Read the full article below for more details about each. Also, learn how to choose the best VPN for your needs and set it up on your gaming device.
The Best Gaming VPNs
If you want to stay safe and anonymous while playing your favorite online game without lag, here are the three best VPNs for gaming: Let’s check out each one in more detail.
1. ExpressVPN: the most reliable gaming VPN
ExpressVPN is one of the best VPN providers out there, and there currently is a sharp deal on the 15 months package. Their connections are fast and stable, and they have thousands of servers in almost a hundred countries all over the world. With enough servers to choose from, you can easily find the fastest one and stay protected while playing games online. What’s more, ExpressVPN can help if you want to unblock a specific game that isn’t available in your country. Simply choose a server in a country that offers access to the game. Granted, ExpressVPN is pricier than many other gaming VPNs, but in return, you get the most reliable protection and high speeds that ensure you can keep gaming without lag. You can always try it out first, thanks to their 30-day money-back guarantee. Want to know more about this provider? Then dive into our detailed review of ExpressVPN.
2. Surfshark: high speeds for a low price
In our recent tests, Surfshark turned out to be one of the fastest VPNs for gaming. It’s a relatively new provider that’s quickly joined the top of most of our lists. Their service is very user-friendly and works on many different devices. Moreover, Surfshark offers great speeds and low ping whether you connect to a server nearby or on the other side of the world. So, you won’t experience any lag or wait time for games to load. The biggest advantage is the affordability. A Surfshark subscription will cost you just a couple of dollars a month, which makes it one of the cheapest VPNs for gaming without compromising on protection or speed. Just like ExpressVPN, Surfshark offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try the service out before committing to a subscription. If you’d like to read more about this newcomer, you can read our full Surfshark review right here. Click the button below if you want to go straight to Surfshark’s website.
3. CyberGhost: unlimited gaming with user-friendly software
The third best VPN for gaming is CyberGhost. This provider also scored very well in our speed tests. No matter where you are in the world, one of CyberGhost’s thousands of fast servers will help you stay safe online while gaming. Although CyberGhost’s speeds aren’t as fast as Surfshark’s or as reliable as ExpressVPN’s, the difference is negligible and will not hamper your gaming experience. You can use it to play all kinds of games from all over the world without any troublesome lag. Moreover, it’s quite affordable and easy to use too. If you’d like to learn more about this VPN, you can read our detailed CyberGhost review. If you’d rather get started right away, head to their official website by clicking the button below.
How to Choose a VPN For Gaming
Now that you know our top three best gaming VPNs let’s consider how exactly you should choose a provider. After all, it’s crucial that the VPN doesn’t impair your gaming experience. So here are some things to consider:
High speed and stability
Most gamers will value speed and a stable connection in a VPN. A good connection is essential for online multiplayer games. You might have heard gamers complain or brag about their ping. This has to do with their internet speed. Ping refers to the latency between the player’s client and the gaming server. The numbers refer to the time in milliseconds it takes for information to travel between the servers. The lower the ping, the better your online game will run. A higher ping could cause lag, which is very annoying when you’re in the midst of playing a competitive online game. Some games will even disconnect a player if their ping is too high to function properly within the game. For this reason, our three best VPNs for gaming were mainly selected on their high speeds and stable ping. Not all VPNs perform this well: some (like Speedify) are known for their incredibly slow servers, making online gaming impossible. To make sure that your internet connection doesn’t suffer too much when you use a server located outside of your own country, try to connect to a server in a country geographically closer to you. The further a server, the slower your connection will be.
Online security
Not all VPNs are equally safe. A good VPN will encrypt your online data and send it through a protected tunnel. This means your activities won’t be visible to others, including hackers, your ISP, and the government. In addition, your IP address will be hidden, meaning your location is safe and won’t be revealed online. However, some VPNs don’t provide you with this kind of protection or may abuse the information you trust them with. For instance, what if they sold your data to other companies? Or what if they use the information they gathered about you for marketing purposes? This is what happens with many free VPN options. For this reason, we recommend always using a premium VPN service. Whether you’re gaming or just browsing, you need a VPN that you can trust with your data. That’s why our list of best gaming VPNs only includes providers that have proven they provide robust online security and will keep your data safe and anonymous.
