Blog

We have all been there, the pulse-pounding second after we’re about to make a genius play in our favourite on-line sport when a half-second lag spike sees us fail miserably. Or maybe it is after we queue up for a aggressive match solely to have a sudden dip in our web connection drop us from the sport three seconds after the match begins. Worse nonetheless when the entire time gaming is cursed by intermittent lag spikes that make the sport a jerky mess. A few of these points are out of our arms—and web service suppliers— however many connectivity issues can stem from our routers. So, it is crucial you’ve got acquired probably the greatest routers for gaming if you wish to get aggressive on-line.

Do not depend on your previous router, as you is likely to be working with an outdated Wi-Fi commonplace. Older routers additionally lack superior options to prioritize your gaming site visitors, which may go away you vulnerable to lag spikes when different units are on the community. A very good gaming router ought to present loads of Ethernet ports for quick and secure velocity and assist quick Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) and even Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) connections. These routers supply dual-band and typically three wi-fi bands, letting you dedicate a complete band to gaming, so your console or gaming PC will not compete with each smartphone and good dwelling machine making an attempt to speak with the router.

We’ll allow you to discover the correct gaming router with our picks under, which provide strong connectivity and top-notch gaming options – and discover them right here within the UK.

TL;DR – These are the Greatest Routers for Gaming:

What to Search for in a Gaming Router

Whilst you’re searching for a gaming router, try to be looking out for which model of Wi-Fi it helps. The primary two you will wish to look out for are Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)—with Wi-Fi 6E increasing Wi-Fi 6 to incorporate a 6GHz band—and Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), as they ship the quickest wi-fi speeds at present out there. Throughout your seek for a gaming router, you will undoubtedly come throughout items designed for Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) that look very enticing because of their low costs, however it is best to keep away from this siren’s name. Wi-Fi 4 is an outdated commonplace that gives pretty sluggish speeds in comparison with its two extra fashionable renditions.

You will additionally wish to discover a gaming router that’s at the very least dual-band. Single-band routers solely assist the two.4GHz band, which is ok sufficient for internet looking and downloading most recordsdata, however dual-band routers add a second 5GHz channel that gives a lot quicker wi-fi speeds. You will additionally discover Tri-Band routers—and we have featured quite a few them above as nicely—that characteristic a further 5GHz or 6GHz band you possibly can fully dedicate to gaming.

Netgear Nighthawk X6S

The Greatest General Gaming Router

While you’re gaming, you want velocity and a powerful sign to make sure you don’t lose a connection when within the heated moments of a sport. You get that with the Netgear Nighthawk X6S. This gaming router offers you the standard belongings you count on with a 2.4GHz and 5GHz connection, together with some exterior antennas providing a powerful sign all through your private home. It even beefs up your connectivity choices with a further 5GHz band, which means if you wish to sport on Wi-Fi as a substitute of an Ethernet connection, you possibly can dedicate an entire 5GHz band simply to your gaming. The opposite 5GHz connection can be utilized for the remainder of your actions. And so far as velocity goes, you get 1,625Mbps on the 2 5GHz bands and 750Mbps on the two.4GHz.

Now, this router isn’t providing all the most recent options like Wi-Fi 6E or 2.5Gbps WAN, however it additionally comes at a extra reasonably priced value than those who do. It nonetheless affords MU-MIMO, so that you’ll be good for concurrently streaming knowledge on a bunch of units, whereas QoS helps you to prioritize units on the community. There are many different settings out there, like parental controls, knowledge theft safety, and visitor networks, which may all be arrange utilizing the Netgear app. You even get ample connectivity choices like 4 ethernets, a WAN, and USB ports to wire up units.

Asus TUF-AX5400

Greatest Finances Gaming Router

For beneath $200, you possibly can snag a brand new router that’s able to zoom alongside in video games as a lot as you might be. The Asus TUF-AX5400 is geared for gaming with dual-band Wi-Fi 6, which affords a secure connection and low-latency communication between your gaming system and the router. You get a speedy 2.4GHz band and an excellent quicker 5GHz band. We’re speaking 5400Mbps speeds on an environment friendly 4x community. You may even join a PC or gaming machine to the devoted gaming port, making certain it will get the lion’s share of the connection, and a hyperlink aggregation characteristic permits you 2Gbps wired speeds.

The Asus TUF-AX5400 appears to be like the a part of a gaming router with its cumbersome design, a tiny blip of RGB lighting, and 6 antennae for a greater sign. For those who’re nervous a couple of restricted connection in sure areas of your private home, you possibly can even construct out a mesh community with this router for seamless prolonged protection because of ASUS AiMesh assist. And thru the router’s app, you possibly can prioritize no matter you’re doing by switching modes between streaming, gaming, internet looking, and so forth. The sheer variety of methods to handle your community’s site visitors is fairly astounding, and it even comes with some security measures for slightly extra peace of thoughts.

