What is latency and how does it impact gaming?

Name: What is latency and how does it impact gaming?
Brand: Sky

What is latency?

When people talk about broadband, they often focus on speed. But there’s another factor that can make a big difference to your online experience, and that’s latency, also known as ping.

Download and upload speeds show how much data your connection can handle. Latency is how quickly that data moves. In simple terms, it measures how quickly your connection responds.

Latency is measured in milliseconds (ms). It’s the delay between something you do, like clicking the mouse, and seeing the result on the screen. Even very small delays can affect fast-paced games. That’s why lower latency usually means a smoother experience.

How does latency impact gaming?

Latency can be the difference between winning and losing. Even a tiny lag can make gaming feel sluggish. So lower latency is essential for smoother, more responsive gameplay.

You might hear ping and latency used to describe the same thing. Ping is just how latency is measured. Your device sends a signal to a server and waits for it to come back to complete the action. The time this journey takes, is your latency. Measured as ping in milliseconds.

Ping affects how fast a game responds to your actions. Every movement or button press has to travel from your device to the game server and back. If your ping is high, that round trip takes longer.

For fast competitive games, like first-person shooters (FPS), fighters, rhythm games, and e-sports titles, staying under 40ms is ideal. A ping between 0 to 30ms is even better. Slower or turn-based games are more forgiving, and anything under 100ms is usually fine.

Latency in action:

• You tap “jump”
• Your PC or console processes the input
• The signal travels to the game server
• The server confirms the action and sends a response
• Your screen shows your character jumping

What impacts latency?

Internet speed does have a big impact on latency, but it’s not the only thing that affects latency. Your network set-up, hardware, peripherals, and if you’re playing on the cloud— also play a part.

Network latency

Network latency can increase because of busy networks, long distances to game servers, WiFi interference, or too many devices using the same connection at once.

Hardware latency

Hardware latency can come from older or slower PCs and consoles, limited memory, or displays with lower response times.

Peripheral latency

Peripheral latency can be caused by input lag from keyboards, mice, controllers, or monitors that aren’t designed for fast response.

Cloud gaming latency

Cloud gaming latency relies on a strong, stable internet connection to get data to and from the remote servers like GeForce NOW, Xbox Cloud Gaming, or PlayStation Remote Play, but they generally have slightly higher latency than local play.

How to reduce latency when gaming

Whether you’re a competitive player or casual gamer, there are a number of ways to cut down latency for smoother all-round gameplay. Here are a few suggestions:

Use a wired connection

WiFi is convenient but Ethernet is far more stable. A direct wired connection to your router reduces interference and keeps data flowing smoothly.

Switch to full fibre broadband

Full fibre delivers much lower latency and better reliability than copper. A low-latency connection means instant responses that are ideal for gaming.

Upgrade your router

Outdated routers can become a bottleneck regardless of how fast your internet is. Modern routers handle multiple devices more efficiently. Some routers, like specialised “Gaming" routers, feature advanced Quality of Service (QoS) settings that let you prioritize gaming traffic over other activity on your network.

Close background apps

Streaming, downloads and updates running in the background can hog bandwidth and increase latency. Closing them can help your game run smoothly. Background apps use memory (RAM), which can force your game to use slower virtual memory, causing slowdowns.

Upgrade to Sky Broadband

When it’s game time, every millisecond matters. Whether you’re streaming in 8K, battling online, or stepping into virtual reality, less lag means smoother, more immersive gameplay. So, take your gaming to the next level with one of Sky’s Full Fibre Broadband plans.

Sky’s next-generation Full Fibre Broadband delivers high speeds and low latency, giving you the edge when it counts most, like in competitive multiplayer gaming. Powered by the UK’s most reliable broadband technology and advanced WiFi 7, you’ll enjoy speeds of up to 5 Gbps, seamless connections, and performance you can rely on.

Explore Sky Full Fibre

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