The Best Gaming ISPs for 2022

Oh, internet. We use you for so much, from shopping to schooling to streaming. Most of those pastimes require a good connection with decent speed—something we look at annually in our Fastest ISPs testing. But when it comes to online gaming, be it on a console or PC or even your handheld, connection quality can impact the twitch of your trigger finger. Connection quality can be measured in its latency (measured in the milliseconds of time it takes for a signal to travel from source to destination) and jitter (which checks the consistency of the latency).

A while ago at PCMag, we decided to make it easy to see which ISPs have the best connection, simply by adding those two numbers together. Because the lower the number for both, even in combination, the better the quality. We call the final number the PCMag Gaming Quality Index. And that's how we bring you the Best Gaming ISPs each year, with direct comparisons to see who can get the closest to zero.

We do it all based on measurements gathered via the PCMag Speed Test tool, which you can test below. (For the best results, run it on a PC with no VPN running, no streaming video happening on your home network, and with an Ethernet connection to your router. For the least overhead, connect your PC to the modem provided by your ISP—but don't leave it hooked up, that's a security risk.) Do it right now. It makes you a part of the story.

All tests in this story were made between December 1, 2020, and November 29, 2021. We used 297,645 US-based tests to quantify the results (we gathered 646,898 tests worldwide). If you don't see your ISP (or mobile network carrier) listed, it either didn't make the top 10, or you and your fellow users didn't use the PCMag Speed Test to take enough tests. (If you're in Canada, read The Best Gaming ISPs for Canada for 2022.)

The Best Gaming ISPs for 2022

Regular readers of our Fastest ISPs and Best Gaming ISPs features will remember that we break down ISPs into a couple of groups. We do that because in the US you don't really have your pick of what ISP you want. What do you think this is, Australia?

The "major" ISPs are the household names from big conglomerates, which we narrow down with the criteria of having a multi-state reach of at least 1 million customers—and for our purposes, at least 1,000 tests made via the PCMag Speed Test. All the other ISPs we include in the "all" ISPs portion. But they only are considered if they had a minimum of 100 tests. That's the threshold for any ISP or location to appear in our charts—100 is the magic number. Once we look at all the numbers, we give one award to a major ISP with the best Gaming Quality Index (GQI), and another for the all-around best GQI in the land. We gave away who they are above.

For details, let's dive in and look at the major ISPs and marvel at the abilities of Verizon Fios (or Fios by Verizon if you're feeling fancy), the fiber-to-the-home service that's been a favorite with PCMag readers for years for its speed and also for overall satisfaction—it has been a Readers' Choice winner 16 times. Now it can make another claim. Fios has won for the highest quality connection four times now as Best Gaming ISP.

(Note that in this chart and all the rest, you can click items in the legend to hide them. Use the Speed Index tab to see how the exact same lineup of ISPs appears when speed is factored alone. Throughput and connection quality do not always line up.)

That win comes despite the fact that Fios's GQI number has gone in the wrong direction (up) over the last three years—its best showing was a 16.9 back in 2020. Going up to a 23.0 this time puts it clearly in the sights of other big ISPs like Optimum and RCN.

The rest of the top nine major ISPs tend to shuffle a smidge from year to year. Optimum stays in 2nd place, but RCN jumped up from 5th place last time to 3rd. Comcast Xfinity remains 4th. Sparklight (formerly CableOne) had a nice jump from 7th to 5th. The biggest surprise is really seeing Frontier—which purchased a number of Fios networks—drop out of the top 10, along with AT&T Fiber. They were replaced by cable providers WOW! and Atlantic Broadband.

When it comes to looking at all the ISPs in the US for a decent Gaming Quality Index (assuming we got 100 tests, remember), the field opens up enormously. None of the previously-mentioned major ISPs have a GQI number that can compete with the smaller providers in this list—Verizon Fios would come in at #15 on this chart if we had enough room.

