Best VPN for Gaming

Our top picks for gaming have a wide selection of global server locations and fast download speeds to give you the best gaming experience possible, without compromising on privacy or security. The highest-rated providers have super low latency and reliable connections for lag-free gaming.

We continually test the best VPNs for gaming on our site so we can keep our reviews as up-to-date as possible. Using our proprietary speed-testing tool, we update our reviews with the most accurate global speed test results and only recommend providers offering the highest levels of performance. We manually put each app through its paces so that we can let you know just how it is to use them.

Connecting to the internet without using a VPN is a risk to everyone, gamers included. But do you really need a VPN for gaming alone? In certain situations, we’d say yes:

• If you are into competitive online gaming and e-sports, using a VPN can protect you against DDoS attacks by masking your true IP address, making it virtually impossible for wannabe hackers to cut off your internet connection and ruin your chances of winning.
• Connecting to gaming servers far away from your true physical location means higher ping time and increased lag. A VPN hides your online activity from your ISP, so they won’t find any reason to slow down your connection.
• If you connect to gaming servers located far away from your physical location, ping time will increase and cause lag. Using a VPN allows you to experiment with connecting from different servers, making it possible to reduce latency and improve performance.
• If you want to encrypt your gaming traffic to ensure your personal data, such as financial details, and save files remain safe and private, then a VPN is a must-have.

In a nutshell, you should use a VPN while gaming if you want protection from DDoS attacks and ISP bandwidth throttling or if you want keep your gaming data and save files secure and private. If none of these apply to you and gaming isn’t the main reason you’re going to be using a VPN, we’d recommend checking out our roundup for the Best Overall VPNs.

Depending on the device you use, there are several simple ways to use a VPN while gaming. Most VPNs are compatible with Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, covering most of your desktop and mobile devices. You can also install most VPNs at router level, which is especially useful if you wish to use them with any games consoles. One major advantage of this is that every internet-connected device in your home will be protected by the VPN, however it does make switching between servers significantly more difficult.

If you want the fastest performance speeds and the smoothest gameplay, be sure to connect to the closest server to your physical location. Most providers will automatically do this for you, but if the one you have chosen doesn’t offer this feature, connecting to a server in the same country will do the job. This will also ensure the lowest possible latency so you don’t experience any lag.

For more information about using a VPN on your router, check out our user-friendly installation guide here. If your VPN isn’t configurable on a router, we also have a handy guide on how to use a VPN with your games console (we used Playstation as an example).