How To Reduce Ping In PUBG

Playing a huge competitive multiplayer game like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) can be a real thrill. It has become one of the most popular and well-known battle royale video games for a reason.

Whether you’re playing the game on PC, consoles, or mobile devices, it’s going to be important to have a good internet connection. Check out my guide on crossplay in PUBG here.

If your game seems incredibly laggy, then you might have issues with ping.

Having a high ping number can make it almost impossible to do well in the game. If things are really bad, then the game might feel practically unplayable.

So I’ve created this guide about ping and latency that will also show you how to reduce ping in PUBG.

What Is Ping?

Before you go further, you might be wondering exactly what ping is. People who play games often talk about ping when they experience lag while playing an online game.

Some people think ping and latency are the same, but this isn’t accurate.

What’s the difference between ping and latency?

Ping is a diagnostics utility that sends a signal (data packets) from one computer to another computer or server. Latency is the time (in milliseconds) it takes for the ping to return to the computer. So ping reports the round trip latency on a network.

If you have a very high ping number, then that means that it takes longer for the information to make the full trip. This results in your actions in the video game lagging behind everyone else.

It can be very frustrating to be put in a position where you’re getting beaten in the game due to lagging.

Likewise, it’s annoying to play with someone who has a high ping, as you might see that person’s avatar freezing or jumping around in the game or dragging down the gameplay experience for everybody. It might even cause a host or server to hang or crash.

Thankfully, there are some things that you can do to try to fix ping issues.

What Is a Good Ping Number?

A good ping number is going to be as low as possible. Competitive gamers who compete in tournaments strive to have very low ping numbers.

In most tournaments, players will compete with ping numbers as low as one. Of course, replicating a ping number this low on normal servers won’t be possible.

A normal ping number will be somewhere between 10 and 70. If your ping is higher than 70, then you might wish to make some changes to try to bring it down.

Even if you have a ping of 50 or 60, that’s not going to be unusual. Most players will be somewhere in that range and you should be able to play the game just fine if your ping falls within the acceptable range.

Where do you see the Ping number in PUBG?

Checking your ping number is very easy when you’re playing PUBG. The number is visible in the bottom left corner of the screen while playing the game.

This will give you the information that you need to see if things are good are bad. If you have a very high number, then you’re likely going to want to make some changes.

The lower your ping is, the better it will be for your gaming experience. Having a low ping number means that you’ll be able to be as competitive as possible.

Those who take playing games such as PUBG seriously all strive to play with low ping numbers. If your number is high right now, then don’t worry too much because you can fix it using certain methods.

How to reduce Ping in PUBG

Read on to see different ways on how to reduce ping PUBG properly so that you can have a good experience while playing the game.

1. Don’t download or stream stuff in the background

One of the biggest culprits to high ping times in PUBG is downloading or streaming stuff at the same time while playing the game.

Here are a few things to check:

• Are you downloading (or uploading) something – fx via a torrent or a ftp-client? If so shut it down!
• Is Windows or an app automatically downloading an update in the background? Pause it!
• Is your family watching Netflix on the same network at the same time? Tell them to go outside instead!

Downloading, sharing or streaming stuff while playing video games online is always a bad idea if you want to have a low ping, since you’ll use up precious bandwidth.

2. Close All Other Applications

Another big culprit to high latency ping in PUBG is sometimes having other applications running at the same time. This can make the game run worse and it can lead to issues with ping.

Whether you’re playing on PC or mobile, it’ll be ideal to close all unnecessary applications when playing PUBG. Close all of your web browser tabs and anything else that might be running.

The only thing that needs to be running when you’re playing PUBG is the game application itself.

Otherwise, only necessary functions of the PC or mobile device should be operating. This will make it less likely that you’ll experience lag. It’s an easy fix that should serve you well.

If you’re playing PUBG on the PC, then it’d be prudent to restart your computer as well.

3. Restart Your Router or Modem

Resetting your router or modem might be enough to make things better. Having ping issues are sometimes related to general problems with your internet connection.

It’s amazing how much can be fixed by simply resetting everything.

See if it makes a difference. You’re supposed to restart your router and modem every so often to prevent issues. It’s recommended to do this once per week.

4. Use a Wired Connection When Playing on Console and PC

Since PUBG is available on both consoles and PC, you’ll want to try to play with a wired connection when playing on those platforms.

You’re less likely to experience lag if you have a wired connection. This is because Wi-Fi connections always introduces latency because the signal has to travel through walls, floors, all the crap in your room etc.

Simply plug an Ethernet cable into your PC or console and then connect that to your modem or router. You’ll be wired in and you won’t experience lag issues nearly as much.

What if I’m playing on mobile?

If you’re playing PUBG on mobile, then this method isn’t going to help you.

However, there are things to try:

• Try switching from between the Wi-Fi network in your house to the 3G, 4G, 5G network on your phone or vise versa.
• When on your local Wi-Fi Network you might see an improvement if you change from 2.4Ghz to a 5 Ghz Wi-Fi network if you haven’t already.
• Try moving around the house to find the best spot. If you’re on Wi-Fi this is usually close to the router/modem. If you’re connecting to a 3G, 4G, or 5G mast this might be near window – or even outside if the weather permits.

