Best VPN for Gaming That You Should Check in 2023

VPN 2018-07-12 04:16:32 - by Rachel Lee

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, which allows you to establish a protected network connection while browsing online. A VPN provides a virtual room for communication between your device and the World Wide Web. It encrypts your internet traffic and hides your identity by concealing your original IP address. Hence, it prevents prying eyes from monitoring your online activities and protects your privacy. It also helps in securely transferring data if you work remotely.

However, not only for your work or online browsing but also VPN can be of great help while gaming. If you’re willing to play a game banned in your country, you won’t be able to access it due to geo-restrictions. But with a VPN, you can easily play that game while masking your real IP address and location. There is more to it. Go through the below section to learn all about VPN for gaming.

VPN-for-gaming

Why should I use VPN for gaming?

Though VPN offers many advantages like increased security, privacy, and anonymity, it has several more benefits for games. VPNs have always appealed to gamers with promises of high performance and increased security. Here is a list of the benefits of using a VPN for games.

1. Protect Yourself Against Swatting

Although it is not very common, cases have been registered where gamers get angry over each other while playing multiplayer games. It is time to address and protect yourself from stalking offline or online.

Don’t let a disgruntled player find your IP address. He could hack your social media accounts or even track down your location. He may swat when an intruder makes fake calls to another person’s home. You can protect yourself from all such nuisances by using a VPN while playing an online game.

2. Avoid DDoS attacks

A DDoS -distributed denial-of-service is an attack where an intruder sends many requests from compromised computers to your system. Responding to a large number of requests at the same time forces your system to go out of service ultimately.

These attacks were mostly reserved for the website a long time ago, but now the software is readily available, and your opponent can time DDoS you down. Your opponent will win the game even before you have started playing.

3. Stay Safe on Public WiFi

Whether you enjoy playing games on your phone or laptop, there may be an occasion when you are not at home and need to connect to the network with the help of public WiFi. It’s time VPN acts as your savior.

A VPN ensures you are safely connected to network security and prevents outside threats. Such scenarios include hotels, restaurants, airports, and even malls. In addition, VPN provides you security from the following threats:

Unencrypted Networks: Unencrypted network means the data between your device and the router that connects you to the internet is available for anyone to look into. Also, most public WiFi channels are unencrypted, and most are secured using VPN.

The hijacker won't only get access to the information related to your gaming site but can also intrude on your credentials related to a different social site that may connect to WIFI while you are playing.

WiFi Sniffing and Snooping: It is hard to log out from all your social sites and banking apps every time you play games. Cybercriminals may check all your activities on WiFi traffic while you may play games.

Hence, they can see everything that you do online. This breaches your security, and now they can get information about your social media, credit card accounts, and banking accounts and hijack the same.

Malware: As public WiFi is not much secured, software vulnerabilities in your device may allow a hacker to install malware on your device.
A good VPN will encrypt the data for you even though you might be using public WiFi. Even if a hacker can intercept your data, he won’t be able to decode it. You are secure and all ready to win your favorite online game.

4. Forget About Bandwidth Throttling

Many ISPs (internet service providers) commonly throttle your internet speed, especially when they notice specific traffic on the network, like gaming. Also, different games consume different amounts of internet data depending upon the quality of the game you are playing.

Many ISPs throttle down your internet speed once they see a specific amount of data you use. Hence, you won’t be able to play them efficiently. To have unrestricted access to your game, VPN is a must. With the help of a VPN, you can avoid ISP from data throttling as VPN encrypts your data.

Hence, it makes it harder for your ISP to figure out whether you’re gaming or simply surfing the internet.

5. Play Online From Any Region

Mostly you geo-blocked outside the country you are living in. This means that you can only connect to the servers in the country you are living in. For example, if you are in the US, you can only connect to the gaming servers in the US and not in another country.

Thus, you could not get access to the games that don’t have servers in your country. But now is the time to show your gaming skills across borders.

You can access any game anytime you want just by installing a VPN. VPN has servers in multiple regions. You can connect to the VPN server in any area, connecting you to the game server outside your country.

Hence, VPN allows you to access all sorts of game sites and services that have been geo-restricted by joining a server overseas.

