What internet speeds do you need to play PlayStation 4 online?

Speed matters

If any of you are PC players as well as console players you will know that most games have a minimum system requirements list, and in that list is the minimum connection speed you can have to run the online services of the game.

PlayStation games are a little different, the console itself has the minimum requirement and all the games must meet that minimum to be allowed onto the PlayStation platform.

Sony’s minimum requirement is pretty low. All you need is a download speed of 3Mbps and an upload speed of just 1Mbps. This really is very low by today’s internet standards — the average US internet speed is now 19Mps — so any game should run fine if you have an average internet speed.

As you can see from the picture below, even Starbucks internet is fast enough to run your PlayStation 4.

Ping matters more

Ping is the time it takes for your information packet to go to a server and come back to you, it is the round trip time measured in milliseconds (ms). When you are playing videogames online, your ping helps determine how well your game will play online.

Too high a ping, over 150ms for example, and you will start to see your teammates, and your foes, bounce around the screen like they are teleporting, or worse, murdering you to death while you can’t even see them. Keeping your ping low is an important part of playing online games and will start to consume your every thought if you don’t fix it early.

Go wired if you can

Having your PlayStation 4 connected directly to your router via Ethernet cable will make a huge difference to your online games playability. A direct Ethernet connection can reduce latency and ping while increasing your download and upload speeds. At my house, on Wi-Fi, my PS4 downloads at 36Mbps — I know, that’s pretty fast, better than average — but when I plug it into my router directly it jumps up to massive 375Mbps.

Not all of you will have that speed, of course, Google Fiber isn’t everywhere yet, but you can see that the wired Ethernet speed is almost always faster than the Wi-Fi speed. If you can, you should try to plug your PS4 in the to the network to boost your speeds.