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Best VPN for Gaming

Best VPN for Gaming in 2024: Best Gaming VPN Server for Online Play

Even when gaming, you may want to think about using a VPN. Not only will you keep your connection protected, but you can also access servers and games you normally couldn't, adding to your fun.

Jacob RoachAndrej Hadji-VasilevAleksandar Kochovski

Written by Jacob Roach (Former Writer, Former Managing Editor) & Andrej Hadji-Vasilev (Writer)

Reviewed by Aleksandar Kochovski (Editor)

Last Updated: 2024-02-20T13:42:39+00:00

All our content is written fully by humans; we do not publish AI writing. Learn more here.

In this guide to the best VPN for gaming, we’re going to explain why you should use a virtual private network when playing online. If you’re a gamer and tech enthusiast, it’s easy to get offended by the barrage of “gamer” products — like blue-light filter glasses — that plague the internet. It may be tempting to put virtual private networks in that category, but you shouldn’t.

Though VPN services are mostly used to access exclusive titles on Netflix or protect people from the onslaught of government spying in foreign countries, using a gaming VPN is a wise move. Not only can it protect your privacy while gaming online, but it can also help you avoid things like ISP throttling and lack of online security. 

Key Takeaways:

  • ExpressVPN gets you a combination of speed, latency and security that makes it the best VPN for gaming. 
  • NordVPN is another premium provider that is neck-and-neck against ExpressVPN for upload and download speeds, but its latency is higher.
  • Surfshark and CyberGhost are excellent alternatives if you’re looking for something affordable.
  • ProtonVPN and Windscribe are both solid free choices for a gaming VPN.

ExpressVPN is our top pick for the best gaming VPN, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. It has the best blend of features, security and speed, making it an ideal choice for almost any scenario. Even so, there are other VPN services that play the gaming VPN role well, so read on if you want more options.

  • 01/01/2022 Facts checked

    Since the last time we looked at the best VPN for gaming, Surfshark made our list at spot number three.

  • Updated the guide to include VPN speed charts; moved CyberGhost to fifth place.

Top VPNs for Gaming

  1. 1
    • : PayPal, Credit card, Bitcoin, PaymentWall
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    • : PayPal, Credit card, Google Pay, AmazonPay, ACH Transfer, Cash
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  3. 3
    • : PayPal, Credit card, Google Pay, Amazon Pay
    • : Unlimited
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    • : PayPal, Credit card, bitcoin, Amazon Pay
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  5. 5
    • : PayPal, Credit card, Cash, Bank Transfer, Bitcoin Cash, bank wires, EPS transfer, Monero, Swish, Giropay, Bancontact, Przelewy24, iDEAL
    • : 5
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What Makes the Best VPN for Gaming?

When we recommend VPNs, gaming isn’t the first topic that comes up. Anyone well versed in the internet understands that VPNs protect your privacy from government agencies, internet service providers and network snoopers. Though that’s easy to see, the upside for gaming isn’t as apparent.

  1. ExpressVPN — The best, fast VPN with good latency for gaming
  2. NordVPN — Fast and affordable, but latency falls just short of ExpressVPN
  3. Surfshark — Excellent value gaming VPN with decent speed performance
  4. Mullvad — Very secure VPN, provides better worldwide latency average
  5. CyberGhost — Highly affordable VPN with great server network

Because VPNs affect speed, we picked providers from our fastest VPN guide to ensure you don’t lag out.

A faster VPN will give you more overhead, so even if you do lose a bit of speed, you still have more than enough to comfortably keep on gaming. If a VPN hogs your speed too much, you’ll end up with a subpar gaming experience at best, especially if it causes dips in latency.

Download Speed (Higher is better)
Upload Speed (Higher is better)
Source: Cloudwards VPN Speed Test. We test daily. Data averaged from 02/19/24 to 03/18/24
Data for region:

Online Gaming With a VPN: Latency & Ping

When it comes to online gaming, latency is the most important metric. Latency refers to how long it takes for the signal to go from your device to the game’s server and back. Read our speed vs latency guide to learn more.