Linksys Hydra Professional 6E

Greatest Tri-Band Gaming Router

Wi-Fi has taken some severe leaps up to now couple of years, with Wi-Fi 6 stepping issues up after which Wi-Fi 6E including some icing to the cake. The Linksys Hydra Professional 6E is a tri-band router that takes benefit of this new functionality. For those who’re solely working older consumer units with Wi-Fi 5 and earlier, it might not be for you since it will mainly be a dual-band router with 2×2 connections on the two.4GHz and 5GHz bands. However, in the event you’ve acquired the most recent units or networking playing cards with Wi-Fi 6E, the Linksys Hydra Professional can dial issues up large time.

The Linksys Hydra Professional affords a 3rd band at 6GHz with 4×4 streams for a possible throughput of as much as 4,804Mbps, although you will want some critically quick web speeds to reap the benefits of that bandwidth. This router can be prepared for a wired reference to a 5Gb WAN port on the again to plug in your gaming consoles or PC, although you don’t get hyperlink aggregation. It’s even doable so as to add it to your mesh community. Past that, you get all the most recent options to reinforce your related expertise, like MU-MIMO, QoS, beamforming, WPA3, and parental controls. Simply be ready to pay a premium, as the most recent know-how would not come low cost.

Nighthawk Professional Gaming Router (XR1000)

Greatest Twin-Band Gaming Router

What can a dual-band router do? Nicely, if it is working Wi-Fi 6 and highly effective {hardware} inside, rather a lot. The Nighthawk Professional Gaming Router XR1000 from Netgear is strong proof of this. This router offers its two bands loads of room to run with 2×2 MU-MIMO on the two.4GHz band for 574Mbps speeds. However the 5GHz channel is the place you’ll wish to flip for the final word throughput and low latency, because it’s able to 4×4 MU-MIMO and might clock in at 4,804Mbps. For those who’re in search of a wired connection, you get one WAN port and 4 ethernet ports, although you don’t get hyperlink aggregation or any Multi-Gig connections.

That is an excellent begin for the {hardware}, however Netgear takes this router even additional into the depths of gaming with particular firmware. The Nighthawk Professional Gaming Router may help you guarantee your gaming techniques are getting the perfect connection doable with QoS that’ll allow you to give extra precedence to your video games than different internet makes use of, like dwell streams, VoIP, or internet looking. The devoted gaming dashboard even helps you to see the standard of your connection to a video games server and geofence sure areas to get rid of servers which might be out of vary or underperforming. There are additionally some enhanced security measures like malware safety to make sure the whole lot stays at peak efficiency.

TP-Hyperlink Archer AX10000

Greatest Wi-Fi 6 Gaming Router

In case your family is stuffed with related units the place sustaining high speeds is important, a Wi-Fi 6 router is a should. The TP-Hyperlink Archer AX10000 is likely one of the finest, particularly in the event you’re targeted on on-line gaming. This tri-band router affords a pair of 5GHz networks and one 2.4GHz community providing speeds as much as 10526 Mbps. Which means there ought to be loads of unimpeded velocity and connectivity to go round. You may even dedicate a band simply to gaming, and there is a Sport Accelerator that can detect and optimize your gaming streams. Another gaming options of be aware are Sport Statistics, which helps you to know latency, sport period, and different data about your community, together with the Sport Protector to make sure your system and community are safe throughout on-line gaming.

The TP-Hyperlink Archer AX10000’s energy is sort of as spectacular as its velocity, because of the 1.8 GHz Quad-Core CPU and 1GB RAM. Which means the router can deal with an enormous throughput and get rid of virtually all lag so you possibly can keep immersed in your video games. Plus, with the usage of OFDMA and MU-MIMO, even when extra units be part of the community, there shouldn’t be any noticeable distinction in speeds. Lastly, this router affords tons of connectivity for units that will profit from a wired reference to a 2.5Gbps WAN and eight Gigabit LAN ports that assist hyperlink aggregation.

Netgear Orbi 860 Collection

Greatest Wi-Fi Mesh System for Gaming

Generally you may have a number of gaming units unfold throughout your private home that have to be related to quick web, and that’s the place a mesh Wi-Fi router steps in. An ideal choice for gaming is the Netgear Orbi 860 Collection, which affords a principal router, and you should purchase further high-speed nodes to make sure each nook and cranny of your private home is in control. There’s protection as much as 2,700 sq. toes, however every node expands your wi-fi community, whereas MU-MIMO, beamforming, and different Wi-Fi tech guarantee no drop-offs.

