandwidth overall.

Approximate bandwidth requirements for the most popular games

Do downloading games affect data usage significantly?

Even though playing games does not make much of a dent in your 100 GB data, downloading games is among the most intensive activities you can do online. Numerous ‘blockbuster’ games today exceed 50 GB, especially if you are doing so on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

An instance would be Call of Duty: Warzone, which clocks in at 101 MB (if you do not own Modern Warfare), while the new edition of the Microsoft Flight Simulator goes up to 150 GB in its download files. If you have a quota of 100 GB, this limits your budget, and this makes downloading over a Wi-Fi network to be a more efficient option. Additionally, you will need to factor in updates in your bandwidth demands, which can make it expensive if you are only relying on the 100 GB bandwidth limit.

However, not all games will have massive data requirements to download them. Some surprisingly light games include Overwatch that requires 30 GB of data, Fortnite that needs 35 GB, and Dota 2 that requires 15 GB bandwidth.

The download size and demand will ultimately depend on the type of gamer you are. If you are a player of indie games, for instance, these will not need much bandwidth – usually coming at less than 5 GB. For mobile gaming, these will require a maximum bandwidth of 1 GB for downloads, updates, and gameplay, while Nintendo Switches will need up to 10 GB of data.

If you are downloading games every month or multiple times a month though, the 100 GB plan may not be enough for you – you may want to consider getting an unlimited internet plan instead.

Conclusion

Even though gaming sometimes requires a large amount of data, it is not the only data-intensive activity – and it is not as large as you may assume. This is even more evident if you are only playing games rather than downloading them, and a 100 GB data limit is more than enough to cover your needs for several weeks.

FAQs

How many GBs does gaming generally use?

It depends on the game, but most mobile games use less than 1 GB, while most PC games use a maximum of 10 GB.

Does gaming use more data than streaming?

In many cases, gaming uses less data compared to streaming.