By using a gaming VPN, you add another server the signal needs to pass through, which will make latency worse. Choosing a VPN that has a minimal impact on latency is particularly important for gamers. Generally, latency of 40 to 60 ms (or less) is acceptable for gaming, while latency near 100 ms will result in noticeable lag.

Latency (Lower is better)
Source: Cloudwards VPN Speed Test. We test daily. Data averaged from 02/19/24 to 03/18/24
Data for region:

The security aspect of VPNs isn’t lost, either. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks have been a devil for gamers: we’ve included some of the best VPNs for DDoS protection. Plus, without protection, you run the risk of falling victim of cybercrime. A gaming VPN will encrypt your connection so no one can get into your data stream.

The 5 Best VPNs for Gaming

We picked the providers based on the aforementioned list of priorities, but we also considered their pricing, how easy they are to use and the features they have. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the best gaming VPN providers.

1. ExpressVPN

expressvpn windows client
ExpressVPN’s customizable toolbar lets you use shortcuts for easy access.

More details about ExpressVPN:

  • Pricing: $6.67 per month for the yearly plan, plus three months free
  • Provider website: expressvpn.com

Pros:

  • Excellent speeds & latency
  • Great security
  • App for almost any platform 

Cons:

  • Expensive

ExpressVPN is the best VPN on the market, so it’s no surprise that it tops this list. In addition to being the fastest VPN we’ve tested, it is especially good at bypassing geoblocks, making it an excellent choice for snagging an exclusive on PSN or protecting yourself while gaming online. Not to mention its top-notch security, which will come in handy with things like DDoS attacks.

Our unprotected latency started at 23 ms in the U.S. The average latency with U.S. servers was 26, while the average latency for servers around the world was 331 ms. That means our latency increased by 14x during testing with servers around the world, but it increased just over 1x for U.S. servers.

It’s one thing to be fast when connecting to a server close to home, but if you’re trying to access competition in other parts of the world, you may run into more lag issues.

Excellent Platform Compatibility

ExpressVPN has apps for almost every platform, which is especially important for gaming. No VPN we’ve tested has apps for Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5, and ExpressVPN doesn’t break that trend (though it is our top pick for the best VPN for Xbox One).

Even so, it has a simple installer for routers, which will secure all of your outgoing traffic, regardless of which device you’re gaming on. It’s also the best VPN for Discord if you want to securely communicate with teammates.

cta expressvpn gaming
Even though it won’t lower your ping, ExpressVPN has a minimal impact on it.

ExpressVPN is not just the best VPN for gaming, but also the most expensive one. However, in our ExpressVPN review we’ve found it’s worth every penny, and if you get it and don’t agree with that, you have a 30-day money-back guarantee to fall back on.

2. NordVPN

nordvpn ui us
NordVPN’s map-based UI makes it a breeze to use, showing you exactly where you’re tunneling through. 

More details about NordVPN:

  • Pricing: $3.71 per month for the two-year plan
  • Provider website: nordvpn.com

Pros:

  • Very feature-rich
  • Built-in malware & ad blocker 
  • Excellent security

Cons:

  • Inconsistent speeds across servers

NordVPN offers a blend of security and speed that marks it as a premium VPN provider. In our U.S. speed tests, it managed a latency of just 25 ms, which was very close to our unprotected latency of 13 ms — just under a 2x increase. However, the latency for servers around the world averaged 369 ms, which is an increase of 28 times.

Everything else about the service is great. NordVPN is on par with ExpressVPN when it comes to bypassing geoblocks, so you should be able to browse region-locked servers or find games that are exclusive to other parts of the world. It’s also got peer-to-peer servers in case you want to torrent a game…only for testing purposes, of course. 

Specialty Servers Galore

NordVPN has several types of specialty servers, but for gaming, the ones that should be of interest are the Onion over VPN servers and the obfuscated servers. Both are incredibly secure, with the former routing your connection through the Onion network (in addition to the VPN server), and the latter being excellent for users who want to game from countries with restricted access. 

cta nordvpn gaming
Notice how NordVPN puts an emphasis on security on their website? That’s not a coincidence. 

As we mentioned in our NordVPN review, the service is fairly affordable if you commit to a two-year plan, and if you decide it doesn’t keep your latency low on the servers you’re tunneling to, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee.

