We review products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Terms of use. Whether you stream on your PC, play via a console or even on your phone, you'll need a solid Internet connection in order to install updates, patches - not to mention download the games in the first place. If you're streaming, playing an MMO, connecting with thousands of gamers around the world in real time, it’s even more crucial your connection doesn’t drop out. So, what should you look out for when choosing a gaming internet provider, how can you make sure your network runs at its best and which are the best broadband providers for gaming? Sky Broadband Although Virgin Media may boast the top speeds, when it comes to peak time latency, packet loss and connection stability, Sky Superfast leads the pack. If you’re streaming on Twitch or YouTube, latency and stability matters more than bandwidth. That said, Sky's top package (£32/month) offers 59Mbps average download and upload speeds of 19Mbps. You never want your internet to suddenly slow down, so thankfully all of Sky’s broadband packages are exempt from traffic management, so if no matter what you're doing, at any time, Sky won't reduce your speeds. Sky uses BT's Openreach network to deliver its ADSL and FTTC services and is available in the great majority of homes which can get an Openreach line. Plusnet Broadband Plusnet’s maximum speed is also 66Mbps and it outranks Sky on latency loss, according to Ofcom’s latest UK Home Broadband Research, although its packet loss stats are not as favourable as the majority of other providers. Plusnet actually prioritises traffic for gamers too, so if you’re looking for a provider that has your gaming interests at heart, it’s certainly one of the options to look at thoroughly. With top-level customer service too, Plusnet is a great option. Plusnet’s Unlimited Fibre plan costs £23.50/month for either an 18-month or 12-month contract. Plusnet is owned by BT and uses the Openreach network to connect customers to its ADSL and FTTC services, which are available to the majority of homes in the UK. Virgin Media Broadband Virgin Media's M350 plan has been built for gamers, giving you average peak time download speeds of 350Mbps and uploads of 36Mbps, which will see you right when downloading big day one patches or uploading content to your channels. The other great thing about Virgin Media’s top cable broadband package is that it’s not constrained by the traffic management policy which throttles uploads on the 100Mbps, 200Mbps, and 350Mbps packages during peak hours. Unfortunately, Virgin Media’s cable network isn’t available everywhere, covering, at the time of writing, roughly 14 million addresses, equivalent to about 50 per cent of the UK. (Although it is available in the majority of big towns and cities, unlike Gigaclear), but Ofcom’s customer satisfaction report shows it was the highest performer across mainstream services. Hyperoptic Broadband Hyperoptic is one of the UK's leading gigabit internet providers. It offers full fibre, right to the premises, which means you could have up to 1Gbps piped into your home. There are absolutely no download limits on Hyperoptic's plans and because it's not even widely taken up yet, you won't suffer with any latency from other users, nor will your speeds be throttled at peak times. Sounds too good to be true? The one disadvantage to Hyperoptic is that the company has mainly installed its FTTP wares to multi-level properties, blocks of flats, in a limited number of areas. Although it's available in 30 cities across the UK, in over 100,000 premises, it may not be available in your street just yet. In some areas, including Salford and Southwark, Hyperoptic has worked with local authorities to deliver its basic services to council buildings, so it’s not just for people who can afford to live in shiny new developments, but it’s still not going to be as widely available as other services. If Hyperoptic is available in your area, its 1Gbps plan will set you back £45/month for the first year. Gigaclear Broadband Like Hyperoptic, Gigaclear is a gigabit broadband provider, offering FTTP services. It's available in even fewer places than Hyperoptic at the moment, concentrating on connecting rural communities which have been poorly served by bigger ISPs. If you can get Gigaclear, or a community nearby is installing it, you should considering applying to join - or start a petition of your own - because its service really is cutting edge. It's been rated the best for speed, best for service and reliability in numerous surveys, but it's major disadvantage is that it's only really available on rural communities. A 1Gbps, totally unlimited package will set you back a rather hefty £75/month, with £30 set up fees, so you need to be serious about gaming if you're signing up for this package. Consider These Factors Speed It'll come as no surprise that speed should be a major consideration when choosing a gaming internet service provider. Although it's not the most important aspect of gaming, ensuring you have the bandwidth you need to stream gaming content to your PC or download games onto your console and play multiplayer without a hitch, you'll want a connection of at least 50Mbps to support all the gaming action. Not only does speed mean the content will be delivered faster, it also means if there is more than one person laying on the network at any time, you can still play hopefully without a hitch. Your connection is shared with others in your home, so although a provider may say you'll be getting a certain speed, this is significantly impacted if lots of people are using the connection at the same time. Download limits The next thing you'll need to look into carefully is whether your provider puts any limits on your internet connection. Look for a completely or "truly" unlimited plan to make sure you're not stung mid-way through your gaming session. Some internet providers will throttle your connection when you reach your limit, meaning it's barely useful for searching in Google, while others will charge on a per MB basis if you go over the limits, which could result in a rather hefty and unexpected bill at the end of the month. Although it’s unlikely your internet will just stop, it’s worth checking what the ISP’s policy is if you go over your limits. Thankfully, the majority of ISPs have started opening up their broadband download limits now to make them completely unlimited, so you should be able to game for as long as you like without