In the age of technology, the internet is a tool that goes hand in hand with many aspects of life. The immersion and the level of penetration that the internet has achieved over the course of two decades after its commercialization is unmatched by any other technology before it.

The internet has become the main carrier of so many activities whether they are related to our personal lives or professional aspects. This level of dependence has now made us almost inseparable from this piece of technology, it sounds scary but it’s true. Anyone can check the level of human dependence on the internet, all you have to do is simply switch off your internet modem for a few minutes and see how every family member comes out of their rooms complaining.

Although, we won’t recommend going to such drastic lengths because today the internet is being used in many sensitive and crucial tasks like work and education, so a disruption or disconnection of even a few seconds can cause significant harm. Especially after the pandemic, most of our important tasks have become entirely dependent on the internet, things like work from home and online classes are more or less performed in every household. Even when we are hopefully looking at the end of this medical catastrophe that has engulfed the world in its devastating effects for more than two years now, still the trends that humanity adopted during this pandemic like remote work and education are here to stay for the good, at least for the foreseeable future.

Talking about new trends, it wasn’t only work and educational aspects that were transformed during the pandemic, it was also our entertainment activities that saw a drastic change.

Changes in the Entertainment Industry Post Pandemic

This is true that the internet was taking over to become the primary source of entertainment for many people well before the pandemic, however, it was only after the pandemic that internet-related entertainment activities saw a huge surge in users. Trends like cord-cutting reached their peak during the years 2020 and 2021, which saw people switching to internet-based mediums like streaming apps and ditching their traditional cable TV setups. One more thing in the entertainment industry that witnessed a huge popularity spike was online gaming.

According to Statista, an average mobile gamer spent more than 13 hours a day playing online video games in the US during the 2020 COVID lockdown. This was mainly because online gaming was an easier option to keep yourself occupied and diverted while staying locked in your house in a time of great stress and depression.

Internet Requirements for Online Gaming

It is important to note here that traditional video gaming is one thing and online gaming is a completely different thing. Online gaming requires a fast and stable connection whereas non-multiplayer games can work without the internet.

Since so many of our tasks are already bound with the internet, like the ones mentioned above, it only makes sense to select a good internet connection like Cox to suffice all these internet-related needs. Another major benefit of Cox internet plans to gamers is that they come with a superior Elite Gamer Connection which is specifically designed for online gaming, granting users super-fast bandwidth capabilities and extremely low latency to ensure there is less ping and latency which seamlessly provide a smooth and efficient online gaming experience.

Selecting the Right Internet Provider for Gaming

Apart from the choice of internet provider, there are a lot of other things that need to be considered in a specific provider to make that choice an optimal one, which can ensure that users have a good online gaming experience with that particular service provider. The factors that go into choosing an internet connection for gaming are discussed in detail below.

Speed

Speed is the basic metric for choosing an internet service provider, whether you are using the internet for gaming or any other task. Speeds are the medium of classification in which service provider split their packages and price them accordingly, with high-speed packages being more expensive than those on the lower end. While selecting a service provider for gaming make sure that the said provider has high-speed tiers in their list of packages, let’s say 1 Gig or 2 Gig packages. You don’t necessarily need to buy these high-speed tiers but the mere existence of them can ensure users that the said provider has the type of infrastructure and bandwidth capability to supply higher speeds.

So in the future, if you decide to go with a higher speed the service provider will be able to supply you with that. Providers that use DSL connections usually stretch up to 100Mbps max, make sure to avoid such providers. Don’t get us wrong, 100Mbps is a fairly good speed for gaming for 1-2 users. Just ensure the above-mentioned points and go with a provider that also has high-speed tiers, up to at least 1 Gig so you won’t have any problem upgrading your setup in the future.

Data

This is might not be a point of concern for those users who just use their internet for gaming or who have an unlimited internet plan. However, users who use the family internet or a shared connection with a limited data allowance should be cautious regarding the amount of data they use. Gaming itself doesn’t consume a lot of data but other activities performed on the internet like video conferencing, streaming, and downloading of large files are some of the data-heavy tasks that are done often in every internet-connected household.

Whenever users cross their allowed data threshold the service providers either throttle the speed or shuts down the connection completely. So people using shared internet connections should prefer to go with a provider that offers unlimited data, but users just using the internet for gaming can go with limited data plans as well because these limits are usually 1TB or above which is more than sufficient for just gaming.

Connection Type

This is the most important factor that should be considered when selecting an internet connection for gaming. A lot of the points that we mentioned in the speed segment are related to the type of internet connection. By type we mean the medium of transmission through which the internet is supplied to the end-user, there are different connection types or transmission mediums like DSL which works on standard telephone lines, cable internet uses the coaxial cable connections which are also used in traditional cable TV setup, fiber optics are the most advanced transmission medium that uses light to transmit data, and then there are wireless connection types like a satellite.

An important thing to note here is that not every connection type offers the same type of bandwidth capacity, latency rates, and speeds. For example, DSL connections can stretch up to 100Mbps max, whereas cable connections can go up to 2Gbps, and fiber internet goes up to 10Gbps while also providing consistent and symmetrical upload and download speed.

On the other hand, satellite connections can hardly muster up to 30Mbps while their latency rates are quite high. That is why it is always recommended for gamers to choose either cable or in the best-case scenario, fiber internet connections for the best performance of online games due to the high speed, more bandwidth, and low latency capabilities of these mediums.

Conclusion

Online games have become a popular medium of entertainment for not only youngsters but among middle-aged and old people as well, especially after the introduction of mobile gaming. Gaming has become a new norm of entertainment and many people are quite sensitive regarding their performance in these games. So in order to maximize this performance, it is essential to not only have good gaming skills but smooth performing internet connection also, something which you can easily get by keeping the above-mentioned points in consideration.