3. Surfshark

gaming surfshark
Surfshark’s server list is divided in a few categories, making it easy to find the right server for the purpose. 

More details about Surfshark:

  • Pricing: $2.29 per month for the two-year plan
  • Provider website: surfshark.com

Pros:

  • Unlimited simultaneous connections
  • Very low latency
  • Well-organized server list

Cons:

  • Expensive monthly plan

Surfshark’s forte is that it doesn’t really have a single strength, but is instead an excellent all-around VPN. This makes it perfect for gaming, because it combines all the things you need a gaming VPN to do in one easy-to-use package. There’s a double-hop functionality, an ad blocker, and even an antivirus (at a monthly premium, of course).

As we mentioned in our Surfshark review, the VPN provider has a respectable number of servers. At the time of writing, you have over 3,200 servers in 65 locations, which lets you get region-specific games very easily.

Surfshark did very well with latency when close to home. Compared to our unprotected latency of 19 ms, the U.S. server increased it by about 1.5x to 29 ms. The average latency for worldwide servers were 376 ms, or about 20x increase, which actually beats NordVPN’s results. However, NordVPN offers other security features that helps it rank higher in this list.

Unlimited Simultaneous Connections and Data

If you’re gaming on multiple devices (or sharing your VPN account with your family), Surfshark lets you use it on as many devices as you want at the same time. There is no data limit either, and it has VPN apps for most popular platforms. This makes it a great option for multi-player games: it’s one of the best VPNs for FFXIV.

cta sufrshark gaming
Surfshark’s website explains what you get when you use the service with a strong focus on security.

While it’s certainly not affordable on a monthly plan, Surfshark’s long-term plans are among the best VPN deals. You also get 30 days to change your mind and ask for a refund.

Surfshark Starter
  • Unlimited GB bandwidth, Unlimited devices, Secure VPN, Ad blocker, Cookie pop-up blocker.
  • Unlimited GB
  • Unlimited
  • Yes
Surfshark One
  • Everything in Starter, plus Antivirus protection, Identity protection, Email Breach and Credit Card Alerts, Online Alias
  • Unlimited GB
  • Unlimited
Surfshark One+
  • Everything in One, plus Data removal
  • Unlimited GB
  • Unlimited

4. Mullvad

linux mullvadvpn
Mullvad’s bare-bones UI doesn’t really show you much, but the VPN service covers the basics very well.

More details about Mullvad:

Pros:

  • Doesn’t store any user data
  • Very fast
  • Affordable

Cons:

  • Not exactly feature-rich 

Mullvad doesn’t often make our “best VPN” guides, despite being an excellent service. Though it doesn’t do anything especially well, it offers good security and speed for the price.

We measured an average latency of 24 ms during testing, which was 1.6x increase from our unprotected latency of 15 ms. For servers around the world, Mullvad actually averaged better results, with 261 ms, an increase of 17.5x.

Unfortunately, the VPN fails to impress when it comes to features. Almost any Mullvad alternative has more features, and while it gets you the basics like a kill switch and a strict no-logs policy, it doesn’t really do much else. We cover this in more detail in our Mullvad VPN review.

Innovative Sign-Up Process

When it comes to gaming VPNs, Mullvad has an ace up its sleeve. When you sign up, you don’t need to enter any user data whatsoever — not even an email address.

If you want to keep things even more private, you can even mail Mullvad cash as a payment to eliminate any connection between you and the service. This goes a long way toward protecting user data.

cta mullvad
Mullvad’s website does a great job of explaining which features are available on which platforms.

As far as prices go, Mullvad is relatively affordable. Given its lack of features, it can’t afford to be expensive, and you have 30 days to refund it if you don’t like it. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply if you mail them cash as a payment.

5. CyberGhost

gaming cyberghost
Even though they’re only available in a few locations, CyberGhost offers gaming-specific servers in its plan.

