A good ping for gaming is anything under 50 ms. Under 20 ms is excellent, 20–50 ms is good for any game, 50–100 ms is fine for casual and slower games, and above 100 ms you'll start to notice delays. Above 150 ms, competitive play becomes frustrating. Lower is always better, but how much it matters depends on the genre.
Ping ranges at a glance
| Ping | Rating | What it feels like |
|---|---|---|
| 0–20 ms | Excellent | Instant. Ideal for competitive FPS and fighting games |
| 20–50 ms | Good | Smooth. You won't feel a handicap in most games |
| 50–100 ms | Fair | Playable. Small delays in fast shooters |
| 100–150 ms | Poor | Visible lag: late peeks, damage behind cover |
| 150+ ms | Bad | Frustrating in real-time games, OK only for slow genres |
Good ping by game type
Not every game needs the same latency. Fast reactions matter much more in shooters than in strategy games.
| Game type | Examples | Good | Still playable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitive FPS | Valorant, CS2, Rainbow Six Siege | under 30 ms | up to 60 ms |
| Battle royale | Fortnite, Apex Legends, Warzone, PUBG | under 50 ms | up to 80 ms |
| Fighting games | Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 | under 30 ms | up to 70 ms (rollback helps) |
| MOBA | League of Legends, Dota 2 | under 50 ms | up to 90 ms |
| MMO | WoW, FFXIV, Lost Ark | under 80 ms | up to 150 ms |
| Sandbox / casual | Roblox, Minecraft | under 80 ms | up to 150 ms |
| Strategy / turn-based | Civilization, Hearthstone | anything stable | 200+ ms |
Why ping matters so much in shooters
Valorant runs servers at 128 ticks per second, which means a new game state roughly every 8 ms. At 80 ms ping, your view of the world is about ten server updates behind a player on 0 ms. Netcode compensates, but someone has to lose the disagreement. With high ping, it's usually you: you get shot after reaching cover, and the enemy peeks you before you see them.
Ping isn't the only number that matters
A steady 60 ms often feels better than a ping that jumps between 25 and 90 ms. Two other numbers decide how a game feels:
- Jitter — how much ping varies from one packet to the next. Under 5 ms is good; above 20 ms you'll feel stutter.
- Packet loss — the share of packets that never arrive. The target is 0%, and above 1–2% you'll see rubber-banding.
Read more in what is jitter and how to fix packet loss.
How to check your real in-game ping
Speed test websites measure ping to a nearby test server, not to your game. Use the game's own counter instead:
- Valorant: Settings → Video → Stats → Network Round Trip Time
- CS2: Settings → Game → Telemetry → show ping
- Fortnite: Settings → Game UI → Net Debug Stats
- League of Legends: press Ctrl+F in game
- Roblox: Settings → Performance Stats
What is the lowest ping you can get?
It's set by distance. Light in fibre covers roughly 100 km per millisecond of round trip, and routes are never straight. If the nearest server is 500 km away, about 8–12 ms is the realistic floor. Software can remove detours and congestion, but it can't remove distance.
My ping is above "good" — what now?
- Check whether it's constant (distance or route) or spiky (Wi-Fi or congestion).
- Follow our how to reduce ping guide in order.
- If the route is the issue, test a ping booster trial. Our ExitLag alternatives list compares the main options.
