Is 5G good for gaming? In short, yes.

With coverage growing every year you might be wondering is 5G good for gaming? Well, the answer is yes but with a few things to know. Let’s break it down.

A 5G cellular connection is quickly becoming the new standard, and its dominance is only going to grow. This means that eventually, you can be pretty sure all new phones will have 5G compatibility and a huge amount of the country will have coverage.

Smartphones jump into people’s minds when they think of 5G, and it is true that, more and more, we expect the best gaming phones to have 5G compatibility. However, there are loads of portable devices that can come with the option of a cellular connection. As a result, often we can get the latest best gaming laptops with cellular capabilities.

So what does this mean for online non-WiFi gaming? We’re going to be breaking down all the current ways 5G is brilliant for gaming, and then talk a bit about the future possibilities of the technology.

Is 5G good for gaming?

5G is, to put it simply, very fast. It has a peak download speed of over 1Gbps and an average of 186Mbps. This is, of course, far better than 4G’s average of 35Mbps, and even outperforms some of the best fibre optic connections.

A typical fibre broadband connection will see a peak download speed of 1Gbps with an average of around 100Mbps. This means that both 5G and fibre broadband connections are far above the recommended minimum speed needed for online gaming of 35Mbps, making for a smoother experience.

This faster speed is even more useful when it comes to downloading games, where the higher speed will mean less waiting for new downloads or for pesky updates to install.

There are some areas where 5G performs slightly worse than broadband, however. For example, it has an average latency of 30ms, compared to just 15ms, on average, for fibre broadband. However, 5G is only improving in this area, and it looks set to keep reducing this latency, all the way down to a possible mere 1ms. This would make it exceptionally good for gaming.

The other obvious advantage of 5G, is its portability. You aren’t limited to having to find a suitable Wi-Fi network in order to get yourself online. This means you can pick up gaming sessions where you left off, whether you are waiting for a train, or sitting in a cafe somewhere.

While this is slightly limited just now by limited 5G coverage, the possibilities of this are limitless. As 5G coverage grows globally this advantage will only become greater.

How could 5G improve gaming?

There are two specific areas where the future of gaming could be realised hand in hand with 5G technology. These are cloud-based gaming and VR.

In both instances, they would benefit from the faster download speeds 5G is capable of.

For cloud-based gaming, this would increase all the benefits it already offers, meaning more people could play more powerful games on systems that would never be able to keep up usually.

The same is true with VR. Hard work is already going into 5G headsets and we’re likely to start seeing them appearing soon. If a VR headset could make use of cloud-based gaming over 5G, it could spell smaller and lighter headsets. This is because the computing could be done remotely and transmitted to the headset over 5G.

We know that 5G will only get faster and more accessible, this means that it could be a good idea to think about making the switch soon, as adopting the technology early could mean you get ahead of the curve.

Frequently asked questions

Does cloud gaming have lag?

If your connection speed is not fast or stable enough, you may experience lag when using cloud-based gaming.

How do I know if my area has 5G?

You can check online using 5G coverage checker tools. Right now 5G is being rolled out in many cities across the world, so it’s very possible that you have access to the technology.