It is common to hear gamers complain about ping. In fact, it is almost certain that someone is going to bring up ping during an online gaming session, given how much latency regularly fluctuates. But just how important is ping in online gaming, and can it really ruin a game? Let’s take a closer look.

First and foremost, yes, ping, otherwise referred to as latency, is important. As a side note, latency and ping aren’t actually the same thing, but more or less both refer to the transfer of data online. Ping is the round trip of information, to a server and back, while latency refers to data from a gamer to a server only. Either way, the terms do go hand in hand.

How Is Ping Measured?

Download bandwidth is often mistaken for ping, but is completely different. Some will exclaim that they watch Netflix in 4K, so how can their gaming ping be bad? Given that Netflix is a stream of data from a server to a device, there is no back and forth communication. The same rules don’t apply to online gaming.

When pressing a key on a keyboard the input is sent to a server, the server responds and sends data back. The returned data functions as the core of the software, depicting everything that happens in the game world. The round trip of data, input to response, is measured in milliseconds. Hence, lower numbers are better. If it takes 45 milliseconds for an information exchange this is excellent ping.

But what if the server is far away, say in another country, and the gamer has slow internet speeds?

Acceptable And Unacceptable Ping

Online Blackjack real money will work with just about any ping. Online casinos are designed around methodical play, with information transfer speeds being less prevalent. Assuming, of course, that it is online Blackjack being played, and not a live casino stream.

But there are many games that are highly dependent on ping, such as shooters. A game like Fortnite has players facing off against one another in gunfights, with bullets flying back and forth constantly. If a player is behind cover or not is extremely important, and will come down to the millisecond. Hence, in this case rapid transfer of information is essential. In shooters many consider ping under 100 to be acceptable, but numbers above can quickly start making the game unplayable.

Can You Improve Ping?

The bottom line is that ping can only be improved up to a certain point. There really is no substitute for being within good range of a server. Though, with modern powerful internet even those playing on a server across the ocean can enjoy an acceptable experience. It is not impossible to get below 100 speeds on a foreign server, assuming that 5G speeds are utilised.

Sadly, those with poor internet speeds really don’t have many options. Though, games less dependent on ping can still be enjoyed. MMOs, for example, work fine even on the lower ping numbers.