Few ISPs can come anywhere close to the top number on the list. Sonic's quality index of 6.6 is the 2nd lowest we have ever seen in the USA-side of the Best Gaming ISPs series. (Only Oregon's member-owned co-op ISP DirectLink beat that number once in 2020 with a 5.2, but DirectLink hasn't had enough tests to ever return to our results since.)

The all-ISPs category includes so many small and nimble ISPs—the kind that could serve one city or small town even, using fiber they alone control. Those certainly tend to have the best scores. You can see it in the results above, with names like EPB, the provider that made Chattanooga the first Gigabit city in the US. It didn't make the list last year but now leaps to 2nd place. Last year's 2nd placer, CFU out of Cedar Falls, Iowa, gained a couple of points but stayed on the list at 5th. Another newcomer in the top ten this year is Hunter Communications out of Oregon and Northern California. But the rest are familiar names like Hotwire, MetroNet, Allo, Summit Broadband, Comporium, and of course, Google Fiber. (Google Fiber is so high on its gaming offering, it has a series of videos about it on its YouTube channel.)

It's clear from this list, as it is every year: If you're a serious gamer, you don't go with the big-name major ISP if you can help it. Localized providers have a lot more to offer when it comes to the condition of the connection.

Satellite ISP and Wireless Carrier Gaming Quality

For giggles this time around, we've added a couple of ISP types that are growing bigger every year.

The first is satellite-based ISPs. SpaceX's Starlink is the up-and-comer here. It now serves 140,000 users and enough of them tested it on the PCMag Speed Test. Likewise, the other two major satellite offerings for US users made the cut. And we can tell you now, none of them are going to help you win Fortnite.

Starlink's Gaming Quality Index is the lowest by far, but it is still high at 59.6. It is nowhere near where a pro-gamer should be. Yet that number is about 13 times better than the satellite competition from Viasat. HughesNet's GQI of 1,070.8 means you wouldn't even use it to play Tic-Tac-Toe.

How about an ISP you're probably using even if you don't consider them an ISP? For giggles, here's a look at the gaming quality of wireless carriers in the US. Take much of this with a grain of salt—after all, we do some serious comprehensive speed testing each year in our Fastest Mobile Networks story. Plus, our data doesn't take into account that carriers like Verizon and T-Mobile have launched in-home services that aren't broken out. One, Google Fi, uses a combo of providers and only works on select phones. Nevertheless, the numbers are interesting.

The Gaming Quality Index on the big three (T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T) is flat. It all makes the GQI from Starlink look like a game-changer, so to speak. Not even Google Fi's more competitive score can beat Starlink... yet all the satellite and wireless players are parsecs away from beating a fiber-based ISP. We can hope for some 5G miracles, and maybe with the metaverse on the horizon it will happen, but don't hold your breath that wireless carriers are going to be a gaming panacea anytime soon.

Best Gaming ISPs by US Region

People in the US are quitting jobs at a record rate in a move some call the Great Resignation. I like to think it is with the goal of becoming pro-gamers. That Big Quit is also leading to the Great Migration as people move to places that are nicer to live. When it comes to gaming, that means going where the internet connections are fast and excellent. So as always, we're going to break down the top ISPs in the six sectors of the continental US. Pick your new home based on the highest-quality broadband provider, something your forebears only dreamed of.

North Central

Includes: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, and WI

Consistency of the fastest ISPs in the north-central region of the US has seldom been consistent in our tests, and this year is no different. In the last three years, the top spot has gone to FairlawnGig, Allo, CFU, and now, for 2022, it goes back to the big corporation: Google Fiber. It was in 4th last year with a 12.9 Gaming Quality Index, and dropped that to a 10.3 this year. MetroNet out of Evansville, IN, it should be noted, has continuously managed to get 2nd place.

Northeast

Includes: CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, VT, and WV

It's the big versus the small for ISP quality supremacy in the northeast. Specifically, Verizon Fios versus the relatively tiny ISP Empire Access, a fiber provider for southern-tier NY and into Pennsylvania. Last year, Verizon lost this region to Empire Access (which was also this year's Fastest ISP); but this year, Verizon managed to once again get back on top.

