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Online gaming is red-hot when it comes to popularity, and to avoid lagging, having the best broadband for gamers is a must. Unlike most internet applications, online video games are very performance sensitive, so picking the right broadband setup can be the difference between the top and bottom of the rankings.
If you like playing online games, then any old broadband won’t do. Luckily we’re no strangers to getting mercilessly beaten in video games, but at least we can’t blame a bad connection.
So let’s look at what games in particular need an internet connection, whether only multiplayer gamers should care, what a good gaming ISP should offer and what you can do to improve your current online gaming experience.
| Best broadband for gamers: At a glance | ||
|---|---|---|
| Best overall | Vodafone | |
| Best for reliability | Virgin Media | |
| A bargain all-rounder | Plusnet | |
How we test broadband providers
Unless otherwise stated, all of the figures are drawn from a survey commissioned by Expert Reviews, with respondents and data supplied by YouGov PLC. The total sample size was 6,316 adults and the survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all Great British adults (aged over 18).
We asked people how likely they would be to recommend their broadband provider to others and to rate its customer service, reliability, value and speed. Only the 11 ISPs with over 50 respondents are included in our results.
The best broadband providers for gamers
1. Vodafone: Best overall
Price when reviewed: From £24/mth | View deals at Vodafone
| Important Information | |
|---|---|
| Last reviewed by Expert Reviews | February 2025 |
| Mid-contract price increases | Prices will increase by £3 from April 2026 |
While it didn’t quite take the gong for speed or reliability, Vodafone was awarded the best broadband provider overall in our Broadband Awards due to its consistently great scores across all of the categories.
That’s not to say that service isn’t fast or consistent, either; with 86% of customers surveyed reporting that they were satisfied with the speeds they received and 66% responding positively on the reliability front. Both are vital for successful online gaming, so that’s a great combo to see.
Vodafone also took home a highly commended award in the value category, with 88% of customers praising the tariff prices, and the top award for customer service. When it comes to the customer service team, 62% of respondents were happy so, even if you do lose your connection, getting back online before the next match should be a relatively painless experience.
Read our full Vodafone Broadband review
2. Zen Internet: Best for speed
Price when reviewed: From £35/mth | View deals at Zen Internet
| Important Information | |
|---|---|
| Last reviewed by Expert Reviews | February 2025 |
| Mid-contract price increase | No |
If you subscribe to the notion that the fastest draw wins, you’ll want to check out Zen Internet. In our survey, a phenomenal 95% of customers were satisfied with the speed of their connection – the secret here is that Zen has deals with multiple networks, allowing it to offer fast fibre connections to more areas than rivals that are locked into OpenReach.
Best speed wasn’t the only award bestowed upon Zen Internet, either, with 93% of customers reporting that they were satisfied with the value for money, earning the brand the Best Value award, too. Adding to this is the fact that Zen is the only network here that doesn’t include mid-contract price increases.
If you trend towards competitive online games, it’s worth bearing in mind that the speed and value do come at a cost – only 42% of customers responded positively about the reliability of the service. This is out of character for Zen Internet, so hopefully it’s a temporary issue that will soon be resolved, but still worth considering before committing to a contract.
Read our full Zen Internet review
3. Virgin Media: Best for reliability
Price when reviewed: From £26/mth | View deals at Virgin Media
| Important Information | |
|---|---|
| Last reviewed by Expert Reviews | February 2025 |
| Mid-contract price increases | Prices will increase by £3 from April 2026 |
| Symmetrical connections | Yes |
Reliability is another key consideration when it comes to online gaming – nobody wants their connection to drop right when they finally hit that kill streak. If this is your main criteria, Virgin Media is the best bet with 70% of customers surveyed rating the consistency of their connection positively. This is likely due in no small part to Virgin using its own fibre network, as opposed to renting lines like most other providers.
While it’s good to know that you’re more likely to avoid disconnection at critical moments, there’s one major caveat to bear in mind – customer service. With only 40% of respondents reporting satisfaction, Virgin Media was the second-worst network in our survey for customer service, coming in just ahead of TalkTalk, at 33%. Ideally you won’t ever need to use the helpline but these figures are still a little disheartening.
