What Are the Advantages of Using a VPN When Gaming?

Playing games online comes with lots of difficulties these days. There are DDoS attacks, high ping times, annoying lag, geo-locked games, and, of course, the privacy concern.

This is why more and more online gamers are starting to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network). A VPN helps gamers enjoy an excellent online gaming experience. Here’s a list of benefits you should expect to experience when using a VPN when gaming.

Preventing Bandwidth Throttling

A VPN hides your real IP address, making you anonymous online. It assigns you an IP address of one of its servers, so that no one, not even your ISP, can see where you are.

Why is this relevant? Because some ISPs tend to throttle the bandwidth for their users, that is, slowing down their internet speed.

Many of them use bandwidth throttling to maintain a stable network during peak times. However, others simply want to compel certain users to buy a bigger data plan.

A VPN will hide your IP and encrypt your online activity, so your ISP won’t be able to cap your bandwidth.

Protection Against DDoS Attacks

DDoS attacks are quite common in the world of online gaming. A frustrated gamer could target you to get you offline with a DDoS attack and win the game.

Since a VPN hides your IP address, no one can locate you. They won’t be able to use this attack to flood your connection with unwanted traffic and force your system offline.

Bypassing Geo-Restrictions

Many countries have various copyright issues that prevent certain countries from accessing their content. Some countries even ban specific games for many different reasons. Not being able to play a game because it is geo-restricted can be frustrating, to say the least.

With a VPN, you don’t have to worry about not being able to access any region-restricted content. Your chosen Virtual Private Network will mask your real IP address, and virtually put you in a different geographical location. That way, you can play any game you want no matter where you are.

Accessing Various Games Earlier

It isn’t uncommon for games to hit different online stores across the world at different times. What if you have to wait a few more months for a new game when it’s already available in certain countries?

For a gamer, this can be quite irritating. However, with a VPN, you can access newly released games at the exact time they hit the online stores.

This is simply because you’ll be able to bypass geo-restrictions since your real location will remain unknown. You can connect to a VPN server in a country where your game is available, and visit its online store to purchase it.

Avoiding IP Bans

Perhaps you’ve never experienced an admin banning you from an online game. Most fair players don’t have such problems. However, even they can get an IP ban, if an admin happens to be a sore loser who wants to stop their streak.

When they issue an IP ban, the banned user can’t access the gaming server, either for a particular time or permanently.

You won’t ever experience this if you use a VPN when gaming. This is, again, because it will hide your IP address. Even if you get an IP ban, you can switch to another server, and continue enjoying your game.

Lower Ping Times and Lag

High ping is one of the most common and annoying, problems that online gamers face. You can have high ping even if your download and upload speeds are very fast.

This is especially common if you access a gaming server that’s located far from where you are. It leads to that annoying lag that prevents you from having a great gaming experience.

Luckily, you can solve this problem with a VPN. You can connect to a VPN server that’s closest to the gaming server, and solve all the latency issues. You will reduce your ping and perfectly enjoy your game.

Secure WiFi Connection

Last but not least, a VPN will keep your data safe when you connect to any public WiFi. Public wireless networks don’t enable encrypted connections, so cybercriminals can target you.

VPNs encrypt every internet connection, even over public WiFi. So, if you ever want to enjoy gaming in a café or at the airport, you can do it knowing that your sensitive data is safe.

As you can see, using a VPN when gaming has some very useful advantages. If you want to enhance your gaming and enjoy these benefits, you should find a reliable VPN provider right now.