Ping (video gaming)

In online multiplayer video games, ping refers to the network latency between a player's client and the game server. Ping is reported quantitatively as an average time in milliseconds (ms). The lower one's ping is, the lower the latency is and the less lag the player will experience. High ping and low ping are commonly used terms in online gaming, where high ping refers to a ping that causes a severe amount of lag; while any level of ping may cause lag, severe lag is usually caused with a ping of over 100 milliseconds. In games where timing is key, such as first-person shooter and real-time strategy games, a low ping is always desirable, as a low ping means smoother gameplay by allowing faster updates of game data between the players' clients and game server.

High latency can cause lag. Game servers may disconnect a client if the latency is too high and may pose a detriment to other players' gameplay. Similarly, client software will often mandate disconnection if the latency is too high. High ping may also cause servers to crash due to instability.

In some first-person shooter games, a high ping may cause the player to unintentionally gain unfair advantages, such as appear and disappearing from one location and instantaneously reappear in another, simulating the effect of teleportation, thus making it hard for other players to judge their character's position and subsequently making the player much more difficult to target. To counter this, many game servers automatically kick players with a ping higher than average. Conversely, a high ping can make it very difficult for the player to play the game due to negative effects occurring, making it difficult for the player to track other players and even move their character.

Rather than using the traditional echo request and reply network packets to determine ping times, video game programmers often build their own latency detection into existing game packets (usually based on the protocol) instead.

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