If none of this works keep reading and try some of the other tricks mentioned below if you need to turn things around. There are plenty of little tricks that you can try.

5. Connect to a Nearby Server

Connecting to a nearby PUBG server should help you to have a better time with the game. When you’re having ping issues, it can sometimes be related to playing on a server that is too far away.

If you’re playing in North America, choose a server that is as close to your location as possible. Using a server that is in another part of the world might give you a worse experience.

Changing servers is actually really easy to do. Generally, PUBG is automatically going to pick the nearest server for you.

However, you can change it to any server that you want that is available.

Check to see that your server settings are appropriate and this might be all that is necessary to get your ping issues resolved.

6. Update Drivers

Did you know that having drivers that are out of date can mess with your gaming experience? This is true, and it’s something that you’re going to want to fix.

Go through and check all of your drivers to ensure that they’re up to date. Especially, check your graphics drivers and network drivers!

You might even wish to download a tool to help you identify out-of-date drivers such as Driver Booster or Snappy Driver. There are many on the market. These are just mentioned to get you started.

When you resolve all of the driver issues, it might improve the performance of the game a lot. This will allow you to play the game and have a smooth experience.

It can also be worthwhile to ensure that everything on your phone is up-to-date when playing on mobile devices such as Android and iPhone.

7. Try Renewing Your IP Address

Renewing your IP address might be a good idea if you’re playing on PC. It’s simple:

1. In Windows, hold down the Windows button and press the R key
2. Type cmd and press enter to bring up the command prompt
3. Now simply type ipconfig/release and hit enter.

It should end up looking something like this:

This renews your IP address. It doesn’t take long to do this, and that makes it a practical way to try to solve ping issues.

Remember you’ll need to reconnect to the internet again after this procedure using the Network Settings in Windows.

8. Try Repairing (or reinstalling) PUBG

Sometimes it might be necessary to repair the game to fix any issues that are happening. There is a prompt that will allow you to do this right from the game.

You can click repair and it’ll reinstall the game in an attempt to fix any issues. This could be enough to change things for the better.

You can also try uninstalling the game app and reinstalling the game app on your own.

Either way, this should repair PUBG to ensure that the app is working as intended. Try playing a game once you have repaired the PUBG app to see how everything goes.

If you feel as though the ping situation has improved, then it might have been that your game app was messed up in some way.

9. Use Ping-Reducing Mobile Apps

There are third-party apps that can help you to have a better time playing PUBG without encountering ping issues. Some third-party apps are capable of reducing ping and improving your gaming experience.

What they do is customize the settings to make the game run better on your mobile device. It might force the game to run at 720p while reducing certain things such as shadow detail.

The game will be easier to run at this point, and latency issues won’t be so severe.

GFX Tool is the most popular and common app that smartphone gamers use to reduce ping.

Notice: the game will be smoother, but it’s not going to look as good as usual. It’s a trade-off that will likely be worth it if your goal is to win and have fun.

10. Clean the Cache Memory

Your mobile device might be having issues with memory. If you don’t have enough space, then PUBG isn’t going to run as it should.

You should take the time to clear the cache memory to improve the way that PUBG runs. It’s possible to download apps that will help you to clear memory space.

Some apps will use up gigabytes of space to cache memory even when you hardly ever use the apps. It might even be a good idea to go through and uninstall useless apps from your phone.

It’ll result in your phone working better than before. If you need help, you can always seek out an app to help clean the cache memory instead.

11. Clear Storage on PC

Is your hard drive almost full on your PC? This can have a negative impact on your gaming experience. Free space is necessary for your PC to operate. You should be able to delete old videos and other things that you don’t need.

Remember that you can always back certain things up to the cloud. This will allow you to access them when necessary instead of keeping them on your PC directly.

You should be able to clear up a lot of storage space by utilizing the cloud. It’s also possible to back things up using external hard drives if you don’t like the idea of using cloud storage.

12. Try Using a VPN

Virtual private networks (VPNs) allow you to do many things. People use VPNs to browse the web securely. They also use it to avoid issues such as geo-blocking.

A VPN will come in handy when playing PUBG as well. VPNs can reduce ping and ensure that you have a better experience overall.

You could reroute your server to one that is closer to the PUBG servers. That would lead to an improved experience. Just remember to use a good VPN if you choose to use this piece of advice.

Free VPNs sucks, but there are many affordable VPN options that will be worth your time.

In Closing

Whether you’re playing on mobile devices, PC, or consoles, it’ll be easy enough to improve the ping times in PUBG.

You might just need to restart your modem and router to make things better. Or you could need to reinstall the game. Either way, you’ll be enjoying your time with PUBG a lot more soon enough.

All you need to do is try each of these fixes and see if it improves your experience. You’ll be playing competitively in no time when you have a lower ping number.

I hope you found this guide useful and found a solution that helped you bring down your latency times in PUBG?