VPN Gaming: How It Works

VPN services are becoming increasingly popular, but how can they be used for gaming?

If you're a regular YouTube video and Twitch stream viewer or podcast listener, you've likely heard the term "VPN" a few times--ExpressVPN is a popular sponsor. But what exactly is a VPN, and what are they for?

In the video above, Jean-Luc Seipke discusses the ins and outs of a VPN, as well as why you might want to pay for one. Standing for virtual private network, a VPN is designed to both secure and encrypt a connection between two networks. That opens up personal benefits for their users, especially when it comes to video streaming.

In terms of gaming, a VPN's usefulness will fluctuate case to case. It won't improve your internet connection beyond what you currently pay for, but a VPN can be especially helpful if you're playing online video games that rely on a peer to peer connection. With a VPN, you can protect yourself from DDoS attacks, which you really only need to care about in online games that rely on a peer to peer connection.

You'll have to watch the full video for a breakdown on VPNs in generation. If you do decide that a VPN is right for you, we recommend ExpressVPN, NordVPN, or IPVanish if you're a gamer.

[MikeHeldTheWorld]

No, a vpn will always make your connection slower, albeit much more protected.

[henryviiifake]

*Latency:* No, obviously. (Your data has to make more stops before reaching its destination.)

*Privacy:* _Yes._ (From other individuals only - whether your VPN is a side-chick for the NSA is harder to disprove.)

[MuhammadUzair-wswh]

as someone who lives in Pakistan, gaming VPNs like KillPing or Exitlag did reduce my latency by 40%. It honestly depends on the routing from your ISP, if it is already great then a VPN is useless otherwise for us 3rd world country folk it is a godsend.

[PLAYER_]

Using a VPN means you have another node between you and the game server. So, for competitive gaming, no. VPN's will increase latency most of the time. For privacy, yes. As stated in the video, they can protect you from DDos attacks and general phishing/ID theft attacks, etc. Some game services like UPlay, don't interact well with VPNs. I have a VPN, but have to turn it off in order to use UPlay, or the client won't connect (I can't even launch my single player games). Steam works fine, so it varies on a case by case basis. Something to be aware of it you're considering using a VPN.

[alighanem]

a gaming vpn improves my latency from 140ms to 90ms on eu servers, I live in the arabian gulf

[shubhamspatil]

VPNs can also improve routing which I only recommend trying if your experience is bad.

[redhawkrobin]

If you're a competitive gamer. Do not use VPN when gaming unless you have to. (Scenarios where you have to is where your country is blocking that game) additional to this, a lot of game Devs does ban people for the use of VPN.

You will NEVER receive a performance boost using a VPN. You will ALWAYS be suffering from latency that you otherwise wouldn't.

Please do some research of how VPN works. (For those spreading false information)

[viraltube]

I had a VPN running on my network when i used to play fifa, if you have a good connection with low ping / jitter you will get punished due to the p2p servers and lag compensation, the VPN gave me a smoother experience, some games actually benifit from a VPN due to bad servers / netcode, there is so many ways to manipulate a connection for the upper hand.

[kevintaalman]

I was recently ddosed on gta online, so i got a vpn. Cant load up online without turning off the vpn. Can anyone help?

[mithilagrawal]

There's nothing in the description

[monolofiminimal]

It depends. First of all, if it can shorten the amount of hops between you and server whilst also having a good latency, then it is possible even with the extra overhead in tcp/udp traffic to get lower latency connection compared to directly connecting. Shorter hops in routing doesn't always guarantee lower latency however as you could always have a problematic node that could mess it up. All in all, it CAN help but ymmv, and it also depends on what your normal connection latency is like and geographical distance to server. You aren't going to see any improvements if you're already getting 20-30ms to server, but someone who is getting 200-300ms mighty get as massive improvement, or a stable/ping/connection at the very least.

[azimalif]

Bought gta v on steam. Without vpn gta v says game not registered or offline mode.

[joeluckyman]

@GameSpot You forgot the links in the description.

[redzxx]

Does a good vpn make net faster for a game that only has say north American servers and the person playing is Australian? The Australian will have to put up with bad lag and be at a disadvantage to people playing in North America, so does having a vpn and changing my location to North America or somewhere close to that location make the connection for the Australian better?

[AnotherBadRep]

Don’t use NordVPN for ddos protection they’re servers don’t have any protection, use Vyper or express or something else Just don’t waste your money on NordVPN

[chinoXRkrr]

Gta online does not allow me spin the wheel in the casino ‼ because im here south korea. Good video sir. Will try the vpn.

[Maxtraxv]

the answer is, if you have shit internet or have a "fait use policy" (other wise know as we dont have the hard where to support everyone but we still want to sell it, but dont worry we will only thorttle you.) or as a normal person would call it "unfair sales and consumer pracises", then YES.
if you have wireless home broadband in Australia, this will help.

[timmyjan]

did he say thsi is my connection before and after lol??

[chunchoe]

Are you just going to ignore WTF Fast and Exitlag, VPNs literally designed to clean up your routing and connecting and give you better latency? because your average VPN will almost always make your game run worse

[SuperMusa]

Idc if they collect data as long as my packet loss is fixed, I might as well send them the my data by myself