The Best Gaming ISPs for 2020

Gaming is serious fun, butit'salso serious business, with 2.5 billion gamers worldwide. For true gamers,it'sa way of life—and maybe even a way to make a living. E-atheletes are everywhere now, and according to research fromClick4Reg(Opens in a new window), the highest earning tournament player inRocket Leaguemade $197,197 last year. That'sjustthe tip of the iceberg when it comes to thegreatest gaming tournaments in the world．

Practice makes perfect, but online gaming prowess also requires a high-quality connection.It'snot so much about speed and throughput, as most of the hard work when it comes to the gameplay is still handled locally on your PC or console. If you want speed, check outThe Fastest ISPs of 2019．

ISPqualityis something different. It means having a connection with low latency andverylittle jitter—issues that can be the difference between a big win and humiliating defeat.

Methodology

How we do this story is too important to leave to the end, as it'll help you understand the numbers below.

This is our fifth look at the Best Gaming ISPs. All results come from our personalizedPCMag Speed Test(Opens in a new window)tool.

Each test records the name of the ISP, location, and the usual info on the connection, such as download and upload speed. For ourFastest ISPs stories, we use that up/down number of Megabits per second (Mbps) to create what we call the PCMag Speed Index. That score allows instant comparison of ISP to ISP for average throughput. The formulae is 80 percent of the download speed plus 20 percent of the upload speed, rendered in Microsoft Excel as =((0.8*100)+(0.2*20)); we think download is probably a little more important than upload, but we provide all the numbers so you can decide for yourself.

None of which really matters that much if you're gaming. Even the lowest-end broadband is fine for most games (you'll want a fast connection for all the downloadable content and updates). The rendering of the game on screen is handled by theconsoles,gaming laptops, ordesktops．

What gamers require is low latency.Latencyis the average amount of time, measured in milliseconds, that it takes a packet to traverse the internet from your home, to a server, then back to you. The lower the number, the better. Low latency means less lag. The PCMag Speed Test also checks the connection forjitter, which is itself a check on the consistency of the latency of the connection to the ISP. Low jitter and low latency are what you want.

We simply add them up and call the result thePCMag Gaming QualityIndex．Lower is better for quality—the opposite of speed, where higher is better. You can't reach zero latency/jitter on any connection, ever, butit'snice to try.

The tests used in this story were performed between Dec. 1, 2018 and Dec. 6, 2019. We used 239,672 US-based tests to quantify the results (we gathered 332,143 tests worldwide). All results came from thePCMag Speed Test tool(Opens in a new window)．For an ISP to be included in the regional sectionsit had to have a minimum of 100 tests．For the nationwide results, we did the same as in our Fastest ISPs: the first list is all "major" ISPs that hadat least 1,000 tests, have a reach of at least 1 million customers, and serve multiple states. We also looked at "all" ISPs, where we compared any and all named ISPs that delivered at least 100 tests.

We know that you probably love your local gigabit+ capable mega-ISP. You might be miffed that it doesn't appear here. So please note:ISPs need a certain number of results to be included for statistical validity．If they don't have 100 tests and don't have an extremely low PCMag Gaming Quality Index, those ISPs don't appear in the story. Sorry not sorry.

Previous iterations of the PCMag Speed Test required a web browser running Adobe Flash and JavaScript to work. The latest version, implemented on PCMag.com in April 2017, supports HTML5 and works on mobile browsers. Ourinternational-user friendly PCMag Speed Test(Opens in a new window)works on any browser and is not HTTPS specific.

Note that some results for wireless carriers do appear in the results but speed-wise they are generally outclassed today by modern wired connections like cable and fiber. For more advanced testing of the nation's major wireless carriers, we do our own city-to-city driving tests for theFastest Mobile Networks．

The Best Gaming ISPs in the US

我们的大变化的方法fromlast yearis that we're breaking the list in two, with major ISPs—those you have a chance of having at home, even if competition in this arena is almost non-existent—andthen ALL the ISPs. That includes the little niche/local/metro ISPs you can only use if you live in their limited service areas.

Starting with the major ISPs, it's no surprise to seeVerizon Fioson the top of the list. It's a long-time winner of our Fastest ISPs tests, and has always placed well when it comes to gaming ISP quality. That's thanks to being a service exclusively with fiber-to-the-home service; Verizon smartly markets its DSL services and wireless services separately, so Fios isn't diluted by their slower speeds.

You can see in our interactive chart below by clicking on the tabs that Verizon's Gaming Quality Index of 16.9 (which is an improvement over last year's 21.8) is matched on the speed side with the highest Speed Index score among the majors.

Note that last time, when we lumped all the ISPs together, Verizon Fios was only in second place for gaming quality. Hotwire Communications was No. 1 with a 9.5, and this year, its Gaming Quality score went up a trifle to 11.9. But a number of small, nimble ISPs providing fiber service managed to leap above Hotwire, which largely serves multi-dwelling units in the southeastern US.

The best score in the "all ISPs" category isDirectLink．That's a cooperative association ISP found in Canby and Mount Angel, Oregon, where members are owners. Last year, it won the regional award in the Northwest while sporting the fastest Gaming Quality Index score we'd ever seen at the time of 6.9. This year, it trounceditsown number and earned a 5.2. That's a number that will be tough to beat on a national level (it helps that DirectLink isn't really national, only local).