6. Enjoy New Releases from Earlier

You will hardly find new games that are released worldwide. You can’t get access to them until the games are released in your country. VPN solves this problem for you. If your favorite game is released in certain countries first, a VPN will help you get ahead of time and enjoy the game in real time.

Just install a VPN on your phone and connect to a VPN server in a location where the game has been released. You get access to the game when it is released for the users and plays to your heart’s content!

7. Play Banned Games

Different games may be banned for various reasons, for example, games with excessive violence, drug use, violence, and even graffiti. If you live in an area that has banned your favorite game, use a VPN to connect to a server in a country where the game you want to play isn’t banned.

8. Don’t Worry About IP Bans

Don’t worry if your IP address (Internet protocol) has been blocked for a particular game. VPN encrypts all your private information, including the IP address of your device, while you connect to the VPN server.

It then reassigns your device one its IP address to request the content for your query. After receiving the content, the data is again encrypted and sent to you. The VPN client will, in turn, decrypt the data, and you can access the same.

Hence, you can easily get through the IP filters at a university or corporate firewall and enjoy gaming anytime.

9. Reduce Lag and Ping Times:

Long ping times- The time it takes for data to send and received between your device and the game server often is the main cause of lag and can ruin your game session. It is no fun to play a game where your one takes much more than is optimally required.

However, with the help of a VPN, You can connect to the VPN server closest to your game server. This reduces lag time, and you can showcase your gaming skills properly.

How to Install a Gaming VPN?

You must secure an internet connection while playing games. You must follow the following steps to lavish all benefits of the free VPN.

Prepare your device: You must prepare the device for VPN services by uninstalling any existing VPN client. You should simplify your network by unplugging unused devices.
Install VPN Clients: Install a VPN client on your gaming device. Log in to the app after installing the VPN client app; it automatically connects you to the nearest server. You can also check for a setup tutorial.
Choose protocol for VPN: VPN offers you a wide range of protocols that you can choose from; common examples include OpenVPN- an open-source protocol, L2TP/IPSec- Tunnel Protocol often bundled with the IPSec protocol, SSTP- Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol, PPTP- Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol, etc. Choose any of the protocols based on your requirements.
Troubleshoot and fine-tune the connection: Usually, VPN clients start working right away, but if it doesn’t work automatically, try switching the VPN server. For improvised usage, you can also change the settings that you have applied to the VPN according to your business's requirements. For example, a VPN provider offers the KILL-SWITCH option to prevent the data from being sent or received when VPN is turned off.

Now that you know how to install a VPN for gaming, you need to find out what to install.

7 Best VPNs for Gaming

When you have already decided that you will use a VPN while gaming, you might as well find the ones you should use, but luckily for you, we have done all the research and found some of the best VPNs you could use.

1. VPN Surf

The best VPN for gaming is VPN.surf, with a $4.99 price tag.

VPN Surf is a fast and reliable VPN for online users. You don’t have to be a hardcore or advanced gamer, but you can still use VPN surf and unblock new content as a beginner. You need to connect your device to the VPN, which will help you browse millions of online websites. For example, if you are trying to play a game unavailable in your country with VPN Surf, you can get it free. There is a 7-day "Try it before you buy it" trial in VPN Surf. So, you can check out the VPN before deciding whether or not it is good for you.

Pros

Fastest VPN
IP addresses are regularly refreshed

Cons

Towards the higher end of the price range
Less simultaneous connections than others

2. Surfshark

A quite good VPN is Surfshark, which costs $2.30 and supports unlimited devices.

Our Surfshark review found that this provider is quite good in several categories. Surfshark is an effective cheap VPN that performs quite well as a gaming VPN.

Although it has a network of 3,200 servers, the combination of limitless connections and a low price point attracts users the most. Surfshark is simply one of the best gaming VPNs. Surfshark has sometimes been slower than NordVPN or ExpressVPN; it outperformed both in our most recent round of tests.

Pros

Allows multiple connections to be active at once
It has a free trial that lasts one week

Cons

Slightly fewer servers overall
Kill switch issues

3. NordVPN

One of the fastest VPNs is NordVPN, and a month of service costs $3.69.

You can choose your IP address in NordVPN and use it for millions of purposes—protecting your online security is the first purpose. NordVPN for gaming is famous for its security measures and is also one of the many that offer full privacy protection and anonymity. However, unlike VPN Surf, it does not offer any free trial. But you can still get a money-back guarantee if you don’t like it after using NordVPN for 30 days.

