Your Guide to Gaming with Satellite Internet

Modern online gaming is highly dependent on reliable, high-speed internet. While satellite internet isn’t the most optimal type of connection, it’s not impossible to play games online. I highly recommend Starlink for gaming.  Having high download speeds isn’t enough; you also need a low-latency connection to compete in live online games where quick reactions and timing are the difference between victory and failure. 

As a low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite internet service provider, Starlink offers the lowest latency of any satellite provider. Both Hughesnet and Viasat feature decent download speeds, and it’s not impossible to game using them, but they’re far from optimal.

Jumplinks

• Can you game with satellite internet?
• LEO vs. GEO satellite internet
• How much speed do I need for gaming?
• How much data does online gaming use?
• Verdict

If you live in a rural area and don’t have access to fiber or cable, satellite internet may be your only way to get online (even though it won't give you the best experience in online gaming). We won’t lie here—many online games don't perform well on satellite internet. Luckily, satellite internet has advanced enough to rival cable speeds. Satellite connections can chug along at 25 Mbps or even a brisk 100 Mbps. A download speed of 25 Mbps is fast enough to support many types.

But it's not just the speed that matters. The issues you’ll face while gaming on satellite internet are high latency and packet loss. While these won’t make or break your gameplay in most turn-based or role-playing games (RPGs), they could give you grief in first-person shooters (FPS). You'll be able to react faster with low latency.

Latency is the time it takes for a specific piece of data to reach your computer and is measured in milliseconds (ms). You can test your latency by sending a single “ping” to a remote server and timing how long it takes for the signal to return. This is why latency is often called “ping” or “ping rate.”

In this case, a high ping rate will affect the lag in your online game. Latency only affects online games since you're connected to a remote server with other players. Latency won't affect single-player games, since they run locally on your hardware.

Satellite services are divided into two types. The average latency for Geostationary orbit (GEO) satellite internet is between 594 and 624 milliseconds, much higher than for any other type of internet. 

Because they are both GEO satellite providers, Hughesnet and Viasat have latency that is too high to support fast-paced online games. Starlink is different because it uses low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite technology. Its satellites orbit much closer to the planet's atmosphere, enabling lower-latency connections. Starlink has a latency between 20 and 40 milliseconds, which is very optimal for online gaming.

One exception is Hughesnet’s Fusion plan, which combines its satellite capabilities with a fixed-wireless connection. This hybrid plan is said to deliver 100 milliseconds of latency, so while not perfect, it’s the better option for online gaming with Hughesnet.

To play fast-paced, multiplayer games, you need internet latency that’s less than 100 ms. And you’ll have an advantage over other players if your latency is lower than 40 ms. If you look at the chart above, you’ll see that satellite internet connections' latency (or ping) is too high to play multiplayer, fast-paced games successfully.

Satellite internet works by bouncing your data to satellites orbiting 22,300 miles above Earth, then to the game server, then back to the satellite, and finally back to you. (Whew, what a journey!) Because your data has to travel such a great distance, you will experience high latency. There’s just no way around it.

But you can do a few things to reduce latency and avoid the lag hammer.

Here’s how to reduce latency and fix lag:

1. Use a wired connection, not Wi-Fi. Plug in that Ethernet cable, friend!
2. Pause any background downloads.
3. Close any programs that use an internet connection, like Netflix.
4. Restart your router—unplug the power cable, wait a minute or two, then plug it back in again.
5. Connect to game servers closest to your local area. For example, if you live in the Midwest, look for a server located in Chicago.

Keep in mind that your gameplay experience will depend on what you do. For example, you might be fine questing in the Barrens on World of Warcraft, but things might get laggy if you hop into a twenty-man raid. Hosting a game in Stardew Valley may be more problematic than joining someone nearby in multiplayer mode.

You’ll also want to consider how essential split-second actions are. In a fast-paced game like Call of Duty or Fortnite, dodging enemy players and shooting back has to happen quickly for you and your team to achieve victory. There’s no room for high latency here.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recommends speeds of at least 4 Mbps for gaming, but as with all things, more is better.

Luckily, the three big satellite internet providers in the US offer faster speeds than that. Hughesnet connects you at up to 100 Mbps. Viasat internet goes up to 150 Mbps—a speed that rivals cable internet. Finally Starlink can go up to a blazing 220 Mbps.

Regarding data caps, Starlink, Viasat, and Hughesnet advertise “unlimited” data. But the reality is that they can still slow your speed after you use too much. They typically don't cut you off completely; these providers slow you down to a snail's pace.

Viasat offers "unlimited data" but still has a soft cap of 850 GB within 30 days, which they claim is standard usage. It's not guaranteed, but if you reach that threshold, Viasat may slow you down to conserve bandwidth for other customers. You can download and play as much as you like, to a limit. Using too much in a month can result in you being deprioritized by the network.

Hughesnet, on the other hand, caps your data at 100GB to 200GB each month. If you go over that data cap, your speeds will slow to about 1-3 Mbps until the billing cycle ends. Hughesnet lets you purchase additional data when you run out, but it can add up if you use a lot of data.

Starlink provides unlimited high-speed data at the best possible speeds, depending on network congestion in your area. Like Viasat, Starlink will slow down customers who use extraordinary amounts of data. Starlink does offer priority data plans for its top speeds, no matter where you are, but they're pricy and typically marketed to businesses.

You might be surprised to learn that gaming online doesn’t use much data. Playing online games uses only 34 MB of data per hour, making it a reasonably low-data activity. Browsing the internet, for example, uses 184 MB per hour, while streaming 4K video uses a whopping 6.7 GB per hour. It would take you 197 hours of gaming to use up the same amount of data you’d use in streaming one hour of 4K video streaming.

However, downloading games can take up a lot of data. Downloading the game Red Dead Redemption 2 will use 150 GB. Yikes! Games like Animal Crossing are much smaller (Animal Crossing is 6.2 GB), but if you’re gaming on a satellite connection with 100 or 200 GB of data per month, it’s easy to see how downloading games will cost you.

On a satellite connection, downloading a few games could use up a month’s worth of data. Because downloading games eats up so much data, we always recommend buying a physical copy of a game if you can.

We don’t recommend satellite internet for fast-action, multiplayer online gaming. Shooter games will not work well due to the inherent latency of satellite internet connections. However, some games will work with satellite internet.

The good news is you can still play some games online with satellite internet. You just have to jump through a few hoops to do it.