The problem is, both Fios and Empire Access have much worse GQI numbers this time around; of the ISPs that made the top ten last year and this year, only RCN had an improvement, slight as it was. If Empire Access can get back to the amazing quality score it has last year (9.2) it can compete, but going into 2022 this is anyone's game.

Northwest

Includes: CO, ID, MT, OR, UT, WA, and WY

Can a major ISP be quick and high-quality enough to win a region as the best gaming ISP? Sure, it has happened—last year in the northwestern states, Comcast Xfinity did so with an index of 25.0. But while Xfinity's number only went up slightly to 25.9, a bunch of other providers in the region leaped over it, pushing Comcast into 6th. The top provider out of the northwest now is one we are welcoming to the results for the first time, Hunter Communications, an Oregon (and into northern CA) fiber provider in 13 communities. It handily beat ISPs like Google Fiber, Ting, and last year's 2nd-place, Ziply Fiber, which this year fell back to 8th.

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South Central

Includes: AR, LA, MS, OK, and TX

Year to year the small, nimble ISPs are changing things constantly with new rollouts and tech updates that impact their scores. That means consistency at the regional level isn't something we see much. But somehow in the central southern states, Google Fiber and Frontier managed to both stay in 1st and 2nd place from last year to this year. Google did it with an imperceptibly improved score, and Frontier with a slightly worst score. Number 3 this year turns out to be C Spire out of Ridgeland, MS, known for being a wireless provider in its home territory but also offering gigabit internet (with triple-play features) in Alabama and Mississippi.

Southeast

Includes: AL, FL, GA, NC, SC, and TN

Hotwire floods our tests with users enough to make you think it's bigger than Comcast, but you can't fool the averages, and that's why it won in this region last year. Despite a score improvement to 10.4 this year that wasn't enough to beat the killer quality of the EPB of Chattanooga, TN. EPB improved dramatically from a 19.9 index to 8.6 this year. This local utility-based ISP put the city on the map for gigabit connectivity and makes it a very attractive prospect for gamers.

Southwest

Includes: AZ, NM, NV, and CA

The math checks out and the top quality ISP nationwide, Sonic, which is based almost entirely in California, naturally also sweeps the region the state is in. That's a big improvement for Sonic, which last year came in 2nd in the southwest with a 26.4, right behind Wave at 25.6. This year wave dropped back to a 27.3 in 3rd, swapping places with Consolidated Communications, which is based in Illinois but doing business enough in Sacramento, California to hold its own in the southwest.

Alaska and Hawaii

Wondering which ISPs to turn to in the non-continental US? The only one we ever get enough response for in Alaska is GCI, but it has a more than respectable 26.7 Gaming Quality Index, keeping it on par with the states south of it. In the islands, we always see results for two ISPs that battle it out there: Hawaiian Telecom versus Spectrum. This year, the gaming award goes to Spectrum's 27.2 index, which is less than half of Hawaiian Telecom's sad 55.4.

Best Gaming by State

The heat-map below shows the hottest places to go gaming, assuming you're doing it online. The darker the state, the higher the average Gaming Quality Index there. Keep in mind, these numbers reflect all the tests we got, across all types of connections.

Number one again this year turns out to be North Dakota at 23.3, which is only a slight improvement from its 23.6 index last year. But that's all it takes. Despite so many incredibly high-speed and high-quality ISPs in so many other states, they all have enough slow connections to drag down the gaming quality index. Compare that with ND, which may not have a particular standout ISP listed above, but its consistent quality is worth noting.

To be honest, the only ISP we have enough data for out of North Dakota that we can even rate is Midco, which alone has an excellent quality index of 15 in the state. But that means it is also not dragged down by slow numbers from satellite providers or even wireless carriers. You can see the dichotomy when you click the Speed Index tab and compare the quality versus speed winners by state.

The dead-last state last time was West Virginia at 69.6; it got better, dropping to 61.8 going into 2022. This time around, the worst is New Mexico at 72.9.

Best Gaming ISPs for 2022

Don't forget: Test your internet connection right now and you'll be part of future Fastest ISPs and Best Gaming ISPs stories.