Pros

One of the quickest VPN services
Data is encrypted more rapidly by NordLynx than by other protocols.

Cons

Towards the higher end of the price range
Less simultaneous connections than others

4. Tunnel Bear

Another option is Tunnel Bear, with a monthly cost of $4.99.

Tunnel Bear is one of the free VPNs you can find online, but it is a little superior to the rest. It offers 1,800 servers from 23 different countries and provides full anonymity. However, both VPN Surf and NordVPN are faster than Tunnel Bear. And it is a lot more expensive than the rest.

Pros

May offer secured storage space of up to 250GB.
Data is encrypted more rapidly than others.

Cons

Fewer servers overall as compared to other servers
Less simultaneous connections than others

5. Proton VPN

This gaming VPN costs around $7.19 per month.

We like the user interface of ProtonVPN, which could be more beginner-friendly but works. It offers 1,259 servers from 55 different countries and only boosts your internet speed. ProtonVPN is one of the fastest and safest VPNs we have ever seen. But it has one downside—ProtonVPN is expensive because of its many useful features. And it does not offer any free trial for its premium version.

Pros

One of the quickest VPN services
Data is encrypted more rapidly by NordLynx than by other protocols.

Cons

Towards the higher end of the price range
Less simultaneous connections than others

6. ExpressVPN

The best option for VPN is ExpressVPN, which costs USD 6.67 per month.

ExpressVPN does not come with a free trial but ensures you get what you pay for. Yes, ExpressVPN is perfect. It is reliable, fast, protects your privacy, and comes with high-end security measures, making ExpressVPN for gaming a great option. But unlike VPN Surf, it costs a lot and does not allow free use.

Pros

Servers accessible in 94 countries
IP addresses are updated often.

Cons

Expensive
Less unique servers compared to other suppliers

7. IPVanish

One of the safest is IPVanish, with a monthly cost of $3.33.

Since IPVanish operates its network and infrastructure, unlike most other providers, fewer variables are involved, and your anonymity is almost assured. Although actively looking for one will reduce ping in some games, as a player, you'll benefit most from its ability to filter servers by ping, assuring you the quickest connections accessible.

Pros

May offer secured storage space of up to 250GB.
Allows many connections to be active at once

Cons

Fewer servers overall as compared to other servers
Fewer options for server locations compared with other providers.

Now, if you are using a VPN for gaming purposes, you could use any of these 7. But we still encourage you to go for VPN Surf since it offers what the rest lack. For example, it still needs more affordability if you find speed and security in ExpressVPN.

VPN Surf makes up for it. It is fast, secure, reliable, and affordable for gamers and also allows you to browse the internet endlessly and anonymously. Basically, when you use a good VPN, you won’t have to worry about your IP getting banned because the VPN will hide your IP when you connect to the internet. And that makes playing geo-blocked video games easier. With VPN Surf, you can do that effortlessly.

Conclusion

Whether you are playing the game on your PC, gaming console, or smartphone, a gaming VPN protects you from several threats. Moreover, it protects your device from several security issues and allows you to access geo-blocked games and surpass IP filters. Install it once on your device and forget the data security threats while playing online games. Stay connected for more information regarding staying safe online. If you have any more queries, use the comment box below.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is a VPN good for gaming?

VPNs can be useful for gamers, while privacy and security are challenges. For instance, you can fake your location and access servers in other nations. VPNs may also make it more difficult for competitors to take down players using distributed denial of service (DDoS) operations.

2. How are VPNs tested?

Perform a VPN test on your network and use DNSLeakTest.com to perform WebRTC and DNS leak testing. This test will reveal whether your VPN is leaking the secret IP address of your device and the domain names of the websites you visit.

3. Can a VPN lower ping?

The quick response is: Yes, a VPN may decrease your ping and improve the speed of your network connection. The longer answer is that a VPN can lower your ping by transmitting data packets over a more direct path than they would through your ordinary network connection.

4. Should I get a free download for my gaming VPN?

VPNs are regrettably not one of the many great free security and privacy tools available online. Safe VPNs are quite expensive for businesses to run and maintain securely.