This Orbi system options tri-band Wi-Fi. You don’t get Wi-Fi 6E assist, so there’s no 6GHz band, however that second 5GHz band ought to deal with backhaul site visitors between nodes in the event you plan to buy them. That leaves blazing-fast speeds for the opposite 5GHz and a pair of.4GHz bands to hook up with all of your gaming units. There are even 4 LAN ports on the router for a wired connection to units that profit from constant velocity, like gaming PCs and consoles. One WAN port additionally hits 10 Gbps in the event you’ve acquired multi-gig web.

Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000

Quickest Gaming Router

The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 is constructed for the next-gen wi-fi protocol and the insane speeds that include it. This router is able to assist busy community with most knowledge switch speeds of 11Gbps over a tri-band frequency. You get a 2.4Ghz band and two 5GHz that share these gigabits, whereas customers can dedicate a kind of bands particularly to gaming to keep away from interference from different related units of their dwelling. For those who’d relatively wire up your PC or console, there’s a WAN port and 5 networking ports, together with a Multi-Gig choice to make sure a secure, speedy connection.

With a chunky body, RGB lighting, and eight antennae, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 appears to be like like a gaming beast. Inside, the 1.8GHz 64-bit quad-core CPU and 1GB RAM show it’s as much as process so far as on-line gaming is anxious. It’s additionally rocking a ton of further options, so that you get probably the most out of this router. There’s Micro safety to defend your community towards assaults. Some gaming extras embrace Sport Radar to ping your sport’s server to seek out the one with the quickest connection, whereas Sport Acceleration boosts gaming site visitors.

Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000

Greatest Wi-Fi 6E Gaming Router

If you’d like a severe router for gaming, you possibly can’t get way more severe than the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000. It is not only a Wi-Fi 6 router, however relatively a Wi-Fi 6E router, which brings entry to much more potential, because of the 6GHz spectrum it provides on high of two.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Tri-band connectivity affords up a simple approach to break up up your community so you possibly can guarantee your gaming units have the quickest connection in the home. That 6GHz affords unbelievable throughput, and that connection just isn’t as frequent but, eliminating the identical form of interference from all of your neighbors’ routers that you will notice on 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks.

This router has eight antennas to ship a robust sign, and with beamforming, it might go even additional, making certain a powerful connection between your wi-fi units and the router. You additionally get some blistering speeds from wired connections, because the router helps 2.5Gb WAN or LAN and hyperlink aggregation, so you are not caught with the 1Gbps Ethernet speeds many different routers will restrict you to. Past that, you get options like Sport Accelerator, which prioritizes gaming units within the devoted gaming port, and safety software program in-built to make sure the whole lot stays secure when you’re on-line.

The place to Get High Gaming Routers (In Inventory) within the UK:

The way to Get the Most Out of Your Gaming Router

Remember, simply having a gaming router does not imply you are going to robotically get the perfect dwelling community immediately. You continue to ought to observe quite a few finest practices for optimizing your private home community. Do not strive tucking your router out of the way in which in a closet on the backside of a shelf, as that is the quickest method to make sure you will not get the complete efficiency out of it.

Your router ought to be positioned someplace central in your dwelling area, ideally excessive up, and with out many obstacles in the way in which (i.e., do not put it behind your TV). Every part within the path out of your router to your related units will influence the sign and thus the standard of your connection.

It’s also possible to assist out your wi-fi units by utilizing a wired Ethernet connection wherever doable. (For those who want one, take into account our greatest choose: DbillionDa Cat8 Ethernet Cable). Limiting the variety of units related to your Wi-Fi at a time may help guarantee every machine will get higher efficiency.

Securing your wi-fi router can be necessary not only for safety but in addition to your efficiency. Certain, you do not need doubtlessly malicious customers accessing your private home community, however you additionally don’t need your neighbors piggybacking onto your community, as they’re going to eat into your bandwidth and doubtlessly drag down your community efficiency. Use a powerful password and take into account disabling any visitor networks. You may even take into account not broadcasting your community ID, which makes it far much less doubtless somebody will entry your community with the tradeoff that organising new units generally is a little extra time-consuming.

The way to Prolong WiFi Vary for Gaming

One other factor to bear in mind is that the additional you get away out of your router, the weaker the sign goes to get. In case your gaming setup is not shut sufficient to your router, take into account selecting up a Wi-Fi vary extender to get a bit extra attain.

For extra WiFi assist, see the perfect USB WiFi adapters. If safety issues most to you, additionally see our checklist for the perfect gaming VPNs for 2023.

Kevin Lee is IGN’s {Hardware} and Roundups Editor. Observe him on Twitter @baggingspam

Danielle Abraham is a contract author and unpaid music historian.