What Is a Good Ping for Gaming? (Ping Chart by Game Type)

A good ping for gaming is under 50 ms for competitive shooters and under 100 ms for most other online games. Between 100 and 150 ms is playable in slow co-op, building and strategy games, while over 150 ms causes noticeable delay and rubber banding in almost everything. Stable ping matters as much as low ping.

Ping is the round trip time for data to go from your PC to the game server and back, measured in milliseconds (ms). This guide explains what the numbers feel like in different kinds of games, why jitter and packet loss can ruin a good ping, and what actually lowers it.

What ping is good for gaming?

Lower ping is always better, but the point where it starts to hurt depends on the game. Use this chart as a general guide:

Ping	Rating	What it feels like
0 to 20 ms	Excellent	Feels instant, ideal for competitive play
20 to 50 ms	Great	No noticeable delay in any game
50 to 80 ms	Good	Fine for everything, shooters feel slightly less sharp
80 to 100 ms	Okay	Fine for co-op and survival, noticeable in close fights
100 to 150 ms	Playable	Delay in combat, okay in building and strategy games
150 to 250 ms	Poor	Rubber banding, delayed hits, items appear late
Over 250 ms	Bad	Hard to play anything fast paced

What is a good ping for each type of game?

Fast games need lower ping because every decision happens in fractions of a second. Slow games hide high ping well, since you are building, managing or exploring instead of reacting.

Game type	Examples	Good ping	Still playable
Competitive shooters	Counter-Strike 2	Under 40 ms	Up to about 80 ms
PvP survival	Rust, DayZ	Under 60 ms	Up to about 100 ms
Co-op survival	Valheim, Palworld, Enshrouded, 7 Days to Die, ARK	Under 80 ms	Up to about 150 ms
Sandbox and building	Minecraft, Terraria, Hytale	Under 80 ms	Up to about 150 ms
Factory and automation	Factorio, Satisfactory	Under 100 ms	Up to about 200 ms
Roleplay	FiveM	Under 80 ms	Up to about 150 ms

Factorio is a special case. It uses lockstep networking, where every player runs the same simulation, so the game waits on the slowest connection. One player on a bad connection can make everyone feel it. Our Factorio desync fix covers what happens when connections drift.

Is ping the same as latency and lag?

Ping and latency mean almost the same thing: the delay between your device and the server. Lag is a broader word for anything that makes the game feel slow, and it has two very different causes.

Term	What it means	Fixed by
Ping or latency	Network delay to the server and back	A closer server, a wired connection
Jitter	How much ping jumps around	A wired connection, less traffic at home
Packet loss	Data that never arrives	Fixing Wi-Fi, cables or your provider's line
Server lag	The server is too slow to simulate the world	More RAM, a faster CPU, fewer entities
FPS lag	Your own PC renders too few frames	Lower graphics settings

If everyone on a server lags at the same moment, that is server lag, not ping. Our guide to why a game server is lagging shows how to tell them apart, and what is tick rate explains how the server's own speed plays in.

Why does jitter matter more than you think?

Jitter is the variation in ping from one moment to the next. A steady 70 ms feels smoother than a ping that swings between 30 and 200 ms, because games can predict and smooth over a constant delay but not a random one.

Signs of jitter:

Ping on the scoreboard keeps jumping.
Players teleport short distances, then move normally again.
Shots hit some of the time and miss at other times for no clear reason.

Wi-Fi is the most common cause. Microwaves, walls, other devices and neighbours' networks all cause spikes. A cable to the router usually fixes jitter on the spot.

What about packet loss?

Packet loss is when data is lost on the way and never arrives. Even 1 to 2% packet loss can cause rubber banding and missed actions, because the game has to guess what happened or wait for the next update. Healthy connections show 0% packet loss.

To check, run a longer ping test on Windows:

ping 203.0.113.10 -n 100

At the end, Windows prints Lost = X (Y% loss). Anything above 0% on a wired connection is worth raising with your internet provider.

How do you lower your ping?

The biggest ping improvements come from a closer server and a wired connection. Most of the "ping booster" settings and apps you see advertised do very little.

Pick a server close to you. Distance is the largest factor. See how to choose a game server location for low ping.
Plug in a cable. Ethernet removes most jitter and packet loss.
Stop big downloads and streams on your network while you play. Uploads, like cloud backups, hurt even more.
Restart your router if ping is suddenly worse than usual.
Turn off VPNs unless you know they route better.
Do not host and play on the same home connection if friends lag. Your upload is shared between the server and everything else in the house.

Does a better server lower your ping?

A better server does not lower ping, but it can make a game feel like it did. When a server is overloaded, its tick slows down, and players feel delays that look like high ping even when the ping number is fine. Moving to a server with enough RAM and a fast CPU fixes that kind of "lag" but not the network distance.

On GamezServers, each plan reserves its RAM for your server alone, and you can upgrade from the dashboard when a growing world needs more. Every server comes with DDoS protection, so floods of junk traffic do not spike your group's ping. See all games and plans.

FAQ

Is 100 ping good for gaming?

100 ms is fine for co-op, survival, building and strategy games, but you will notice it in competitive shooters, where under 50 ms is the goal.

Is 20 ms ping good?

Yes. 20 ms is excellent for any game, including competitive shooters. Below about 20 ms, most players cannot feel any difference.

Why is my ping high on a server close to me?

Usually Wi-Fi, other traffic on your network, or poor routing by your internet provider. Test on a cable with nothing else downloading, then compare.

Is 0% packet loss normal?

Yes. A healthy wired connection should show 0% packet loss. Anything above that causes rubber banding and should be fixed.

What ping is too high to play?

Over about 150 ms most fast games feel bad, and over 250 ms almost every online game becomes hard to play.