being impacted. Do check carefully though before you sign the contract that the plan is truly unlimited. Low latency Latency refers to the amount of time it takes for a packet of data to travel through the network. It's measured in lots of different ways, such as round trip, one way and can be impacted by any number of factors, such as the router failing, lots of devices on the network, the server from which the data is originating not pushing the data through particularly efficiently. If you’re using a reliable, trustworthy site to download games from or stream them, this latter issue shouldn’t be an issue. In fact, many of these elements can be removed from the equation (see our tips below), but it's important to choose an ISP that provides the lowest latency levels to make sure you're not making a bad situation worse. Packet data loss When data is sent across a network, some of these packets may drop out along the way. It’s more common when using wireless networks rather than an ethernet connection or if the network you’re using is congested. The impact on your gaming experience will mean the data doesn’t transfer as smoothly, leading to a bit of a jittery experience. Some providers offer better performance than others, dropping fewer packets along the way. No traffic management Traffic management exists so at peak times of the day (evening and weekends), everyone experiences a similar service. Some ISPs will slow down your connection at peak times to make sure everyone has a fair service, so those who are streaming a film from Netflix has the same speed as those downloading a game onto their PS4, for example. The way the ISP does this is by slowing down the individual connections so it can cope with all the concurrent connections. Although some think this is unfair, it's the fairest way networks can make sure some people aren't hogging the network, but it can be frustrating for those that are only able to access the net in the peak hours. The majority of big ISPs do this this at least some extent, so you'll need to investigate carefully into when throttling is active to see whether it suits your gaming habits or not. However, if you opt for the top-range package, you may find traffic management is disabled. No downtime There's nothing more frustrating than getting to a key part of the action for your connection to go down. Often, these are situations out of the service provider's control, but unfortunately, some ISPs just don't have the most robust infrastructure. You'll also find customer service varies. If your connection is going up and down like a yo-yo, you'll probably want to speak to someone who can try and sort it out for you. If an ISP is nigh on impossible to get in contact with, you may want to avoid them, just in case something does happen. Every year, Ofcom releases a report into internet service provider customer service, so you might want to reference the latest report to make sure your ISP will offered best service possible, should something go wrong. Low contention ratio This relates to the number of people using the same broadband connection at the same time, usually from the same cabinet. For example, if everyone on your street is using one provider, the cabinet will be sending everyone broadband via cable to their homes. The more people using a provider, the slowest the connection, hence why most suppliers throttle speeds at peak times. It's a good idea to choose a supplier that doesn't have too many people sharing the same connection and the best way to do this is look at the distribution of broadband providers in your area, using a broadband speed testing tool. Type of connection As a general rule, fibre connections offer more speed because they don’t rely on old copper wires to deliver the broadband to your home. If you want to get really technical, it's worth considering a provider that offers FTTP (Fibre to the Premises), which ensures you're connected to the network end-to-end with fibre. As well as giving you bandwidth that's not possible with ADSL or even FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet), even more crucially, you'll benefit from much lower latency. Even providers that claim to offer fibre broadband to customers, this only means it's fibre to the cabinet and then cooper wires will be used to pipe the net to your home. Virgin is the one exception in the list of mainstream broadband providers, but it still uses a hybrid cable rather than full fibre connection. For full FTTP options, look into gigabit broadband providers such as Gigaclear or Hyperoptic that avoid copper totally. Tips for getting the most out of your broadband connection while gaming Change your router Although many of the routers that come with a broadband package, from your ISP are pretty good for a standard broadband connection, such as surfing the web and the suchlike, they’re not always designed for super-powered activities such as gaming - especially if your router doesn’t have a vast number of ethernet ports (see our next point). If this is the case and you're finding your router just isn’t giving you the performance you need, it's perhaps time to think about buying a replacement. If you need help deciphering the specs of routers, or router settings for optimal performance, our guide can give you some pointers. Read next: How to Change Your Router Settings Use a wired connection If you want to take advantage of the guest speeds possible, switch from wi-fi to ethernet. Wired connections produce much more stability and less interference from other devices and were not just talking other wi-fi enabled devices either. Any electrical item such as a microwave, TV (even if it's not connected to the internet) and household items can interfere with a wi-fi connection. Wi-fi doesn't travel through solid walls particularly well either. Using ethernet guarantees you're directly connected to the internet and therefore, it's a much better option for operating high-intensity applications. Turn off all other internet-connected devices Even if you're getting 300Mbps or even 1Gbps at the router level, the more devices you connect, the more the connection is split between all devices using it at the same time. Turning off all other internet-connected devices (and we mean unhooking Ethernet cables and disabling WiFi completely, not just switching the TV off) for example, means all the speed goodness will only be routed to your game-playing device, whether that's a console or a PC.

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