Having too high of a ping can significantly impact your online gaming experience and make games nearly unplayable. Ping refers to the time it takes for data to travel between your computer and the game server. A high ping means there is high latency, which causes lag, rubberbanding, and other issues.
What is Ping?
Ping is measured in milliseconds (ms) and refers to the time it takes for data to make a round trip between your computer and the server you are connected to. For online games, the lower your ping the better.
Here is an overview of different ping levels:
- 0-50 ms: Excellent
- 50-100 ms: Good
- 100-150 ms: Average
- 150-200 ms: Laggy
- 200+ ms: Unplayable
Any ping over 150 ms will likely cause major lag, rubberbanding, and other connectivity issues. A ping over 200 ms makes most real-time games essentially unplayable.
What Causes High Ping?
There are a few main causes of high ping:
- Distance to servers – The further you are from the game server, the higher your ping will be due to increased data travel time.
- Internet connection – Ping is heavily influenced by your internet connection quality. Slow speeds or an unstable connection can increase ping.
- WiFi – Using WiFi often produces higher ping compared to a wired Ethernet connection.
- Network congestion – High internet usage on your network from streaming, downloads, etc can increase ping.
- ISP throttling – Some ISPs intentionally throttle certain types of internet traffic like online gaming.
So in summary, the main factors are proximity to servers, your internet connection quality, using WiFi, high network usage, and ISP throttling. Problems with any of these areas can lead to a higher ping.
Ping Requirements for Common Games
Here are rough ping requirements for popular online game genres:
| Game Genre | Ideal Ping |
|---|---|
| First-person shooters | < 50 ms |
| MOBAs | < 50 ms |
| Battle royales | < 75 ms |
| MMORPGs | < 100 ms |
| RTS games | < 50 ms |
| Fighting games | < 50 ms |
As you can see, fast-paced competitive genres like first-person shooters, MOBAs, and fighting games require extremely low ping for a good experience. Slower paced game genres can get by with slightly higher ping.
But for any online multiplayer game, you’ll want your ping to be as low as possible. The majority of online games will be nearly unplayable with a consistent ping of 200+ ms.
Impacts of High Ping
Here are some of the major issues high ping can cause in online games:
- Lag – High latency causes delays between your actions and the server response, resulting in an unresponsive, laggy feel.
- Rubberbanding – Your character may jerk back and forth from delayed position updates.
- Packet loss – High ping increases the chance for data packets to be lost in transmission, causing stuttering.
- Delayed actions – Actions like shooting or activating abilities happen noticeably later than they should.
- Unregistered hits – Your hits/shots may not properly register due to desynced states between you and the server.
- Warping players – Other players will appear to jitter/warp around instead of moving smoothly.
These effects combine to make playing online games nearly impossible with very high ping. You simply cannot compete and play properly under heavy lag, rubberbanding, and delayed actions.
How High Ping Impacts Different Games
Here is a more detailed look at how high ping impacts some of the most popular online game genres:
First-Person Shooters
FPS games like Call of Duty, Valorant, and Apex Legends rely heavily on quick reflexes and precision aim. High ping ruins this experience.
You’ll constantly lose gunfights due to your shots not registering properly. Getting shot by enemies you can’t even see yet is common. And aiming precisely becomes near impossible with all the warping players and rubberbanding effects.
Due to the fast pace and need for precision, FPS games are essentially unplayable with pings over 100-150ms.
MOBAs
In multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games like League of Legends and DOTA 2, high ping has a huge impact.
Using abilities at the right time is crucial in MOBAs. But with slow ping, your abilities can be severely delayed. This gives your enemy extra time to dodge or interrupt your abilities.
Last hitting minions also becomes difficult with lag as your timing will be off. And you may take delayed damage from enemies in fog of war who you can’t see yet due to ping.
MOBAs require quick reactions and well-timed ability usage, so anything over 50ms ping starts to negatively impact gameplay.
Battle Royales
In battle royale games like Fortnite and PUBG, ping issues can ruin your match.
High ping leads to rubberbanding when moving around, teleporting enemy players, and trouble aiming accurately.
Vehicle usage is also problematic with lag as you appear to stutter back and forth instead of driving smoothly. This makes hitting targets from a moving vehicle extremely difficult.
Because encounters in battle royale games are less consistent than arena-style FPS matches, they can tolerate slightly higher ping around 50-75ms before it becomes really detrimental.
MMORPGs
Massively multiplayer online RPGs like World of Warcraft and Elder Scrolls Online are less reliant on twitch reactions and precision. So they can handle higher ping more reasonably.
However, lag will still disrupt your ability to execute abilities properly. Tab targeting enemies and smoothly moving your character will also suffer.
For fast-paced MMORPG combat against other players, you’ll want ping below 100ms. But for general PvE and questing, you can get by with pings up to 150ms in most cases.
How to Reduce Ping
If you are suffering from excessively high ping, here are some steps you can take to help reduce it:
- Use a wired Ethernet connection instead of WiFi.
- Upgrade to a faster internet plan if available.
- Contact your ISP about connection quality issues.
- Limit bandwidth-heavy activities like streaming HD video.
- Restart your modem and router.
- Check for packet loss and connection errors using diagnostic tools.
- Consider a gaming VPN to optimize routing if distance/ISP are the problem.
- Upgrade router or equipment if needed.
- Close unnecessary programs and browser tabs.
Improving your internet connection quality is the best way to reduce ping. Switching to wired over WiFi, upgrading your plan, and eliminating bandwith congestion can all help.
If distance to game servers is the ultimate issue, consider using a quality gaming VPN. This can optimize your route to servers and bypass ISP throttling.
Make sure to run diagnostics tests regularly. Check for packet loss percentage and connection errors which correlate with ping issues.
Conclusion
In summary, excessively high ping is detrimental to online gaming. It causes significant lag, rubberbanding, delayed actions, and unregistered hits.
Ping should be kept reasonably low depending on game genre. Fast competitive games demand ping below 50ms for a good experience. Slower paced games can work up to around 100-150ms ping.
If you suffer from constant high ping, try solutions like upgrading your connection, switching to Ethernet, reducing bandwidth usage, or using a gaming VPN to potentially improve it.
No competitive online gamer should tolerate consistent ping over 150ms if they want a smooth, properly responsive gaming experience. Prioritize reducing ping however possible for your chosen multiplayer games.