Best Broadband Plans for Gaming

A guide to broadband plans for gamers
Friday, 30 August 2019

Almost all gaming devices these days are connected to the internet – whether you’re on Playstation, Xbox, PC or other device.

If you are serious about gaming, then you know how frustrating a standard broadband plan can be. Whether you play online for fun or competitively latency and packet loss can greatly influence your gaming performance.

At Broadband Compare we are all about helping you make an informed choice about the best broadband plans for gamers. There are lots of broadband providers, but which is the best for gaming?

Top factors to consider when choosing a Broadband Plan for gaming

Speed is just one factor to consider when choosing a broadband plan for gaming. Other key factors to consider when optimising your online gaming experience include download speed, upload speed, and lag:

  • Download and upload speeds refer to how quickly your internet connection can transfer information to and from your device.
  • Lag is a vital element when it comes to a good gaming experience. Your lag is determined by ping and latency. Latency is the time it takes for data packets to reach your device from a server. Ping is the time it takes a data packet to leave your device, reach a server, and return (as measured in milliseconds). Ideally you need a ping rate that is below 100 to 150. Both are hugely important for gaming because of the real-time communication aspect.

Best Broadband Speeds for Gaming

Having a fast and secure internet connection can make the difference between winning and losing when you plan online. Buffering when you watch movies online is one thing, but how frustrating is it to experience lags when you play video games? At the end of the day you want your skills to be the difference between winning and losing, not external factors like internet speed!

What is the best speed for gaming? This will depend on the type of device you use for gaming:

  • For a PC, a download speed of at least 6Mbps per gamer is recommended. Other recommendations are to have a minimum upload speed of 1Mbps and a maximum ping rate below 100 to 150ms
  • Gaming Consoles link Xbox One and PS4 have slightly different requirements because they are designed purely for gaming. They typically require a minimum speed of 3Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream per gamer. However first person and role-playing games will be better with a download speed of at least 6Mbps.

If you don’t want to worry about upload and download speeds, an unlimited, fibre broadband plan is the way to go.

STEAM DOWNLOAD STATS

Steam is the ultimate destination for playing, discussing, and creating games. They constantly monitor the average download speed for each country. In the last 7 days, New Zealanders downloaded through STEAM a total amount of 816.6 TB at an average speed 39 Mbps. It's just 0.3% of global Steam Traffic.

MyRepublic have great credentials when it comes to broadband for gamers. They rank #1 on Steam for download performance – check out their stats below. They won Best Gaming Broadband Provider at the Broadband Compare Awards 2017. They were also awarded the Consumer New Zealand’s People Choice for 2018 for internet service providers.  

Provider Average Download Rate
Myrepublic Limited 78.8 Mbps
Stuff Fibre 68.4 Mbps
2degrees Broadband 46.6 Mbps
Snap Internet Limited (2degrees) 43.2 Mbps
Vodafone New Zealand 40.5 Mbps
Voyager Internet 39.3 Mbps
2degrees Mobile 36.8 Mbps
Spark New Zealand 35.5 Mbps
Vocus (Slingshot) 35.3 Mbps

Source

At the moment they offer great deals and plans for all types of users. Please, click below to learn more about how you can benefit from moving your connection to MyRepublic.

Find out more

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Unlimited Fibre Broadband from $70/m
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T&Cs apply.
Unlimited Fibre Broadband from $70/m
Plus 6 months Prime Video free
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T&Cs apply.
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Ears to a great Easter
with 6 months half price! 🥚🐣🐰
Zeronet = Same internet, but better for the planet. They plant 5 trees for every customer.
$89.95/m for 12 months, 
then standard pricing of 
$105/m applies. 12-month term. 
T&Cs apply. Offer closes 1 April 2024.
$89.95/m for 12 months,
then standard pricing of
$105/m applies. 12-month term. 
T&Cs apply. Offer closes 1 April 2024.