What Does Ping Mean In Gaming? (And Why Does It Matter?)

If you've ever played an online multiplayer game, you may have experienced lag at some point. Of course, it's frustrating and can affect your performance in a game. But why does that happen, and what causes it? Knowing what "ping" means in gaming can help you understand this. 

When you perform any action in an online game, like shooting an enemy or passing a ball, that input is sent from your PC or console to the game server through your network connection. The time it takes for this data to reach the server is known as ping, and it is measured in milliseconds (ms). The game server then also sends a response back to your device, which is another ping. This entire journey of data traveling back and forth is called latency. Simply put, ping is the one-way measure of time it takes for your action to be registered in the game, while latency refers to the total round-trip time it takes for data to travel from your device to the server and back.

Ping plays a crucial role in gaming and can essentially make or break your experience. For competitive gamers or those participating in online gaming competitions, optimizing ping is essential. So, what is a good ping for gaming, and what causes it to go high or low? Below, we'll explore all of that and more. So, let's dive in!

Ping helps gamers determine whether their connection to the server is good or bad. Since ping is nothing but delay, the lower the number, the better your gaming experience will be. Ideally, you'd want to have 0 ping, which means no delay, but that's not possible. In general, anything below 20 ms is considered "low ping" and is excellent for gaming. A ping rate around 50 ms to 100 ms is acceptable or average, while anything above 150 ms is referred to as "high ping." With higher ping, you'll notice lag and delay in actions while gaming, though that can also happen due to wrong Wi-Fi settings. 

Note that a good ping rate can depend on the game too. For instance, in first-person shooter (FPS) games like "Call of Duty" or "Counter-Strike," where every split-second matters, you'll need the lowest possible ping. In contrast, if you're playing a real-time strategy game, a slightly higher ping may not affect the gameplay that much. 

The good thing is that measuring your ping is quite easy. In fact, most games, like "Call of Duty" or "Battlefield," display the ping rate when you enable the "Display Performance Stats" option via in-game settings. Alternatively, you can also run an online ping test to get a good idea of your connection quality before starting a game.

High ping can be a gamer's worst nightmare, and it can happen due to several reasons. One of the biggest factors that affects the ping rate is the speed of your internet connection. If your connection is slow or multiple devices are using it for downloading, streaming, or other online activities, your ping will increase. To avoid this, it's best to use a wired Ethernet connection instead of Wi-Fi and ensure that background processes or other devices on your network aren't hogging the bandwidth. 

Another crucial factor is the physical distance between your device and the game server. The farther away the server is, the more time it will take for the data to travel. So, if possible, you should pick the server that's closest to you to avoid lag during the game. At times, a high ping can also be due to server-side issues. For example, if too many players are connected to a server, it may impact your ping. In this case, you don't have any option other than switching to a different server.

Aside from the above, there are also other factors that can affect ping rate, like your computer hardware, router configuration, game settings, and more. If you're experiencing high ping, there are ways to fix it and reduce latency in your online games.