Last updated: September 2026
#AFFILIATE-PLACEHOLDER-* in our code). Full disclosure.
The honest headline first: no VPN lowers your latency. Gizmodo tested six VPNs inside Counter-Strike 2 on a fixed London server: 42 ms with no VPN, 57 ms on the best VPN, 67 ms on the worst. The 15–25 ms cost of the tunnel is real — smaller than the VPN industry admits, larger than the marketing pretends. Distance dominates everything: the same test on an American server read 241 ms with no VPN, of which 199 ms was distance and only 15–25 ms was the tunnel (Gizmodo).
So why does a gaming VPN earn a place at all? DDoS protection, ISP throttling, region-locked games and earlier launches, cheaper store pricing — not ping. The comparison below is built on Gizmodo's September 2026 gaming tests (in-game CS2 ping on six VPNs, plus their PS4/PS5 console testing), TechRadar's gaming VPN performance numbers, and Tom's Guide's testing. We ran no tests of our own; every measured figure is attributed to its source.
| Provider | Why gamers pick it | Speed loss | Console setup | Devices | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | Best overall; best on distant servers; Meshnet LAN play | 7.8% | Router, PC share, Smart DNS | 10 | $3.49/mo |
| ExpressVPN | Lowest in-game ping measured; steadiest under load | Under 10% | Router, PC share, Smart DNS | 10 (Basic) | $2.99/mo |
| CyberGhost | Lowest idle ping; longest refund window | Not published | Router, PC share | Not published | Not published |
| Proton VPN | Best privacy; port forwarding; only free plan worth using | Recovered by Accelerator | Router, PC share | 10 | $2.99/mo |
| Surfshark | Covers every console and PC in the house | Varies by server | Router, PC share | Unlimited | $2.49/mo |
| Private Internet Access | Port forwarding for hosted game servers | Occasional spikes | Router, PC share, Smart DNS | Unlimited | $2.19/mo |
Speed loss figures come from Gizmodo's PS4/PS5 console testing unless noted. Device counts and prices are long-term-plan starting rates. We have not tested these services ourselves.
Gizmodo's pick as best gaming VPN overall: the best of the six on distant servers, a single-digit ping increase over unprotected on nearby ones, and 7.8% average speed loss in the console tests — small enough that ping stayed within a few milliseconds of the baseline on nearby servers. The differentiator is Meshnet, which links your devices directly over the internet as though they shared a LAN — friends in different countries can run the kind of local-multiplayer session that normally needs everyone in the same room. NordLynx (NordVPN's WireGuard build) does the latency work: Fortnite stayed under 50 ms across a three-hour session, and Apex Legends and Valorant recorded no packet loss. Router setup is covered by model-specific guides; consoles also get Smart DNS for streaming (Gizmodo).
The steadiest under load and the lowest in-game ping of the six in Gizmodo's CS2 test. TechRadar measured Lightway Turbo at 1,400+ Mbps on nearby servers and 1,300+ Mbps on US connections, with gaming latency adding roughly 20–30 ms in competitive FPS titles (Call of Duty, Valorant, Apex Legends). Automatic obfuscation on every connection helps on campus or hotel networks that filter VPN traffic, and the server spread — 196 locations in 113 countries — gives the most options for regional lobbies and geo-restricted games (TechRadar). See ExpressVPN vs NordVPN for the full head-to-head.
Gizmodo measured the lowest idle ping of the group and notes the longest refund window — the low-risk try-it option. The trade-off for gamers: its Windows documentation rules out Microsoft SQ and Snapdragon processors, so a Windows-on-ARM gaming laptop takes it off the list, and there's no Smart DNS option for consoles (Gizmodo).
The only one with a free plan Gizmodo considers worth using for gaming (see below). Port forwarding — rare among big VPNs — matters if you host game servers. Open-source apps, a Swiss base, and independently audited no-logs policies for the privacy-minded; 20,000+ servers in 148 countries for everyone else (Gizmodo).
Unlimited simultaneous devices on one subscription: every PC, console, phone, and tablet in the house covered without counting. Speed varies more by server than the others, so it's the pick where coverage of devices matters more than shaving single milliseconds (Gizmodo).
Port forwarding for hosted game servers (the other one that offers it), 26,000+ servers, Smart DNS, and the cheapest long-term price of the six at $2.19/mo with unlimited devices. The catch in the console tests: occasional speed spikes, so it's for gamers who want to tune protocol, encryption, and ports by hand (Gizmodo).
Consoles can't run VPN apps, so you have three options — NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and PIA cover all three; Proton VPN and Surfshark cover two (Gizmodo):
Almost none qualify. Free plans cap data or speed, and both are fatal to gaming. The exception per Gizmodo's testing: Proton VPN's free tier — no data limit, the only free plan Gizmodo found worth gaming on. The trade-offs are one device at a time, automatic server assignment across 10 countries, and no streaming access. A cheaper path to full access is a refund-window "trial": NordVPN offers a 3-day trial on Android and a 30-day refund policy on every platform — effectively a month of full-speed, unrestricted testing (Gizmodo). See best free VPN — the honest guide.
No. Every VPN adds latency — Gizmodo measured +15 ms for the best VPN on a nearby CS2 server and +25 ms for the worst. What a VPN can do is prevent worse outcomes: DDoS attacks, ISP throttling of game traffic, and restrictive networks blocking game ports.
Tom's Guide names NordVPN its best gaming VPN (1,200+ Mbps on a 10 Gbps line, 8,000+ servers across 168 locations in 129 countries — useful for finding less-crowded regional lobbies). Gizmodo measured ExpressVPN's in-game ping lowest under load. Either is defensible; both beat picking by brand alone.
It depends on the publisher's terms. Many games tolerate VPNs for latency/DDoS reasons; some explicitly forbid region-switching. If the terms say no, a VPN is a ban risk we won't talk you into taking.
Not directly — consoles don't run VPN apps. The reliable routes are a router install, sharing a VPN connection from a PC, or Smart DNS (streaming location only, no encryption). NordVPN and ExpressVPN publish per-model router guides (Gizmodo).