Read our full Virgin Media review
4. Plusnet: A bargain all-rounder
Price when reviewed: From £26/mth | View deals at Plusnet
| Important Information | |
|---|---|
| Last reviewed by Expert Reviews | February 2025 |
| Mid-contract price increases | Prices will increase by £3 from April 2026 |
Plusnet didn’t take any awards home from this year’s survey but that certainly doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth considering. Indeed, it emerged as a solid all-rounder, with particularly good scores in the value and speed categories, with 86% and 78% of customer satisfaction, respectively.
A total of 69% of customers responded that they were satisfied overall with Plusnet’s service, landing it in a respectable joint third place, alongside EE and just behind Vodafone and Zen Internet.
The places in which Plusnet fell down a little were the reliability and customer service rankings, with the former earning a middle-of-the-road 60% satisfaction rating and the latter only reaching 53%. Even still, if Zen Internet and Vodafone don’t service your area, Plusnet is a solid alternative choice for nippy and affordable broadband.
Read our full Plusnet review
How to choose the best broadband provider for gaming
What do video games need for good online play?
First, it’s worth noting that not all games have the same dependence on good broadband. If you like playing turn-based or very slow-paced online games where twitch reaction speed doesn’t affect gameplay, then any broadband is probably good enough.
However, games like Fortnite, Call of Duty, Overwatch and even real-time strategy games like Starcraft benefit from low latency internet connections, which is something we’ll unpack below.
Total bandwidth isn’t that important for online play, but our general suggestion for any household is to ensure there’s 100Mbits/sec of bandwidth available for every person in the home. For example, in a household with four people, a 400 Mbits/sec connection should offer a great experience, while 50Mbits/sec per person would be comfortable. We strongly recommend no less than 25Mbits/sec for gamers, especially since most home connections are asymmetrical – the upload speed is usually half of the download speed.
While you don’t need a symmetrical connection for gaming, upstream performance does matter, and an upstream speed of less than 10Mbits/sec could be an issue depending on the game.
That said, perhaps the best thing to do is look up the recommended internet speeds for the games you actually intend to play, since their bandwidth requirements can vary wildly.
Single player gamers need good internet too
You may think that it’s mainly online gamers that have to be concerned with their internet performance, but all modern video games rely on the internet to one extent or another.
If you’re a PC gamer, then you probably don’t even have a disc drive, and PC games have not been sold in physical form for many years now. While you can still buy games on disc for consoles, you usually need to download significant patches if you want the best experience, and some console games are incomplete on disc, mandating download before you can play.
Video game sizes are also ballooning, with most big new titles clocking in at well over 100GB. It’s one major reason we’d recommend gigabit fibre to avid gamers who can afford it, since no one wants to wait hours for their game or its updates to download.
By getting the fastest connection you can afford, you’ll spend less time downloading games and more time playing them. An alternative to this is getting a good expansion SSD for your PlayStation 5 or external storage for your Xbox Series X, so that you have to delete and redownload games less often.
What to look for in a good gaming broadband connection
The most important thing to look for in an internet connection for fast-paced online gaming is low latency. This eliminates wireless internet pretty much across the board, since even 5G often has latency fluctuations or average latency too high for comfortable play.
Actual online multiplayer gameplay doesn’t need a lot of bandwidth. A fairly pedestrian 50Mbits/sec connection would be more than enough, but latency is everything. At the moment the best latency numbers are only possible on fiber broadband.
How much latency is too much for gaming? We think the very upper limit would be 50 ms of “ping” as it’s called, but lower is better. A good gaming broadband service usually has less than 10ms of ping, which is prime. However most non-professional players would feel very happy with a number in the teens.
Your home network setup is just as important
While a good broadband provider is imperative to a good gaming experience, that doesn’t matter much when you have a home network that’s not up to the task.
This doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy a new router, but you can make some changes to how things are set up at present. We don’t recommend using a Wi-Fi connection to play online games, since you introduce potential latency and connection instability. This doesn’t matter for watching Netflix or browsing the web, but for a real-time multiplayer video game, it can render it unplayable.
So if at all possible, connect your gaming device to your router using an Ethernet connection. One way to make this easier is by using powerline Ethernet, which uses the existing copper power cabling in your home for network traffic. This won’t be particularly fast, but it will have better latency than Wi-Fi, which is a good tradeoff for playability.
If you really must use Wi-Fi for online gaming, then you can still improve how well it works by making sure that you have adequate signal, or following some of our other practical tips for faster internet.
If you have a cheap and basic router, you may want to invest in a gaming router. Be sure to look at our best gaming router roundup for an overview of what’s important, and some great specific router suggestions.
