The Best VPNs for PUBG Mobile

PUBG Mobile, the mobile version of PlayerUnkown’s Battlegrounds, is banned in several countries, including India, China, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.

While many of these regions have developed their own version of the game, like BGMI, they tend to lack the player base, popular game modes, and gameplay mechanics.

Using a VPN you can change your online location and bypass geo-restrictions on PUBG Mobile. Without a VPN, it’s impossible to play PUBG Mobile in India as it has been removed from the App store and it blocks pre-existing players from matchmaking.

Playing PUBG with a VPN also protects you from doxxing and DoS attacks, as well as stopping internet throttling by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

We’ve tested 61 VPN services to find the best VPNs that actually work with PUBG Mobile. They’ll hide your IP address and ensure your lag and ping are kept as low as possible while playing.

Through our in-depth testing methodology, we identified the five best VPNs for PUBG. They are fast, keep your ping below 20ms, and allow you to play PUBG in banned countries such as India.

That means you can connect to a local VPN server and play PUBG without impacting your FPS or graphics.

We carried out tests on longer-distance VPN connections, too. Our ping increased significantly, but our gameplay remained lag-free with the VPNs running.

Here’s a table comparing the VPNs that performed best in our testing:

Based on our testing, ExpressVPN is the PUBG VPN with the lowest ping. While connecting from India to Singapore, we recorded a ping of just 109ms. This is much lower than NordVPN and PIA’s ping times over a similar distance.

On nearby connections, we recorded a ping of 8ms. This is an excellent ping and ensures you won’t lag while playing PUBG.

Fast Global Speeds with Lightway

The fastest VPN for PUBG is ExpressVPN, with an average download speed loss of just 3% while connecting to a nearby ExpressVPN server.

ExpressVPN is just as fast on international connections. We connected to ExpressVPN servers in 5 different locations and measured our download speed to determine its global speeds:

As you can see, ExpressVPN delivers fast speeds across all locations. You can expect to experience similar speeds wherever you’re playing PUBG Mobile.

Normally we don’t recommend using a free VPN for PUBG as they’re often unsafe, insecure, and full of pop-up ads.

In fact, out of the 150 providers we tested, 25% of free Android VPNs leaked our personal data. This includes DNS, WebRTC, and IP leaks.

This isn’t the case with TunnelBear free, though. It uses AES-256 encryption, DNS leak blocking, and first-party DNS to keep your connection secure. All of which has been confirmed by an independent audit.

To play PUBG Mobile with a VPN, you need to install a VPN app onto your mobile device.

We’ve outlined the process below, step-by-step.

There isn’t any further setup required to play PUBG Mobile with a VPN. However, if you’re experiencing excessive lag while connected to a VPN then you may need to change your PUBG Mobile region.

Here’s a video demonstrating how to change your PUBG Mobile region in a few quick steps:

To change region on the PUBG Mobile app go to the default lobby and select Settings, then tap on the Change button adjacent to Select Server.

From here, select a region from the drop-down menu that matches your VPN’s server location.

You need to use a VPN to play PUBG Mobile in countries where the game is banned. It is impossible to play PUBG Mobile without a VPN in India, for example.

The PC and console versions of PUBG aren’t banned anywhere but you can still use a VPN to improve your online gaming experience.

Regardless of what platform you’re playing on, using a VPN can protect you from doxxing, DoS attacks, and internet throttling from your ISP.

Bypassing PUBG Mobile Bans

If you live in a country where PUBG Mobile is banned then you won’t be able to do the following:

1. Access the PUBG website.
2. Download and install the PUBG Mobile app.
3. Log into the PUBG Mobile app and matchmake.

On Android, you can use a VPN to bypass all three restrictions.

By connecting to a VPN server in a region where PUBG Mobile isn’t banned you can access the PUBG website and download the game directly as an .apk file.

This is only applicable to Android users. If you want to download PUBG Mobile on iOS then you’ll need to change your Apple Store region to one where the game isn’t banned.

Once you’ve installed PUBG Mobile on your device, you need a VPN to log in or create an account. This is the case for both Android and iOS.

We’ve outlined how to bypass PUBG Mobile’s geo-restrictions with a VPN below, using India as an example:

Connect to a VPN server in an unrestricted region and then open the PUBG Mobile app. You can now play the game without any limitations.

Preventing Doxxing

Connecting to a PUBG game server exposes your real IP address to the entire lobby.

A malicious agent can use your IP address to find out your personal information and publicly disclose it. This is known as doxxing.

By connecting to a VPN you are assigned the IP address of the VPN server, hiding your real one.

This limits the effectiveness of a doxxing attack as only your in-game username would be publicly available, not your real IP address.