Unblocking abilities
Some game developers only launch new games in one country or specific parts of the world. This is often the case when they want to test the public response, have limited resources, or are still looking for bugs. Other times, some games might be geographically restricted due to censorship by local authorities. In such cases, a VPN can help you unblock access and play games that you might otherwise not be able to.
Most good VPN providers have servers in a large number of countries. By connecting to a server outside your own country, you’ll bypass any restrictions that your geographical location imposes. You could access the internet as though you were in that country. This means the geographical restrictions of your own country don’t apply to you anymore. However, not all VPNs can unblock the same (amount of) content. For example, a VPN with a large server network is likely able to unblock more content than one with just a couple of VPN servers. Aside from that, websites can choose to block access for IP addresses that belong to VPN providers. Moreover, sometimes using a VPN might be against the terms and conditions of games you want to play, so it’s good to check if this is the case. Nonetheless, the top 3 VPNs we’ve shared above are pretty comprehensive and can unblock almost all content so that you can play whatever games you like.
Test period
Most VPN providers have a test period or money-back guarantee that allows you to test their services before committing to a subscription. We would advise you to use this trial period, especially when looking for the best gaming VPN for your needs. You can try out the VPN this way and even perform some VPN tests to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth. If you notice that the VPN you’ve chosen isn’t performing as well as you want, don’t hesitate to cancel your subscription and try another one. We at VPNOverview test VPN providers from our office in the Netherlands. If you are somewhere else in the world, providers might perform very differently. Use the test period to see how the service performs in combination with your favorite game. This way, you have the best chance of finding a VPN that works for you. All of the VPN providers recommended in this article offer you plenty of time to try out their service before really committing to a subscription.
Do You Really Need a VPN For Gaming?
A VPN can enhance your gaming experience because it allows you to game more freely and more securely. As mentioned earlier, not all games are available worldwide. But a VPN can help you access games that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to play in your country. Furthermore, a VPN can make a big difference when it comes to safety too. Whether you’re simply browsing or playing an intense multiplayer shooter on the internet, you’re always at risk of being attacked. A VPN offers protection against all sorts of online dangers by encrypting all of your data and anonymizing your online activities. In intense and competitive online games, an opposing team might attempt to sabotage you with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. This means they’ll send a lot of “fake” traffic to your server in an attempt to flood it and prevent you from playing. Other such attacks often used in online gaming involve locking users out of their accounts or wiping databases. A possible real-life threat is swatting, meaning your house gets visited by police while you’re streaming and gaming, by ways of a prank. A VPN can go a long way to fend off these nasty tactics. In short, if you want to get access to countless games from all over the world and keep yourself safe from online attacks, a VPN is the way to go.
How to Set Up a VPN on Your Gaming Device
It’s easy to install a VPN on your gaming device. Whether you use a desktop computer, laptop, smartphone, or some other device, a VPN will be able to protect you in just a couple of minutes. The easiest way to install a VPN on your computer is to download the program from the VPN service’s official website.
Follow these steps to install a VPN on your laptop or desktop computer: If you’re used to gaming on a device that isn’t a laptop or desktop, you can find out how to install those on the following pages:
Set up a gaming VPN on your Android smartphone. Set up a gaming VPN on your iPad or iPhone. Install a gaming VPN on your router (for any other Internet-bound devices).
Game On!
If you’re looking for reliable and trustworthy VPN services for online gaming, we recommend ExpressVPN, Surfshark, and CyberGhost. These VPNs offer fast connections, stable servers, plenty of possibilities for unblocking content, and protection against online attacks. They can help you play your favorite games without lag and while staying safe. If you have any further concerns or questions, let us know in the comments below. We’d love to help you out.
A VPN will protect you against DDoS attacks and other online dangers you might encounter while you’re gaming. Some games can’t be played everywhere in the world, either because of censorship or because it’s still in beta. A VPN will allow you to access these games, no matter where you are in the world.
