The Best Internet for Gaming in 2024

Verizon Fios has the best average latency, which is exactly what you want. Verizon’s internal network won’t bottleneck your connection, unlike others on our list. The only other provider that comes close to Verizon Fios is Ziply Fiber.

Verizon offers four fiber plans in all, and all of them have symmetrical speeds. You can get the Internet 300/300 plan and have identical upload and download speeds of up to 300Mbps, so there’s no real worry about latency due to upload speeds. Cable internet can’t promise the same peace of mind.

The drawback is Verizon Fios doesn’t go beyond 2,300Mbps, unlike AT&T. On the flip side, Verizon has a larger fiber footprint than AT&T: 65% of its service area has fiber, whereas AT&T’s fiber covers 31% of its service areas. Plus, Verizon received excellent customer feedback for speed and reliability in our latest customer satisfaction survey.

If you want fiber for internet gaming or livestreaming, Verizon Fios is an excellent choice.

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Spectrum has the widest availability of all the internet providers on our list, covering 38.3% of the US. It delivers mostly cable internet and some fiber.

The big selling point for Spectrum is that it doesn’t have a data cap. Its main competitor, Xfinity, limits your data allowance to 1.2TB per month and charges an additional $30 a month for unlimited data. Spectrum doesn’t do that, which is vital since game files and updates shoot up into gigabytes.

Spectrum also doesn’t have a monthly modem or gateway rental fee, but you do pay a monthly WiFi access fee unless you install a store-bought gaming router. In that case, have Spectrum disable WiFi in the gateway or return Spectrum’s standalone router to remove the monthly fee.

Overall. Spectrum’s cable internet service is your best bet for competitive gaming online if fiber isn’t available in your area. You can’t go wrong with the Spectrum Internet Premier and Spectrum Internet Gig plans.

Xfinity is the third-largest internet provider, covering 34.2% of the US. That gives it the upper hand over Astound Broadband, another cable internet provider with better latency but a smaller footprint. Spectrum is Xfinity’s biggest competitor and has a slightly higher latency.

Xfinity’s cable internet reaches up to 1,200Mbps in download speed and up to 35Mbps in upload speed. Xfinity also offers a residential fiber plan based on its metro business fiber service, but it’s so scarce we don’t even list it. Plus, it’s expensive and comes with high installation fees. We don’t recommend this plan even though we prefer fiber over cable. However, it seems customers get along just fine with Xfinity’s cable connections, as Xfinity earned the average speed satisfaction ratings two years in a row in our annual customer satisfaction survey.

The big drawback with Xfinity is its 1.2TB data cap—it’s one of seven that limit your data each month. That can be problematic if you install digital games rather than physical ones. The cap can also be a burden when installing updates that reach up to 100 GB and beyond. You can pay an extra $30 per month for unlimited data, but that’s an extra $360 per year.

That said, if fiber or Spectrum isn’t available in your area, Xfinity is your next best choice for gaming online.

AT&T is now one of the fastest big-name internet providers in the US with its 5Gbps plan, which, honestly, is a little overkill for home internet. A single 8K video stream will probably require at least 50Mbps, so even a gigabit plan should handle the load easily.

As a gamer, you want AT&T’s fiber internet over its DSL service. Sure, you can game online with DSL, but you get better speeds if you go with fiber—which translates to better latency. Surprisingly, AT&T has a lower latency average than Google Fiber, but it’s far higher than Verizon Fios (fiber), Astound Broadband (cable), and Xfinity (cable).

AT&T is one of the best high speed internet providers in terms of price. It ranks second for price satisfaction in our latest customer satisfaction survey, behind only T-Mobile. For example, you can get AT&T’s 500Mbps fiber plan for $65 per month, which is slightly cheaper than Spectrum’s 500Mbps cable plan. After 12 months, AT&T becomes a far better deal, costing you $30 less than Spectrum—plus you get symmetrical speeds with AT&T.

AT&T is the second-largest internet provider on our list, serving 36.5% of the US. Its fiber plans don’t have data caps, but its DSL and fixed wireless internet services do.

Overall, you should choose a fiber plan from AT&T if it’s in your area—even if Verizon Fios offers a similar service.

Google Fiber offers residential fiber internet speeds up to 8,000Mbps, but it’s extremely limited in availability, covering just 1.3% of the US. Right now, you can get it in 11 locations, including Atlanta, Nashville, Salt Lake City, and Kansas City.

Google Fiber’s biggest competitor is AT&T in terms of speed. Both offer similar 1Gbps and 2Gbps plans, but AT&T has a larger fiber footprint. Of the two, Google Fiber is $10 cheaper each month than AT&T.

Surprisingly, Google Fiber’s average latency is more than doubled that of Verizon Fios at 27.4 ms, but you’ll see faster speeds with Google. Both Google Fiber plans lock the maximum upload speeds to 1,000Mbps, while Verizon’s maximum is 880Mbps.

We strongly recommend Google Fiber if it’s available in your area.