Protecting Against DoS Attacks

PUBG Mobile is popular in e-sports and attracts large viewing figures on Twitch streaming. This leaves players susceptible to denial of service (DoS) attacks as opponents look to gain an advantage.

These attacks send large volumes of traffic to your IP address with the aim of disrupting your connection and even disconnecting you from the match.

You can connect to a VPN to conceal your real IP address and prevent a DoS attack from occurring.

In fact, Xbox Live support recommends you use a VPN to protect against DoS attacks while playing online:

Stopping Internet Throttling

Playing an online video game like PUBG Mobile can consume lots of bandwidth. Your internet service provider (ISP) may choose to intentionally slow down your connection speed to regulate how much bandwidth you’re using.

This is known as internet throttling.

You can stop internet throttling by concealing your online activity with a VPN. Connecting to a VPN encrypts your traffic, preventing your ISP from monitoring your activity.

Can You Play PUBG Without a VPN?

You can only play PUBG Mobile without a VPN if you don’t live in a region where the game is banned.

Otherwise, you cannot play PUBG without a VPN.

If you choose to play PUBG Mobile without a VPN running then you’ll also lose the benefit of protection against doxxing, DoS attacks, and stopping internet throttling.

Will Using a VPN Get You Banned in PUBG?

We read through the User Agreement on PUBG Mobile’s website and found multiple references to using third-party software.

In fact, the player conduct section states that players must agree not to:

“Use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on the Services or for any other purpose;”

The section concludes by encouraging players to report any violation of these rules through the “Report Abuse” feature. We find it troubling that PUBG Mobile equates using a VPN to abusing the service.

Having said that, there are no known instances of a player being banned for using a VPN on PUBG Mobile.

We tested multiple VPNs on the PUBG iOS and Android apps and never received any warning or suspension.

Can You Use a VPN with PUBG Lite?

In a now deleted post, PUBG Lite was terminated on April 29 2021:

You can no longer install or play PUBG Lite on your PC but you can download the standard PUBG game for free as of January 2022.

To find the best VPN for PUBG Mobile we identified several key parameters, including: average ping time, international connections speeds, server proximity to banned regions, and the VPN service’s logging policy and jurisdiction.

You can use the table below to see how the VPNs performed in each testing category, alongside their overall PUBG rating:

VPNs with a data cap receive a reduction to their overall rating.

We’ve outlined our testing criteria in more detail below:

1. Average PUBG Ping Time: 40%

Ping is the most important part of online gaming especially in a battle royale game like PUBG Mobile where you only have one life per match.

A high ping can cause your game to lag which gives your opponent an edge in a firefight as it increases delay between your inputs and the game responding.

Therefore, we always take added ping time into account when assessing the best VPNs for online gaming.

A VPN will always increase your ping as your connection has to pass through an additional ‘hop’ on the way to the gaming server and back.

The best VPNs for PUBG Mobile minimize your ping as much as possible across all regions.

We ran several ping tests without a VPN to calculate an average baseline. We then recorded our ping while connected to a VPN server location close to our testing server in India. We also tested our ping while connecting from India to a Singapore VPN server.

We prioritized India as its government has banned multiple iterations of PUBG Mobile.

We used Singapore VPN servers for our testing as a majority of VPN services have physical servers in Singapore and route their virtual servers via Singapore. This makes it ideal for PUBG Mobile players in India and Asia generally.

Sadly, it’s unlikely you’ll find a VPN that supports multiple physical servers in Asia outside of Hong Kong and Singapore.

The VPNs that performed best on PUBG Mobile barely increased our ping, irrespective of distance or location.

2. PUBG Server Locations: 25%

A large server network is vital for keeping your ping low as the nearer you are to a VPN server the faster your connection speeds.

Signing up to a VPN service with a large server network like ExpressVPN ensures that you’ll always have at least one server close to your home region.

It’s also important if you live in a country where PUBG Mobile has been banned such as India or China.

Top gaming VPNs are likely to have a server located near your country allowing you to bypass the local ban without noticeably impacting your connection speeds.

3. Privacy: 25%

Some VPN services may log user activity and even sell the data to third-party services.

This can be particularly problematic if you’re using a VPN to play PUBG Mobile in a region where the game is banned.

A VPN with a poor logging policy can reveal your online activity and location, potentially causing you legal trouble.

4. Additional PUBG Features: 10%

The best VPNs for PUBG Mobile support split tunneling, allowing you to designate which apps enter the VPN tunnel.

This lets you specify PUBG Mobile for the VPN connection and exempt the rest of your apps.

This is particularly useful if you want to avoid verification checks on banking or retail apps, as well as any location-sensitive software.

Port forwarding is another welcome feature for PUBG Mobile. You can forward your ports to change a strict NAT Type and improve your latency to the PUBG server.