It seems even more impressive when you click the Speed Index tab and see DirectLink was far from the fastest ISP in our tests—it is,in fact, the slowest of the top 10 for Best Gaming. But speed and quality aren't always in direct correlation on an internet connection.

Let's also note that services like Webpass (Google Fiber's service for apartments and condos), Allo in Nebraska, and MetroNet in Indiana all had enviable scores. So did Sonic in the Bay Area, our Fastest ISP winner earlier this year, with a Gaming Quality Index of 10.9.

Best Gaming ISPs of 2020 by Region

If you think you'll simply change your ISP after reading this story to take advantage of better quality to feed yourFortniteaddiction, think again. Competition between ISPs is not easy to find, at least not at a level where consumers can switch back and forth. So each time we look at ISP speeds or quality, we break it down by the regions of the United States where you at least have a chance of making a switch between providers that could show some improvement.

North Central

Includes: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, and WI

Last year the best quality gaming was locked down by Ohio's FairlawnGig with an 11.4, but this year it crept up to a 13.8 and fell to third place. It would be there even if it had stayed the same, because the previously mentionedAlloandMetronetjumped ahead of those scores with a 10.2 and 10.6, respectively. Speedwise, none of them hold a candle to Google Fiber, but they should more than satisfy the average gamer.

Northeast

Includes: CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, VT, and WV

Verizon Fioshas sold off some ofitsservices to Frontier in other parts of the country, but it has a stronghold in the Northeast and won't let go. Last year it won this area with a Gaming Quality Index of 21.8, and did so again this year, besting that score with a 16.9. (It also has the fastest speeds in the Northeast in this set of tests). Optimum, RCN, Comcast Xfinity, Suddenlink, and Cox also all had a nice increases in quality.

Northwest

Includes: CO, ID, MT, OR, UT, WA, and WY

DirectLink, our national "All ISPs" winner,almostbroke the record for quality this year (see below under the Southeast for the record breaker). Since DirectLink is only in the northwestern US it won this region as well. What's most shocking in this chart is the placement of Comcast Xfinity at No. 2 with a 20.2 Gaming Quality Index. Xfinity actually places onallof our six regional charts, but this is the only one where it gets quite so high.It's一个很好的改善指数在去年的31.7the region, and enough to stay slightly ahead of Nextlight out of Longmont, Colorado, last year's second place finisher (and the fastest ISP among these tests). Again, for quality, no one in America can touch DirectLink.It'slike an invitation to esports pros that they should move to the town south of Portland, Oregon.

South Central

Includes: AR, LA, MS, OK, and TX

Frontierwas in second place here last year, thanks to it buying up all those fiber-to-the-home connections from Verizon Fios. It built upon the quality of those connections from last year's 24.9 to drop to an excellent Gaming Quality of 15.0 this year, propelling Frontier to the top spot. The competition is fierce among local ISPs with names like GigaMonster and MaxxSouth trying hard to keep up. Last year's winner, the Austin, Texas-based placement of Google Fiber, dropped from a 22.3 to a 24.4, which doesn't seem like much but ever millisecond counts.

Southeast

Includes: AL, FL, GA, NC, SC, and TN

Wow, gamers need apartments withWebpass．现在的服务,谷歌旗下的纤维,是唯一的in select cities; in the Southeast that includes Miami, Miami Beach, and Coral Gables. It is from the multi-dwelling-units there that we saw the absolute best gaming score of all time for a region, Webpass's 4.7. It didn't score as high nationally because the numbers went up when you factor in Webpass users in cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston—but it still only went up to a 7.6 nationally, so those cities didn't drag it down much. That 4.7 in the southeast kept Webpass well ahead of the MDU-provider competition from Hotwire, and the local-utility company provider EPB in Chattanooga, despite both of them also having amazing scores. They were both in the lead last year, so who knows what 2021 will bring.

Southwest

Includes: AZ, NM, NV, and CA

Sonic,2019's fastest ISP, was also the year's highest quality ISP, and that remains the same going into 2020. Sonic reducedits Gaming Quality Index by almost half, from 20.6 to 10.9, an excellent achievement. CCI and Verizon Internet (not Fios!) remain in second and third, both with improved scores.

For Alaska and Hawaii, here's the gist. The only ISP in Alaska with enough results for us to include always seems to beGCI, and this year it earned a Gaming Quality Index of 24.2, which is a significant improvement overits66.3 number in 2019. Alaska on the whole (across all ofitsISPs) had an excellent index of 26.3. Hawaii's best gaming ISP is once againHawaiian Telecomwith a score of 34.6, well ahead of last year's 52.4. The state as a whole got a 60.6 score.

The Best Gaming ISP by State

If you can trust averages, looking at the Gaming Quality Index state by state may give you an idea of what region might help improve your game. Here's a heatmap of the US showing the states with the lowest Gaming Quality Indices—the darker the color purple, the more an e-athelete would want to move there for the least amount of latency. If you're not clear by the colors (or up on your geography) the top states are North Dakota (18.1), Rhode Island (21.1), Florida (22.7), Maryland (22.8), and Massachusetts (22.8). Dead last: Idaho at 71.9.