More details about CyberGhost:

  • Pricing: $2.15 per month for the three-year plan, plus three months free
  • Provider website: cyberghostvpn.com

Pros:

  • Incredibly affordable pricing
  • Great speed & latency with IKEv2
  • Compatible with most platforms

Cons:

  • OpenVPN performance is mediocre

We’ve always been fans of CyberGhost — it is an extremely affordable VPN with apps for almost any platform and respectable performance. The overall performance is excellent, provided you use the right VPN protocol.

In fact, its latency on our closest server was just 28 ms, which is almost the same as our unprotected performance of 16 ms, an increase of only 1.75x. Like the other VPNs on this list, its worldwide latency rose a decent amount — to 310 ms, just under 20x.

CyberGhost’s website heavily advertises its compatibility with consoles, but since there are still no dedicated apps for Xbox or PlayStation, setting it up is similar to any other VPN provider. Performance via the VPN connection was great when we used IKEv2, but switching to OpenVPN saw mediocre speeds, which isn’t too impressive.

Gaming-Specific Specialty Servers

When it comes to a gaming VPN, CyberGhost offers gaming-specific VPN servers in multiple popular locations such as Germany and the U.S. This is one of the reasons why it’s one of the best Steam and League of Legends VPNs. In the menu, you’ll get the estimated latency, letting you quickly judge whether or not that’s the VPN server you want to route your internet connection through.

cta cyberghost gaming
CyberGhost puts a heavy emphasis on console compatibility, but we’ve found it does a respectable job for PC gamers too.

CyberGhost is an incredibly affordable VPN, provided you’re willing to commit to a single VPN company for three years. You get a money-back guarantee that’s longer than the competition, though, at 45 days. You can find out more in our CyberGhost review.

Which Free VPN Is Best for Gaming?

When we’re talking about free VPNs, we usually have two suggestions: Windscribe and ProtonVPN, though both come with drawbacks. Other free VPNs tend to be unsafe — some might log your data and sell it to advertisers, and some may bundle malware with their installation files.

The Best Free VPN for Gaming

For the casual gamer, Windscribe is a great choice. It comes with 10 locations to choose from in the free plan, as well as excellent security and features like a kill switch and split tunneling. Servers have reasonably low latency, and the speeds are certainly good for gaming.

However, Windscribe comes with a 10GB data limit on its free plan. If you factor in that some games can use up to 150MB of data per hour, this is a major drawback for avid gamers who spend more than two to three hours gaming every day.

As we mentioned in our Windscribe review, you can get more data by tweeting, but it won’t make enough of a difference in this case.

As an alternative, you can try ProtonVPN, which we covered in detail in our ProtonVPN review. Rather than restricting the amount of data, it restricts your speed. Even with that, however, we’ve found that it still does a solid job for gaming provided the latency is low.

A much bigger downside would be the limitation to only three locations: Japan, Netherlands and the United States. If you’re looking to connect to one of these destinations, ProtonVPN is a good way to save money; if not, you’re better off with one of the providers we discussed earlier.

Final Thoughts

Though a VPN isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when gaming is in question, it’s an important step to keeping yourself safe while playing online. Any open stream invites unwanted network activity and using a VPN can protect you from falling victim to any schemes.

ExpressVPN has the best balance of features, security and speed, with especially impressive latency and that makes it the best VPN for gaming. Whether you’re looking for PUBG VPN, League of Legends VPN, Diablo 4 VPN or Lost Ark VPN, ExpressVPN is a great option.

NordVPN comes close, providing a smooth gaming experience for a cheaper price. If you’re looking for an even more affordable solution, Surfshark or CyberGhost have you covered. Meanwhile, if you’re gaming from further away, Mullvad might be your best bet.

What VPN are you using for gaming? Do you agree with our list? Let us know in the comments below. As always, thanks for reading.

FAQ

  • A VPN provides added protection to your connection when you’re gaming, keeping it private and away from prying eyes.

  • Thanks to a combination of excellent speeds, low latency and solid security, ExpressVPN is the best VPN for gaming.

  • Some pro gamers use a VPN to protect their connection and make sure it’s stable, but not many. Streamers in particular might want to use a VPN to protect themselves from DDoS attacks and swatting.

  • You can choose between WireGuard or OpenVPN with UDP — both are very fast and provide minimal latency in most cases.

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