Lower ping in Fortnite
In Fortnite, your ping is the time your data takes to reach an Epic game server and come back. Epic names three things that change it: how busy your connection is, the route your data takes, and the server your match runs on. This page goes through each one, using Epic's own player support articles.
Where Fortnite's servers are
Fortnite matches you inside a Matchmaking Region, and a region can hold more than one Subregion. Epic's example is Europe, which includes Germany, the United Kingdom and France. Matchmaking can place you in any Subregion of your region, balancing ping, queue times and fairness, and different Fortnite experiences can run in different datacenters within one Subregion.
You choose the region under Settings, Game, Language and Region, Matchmaking Region. Each region shows your ping to it in milliseconds, and Auto picks the region with the best ping. Epic recommends Auto, and suggests trying other regions if your latency stays high.
Choosing a specific region also unlocks Subregion Preference, which makes you land on the Subregion you want more often. Epic notes that it may increase queue times and reduce match quality.
How to see your ping in Fortnite
Fortnite can show your ping and packet loss on screen during a match, and Epic also publishes test addresses you can ping from your PC, for North America, Europe, Brazil, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East.
- In the lobby, open the menu in the top right corner, go to Settings, then the Game UI tab.
- Set Net Debug Stats to On and click Apply. Your network details appear in the top left corner. Start a match to see real numbers.
- For a test outside the game, take the address Epic lists for your Subregion, such as ping-va.ds.on.epicgames.com for Virginia. In Command Prompt, run ping ping-va.ds.on.epicgames.com -n 50 to send 50 packets, then read the average, the packet loss, and how far apart the minimum and maximum are.
- Epic notes that a test on an idle connection can look perfect even when the connection struggles under load. If your ping is bad while someone is streaming or a download is running, run the test again under the same load.
- Compare the result with the ping Fortnite shows. Epic points out that the test uses ICMP while the game uses UDP, and many networks give ICMP lower priority, so a normal-looking test does not rule out a problem on the path the game actually uses.
What makes Fortnite lag
Routing. Epic says a sudden increase in ping is usually caused by how your internet provider routes traffic. Providers use internet exchange points to send data, and if one of those points is down or congested, your ping can spike.
Congestion at home. If another device fills your connection, Fortnite's data waits in line behind it and your ping rises. Epic singles out uploads as the most disruptive, because most home connections have much less upload capacity than download.
Packet loss. Epic says packet loss should be zero, and that loss that keeps showing up causes problems in the game even when your average ping looks fine. On PC, Epic suggests adding -limitclientticks under Additional Command Line Arguments for Fortnite in the Epic Games Launcher settings, which throttles network updates.
Your router and Wi-Fi. Epic's list starts with restarting your modem and router and using a wired connection. It also suggests a QoS or gaming mode on the router, a better spot for the router away from closets and basements, firmware updates, and testing both Wi-Fi bands: 2.4 GHz reaches further but can be crowded, and 5 GHz is faster with a shorter range.
Fixes worth trying first
- Play on a cable instead of Wi-Fi if you can. Wi-Fi adds delay and drops packets when the signal is busy or weak.
- Pause downloads, game updates, streams and cloud backups on your network while you play.
- Restart your router if your ping was fine before and suddenly is not.
Changing your DNS server does not lower your in-game ping: DNS only looks up addresses before the game connects.
How NitroPing helps
Your ping depends on the path your internet provider sends Fortnite's traffic along, not only on the distance. NitroPing sends only Fortnite's traffic through one of our relay servers over an encrypted tunnel, which can be a shorter, steadier path than your provider's default route. Everything else on your PC stays on your normal connection.
Pick Auto and NitroPing measures the relays from your PC and uses the one with the lowest latency, or pick a city and it stays there.
What it cannot do: shorten the physical distance to Fortnite's servers, or fix Wi-Fi trouble or a connection that is already full. If your provider's route to the game is already good, the difference will be small.
Fortnite ping questions
What is a good ping in Fortnite?
Lower is better, and steady matters as much: Epic says jitter matters as much as the average, so when you test, your minimum and maximum should be reasonably close. Auto Matchmaking Region already picks the region with the best ping for you.
Should I set my Fortnite Matchmaking Region to Auto?
Epic recommends Auto for the best connection, since it picks the region with the best ping. If your latency stays high, Epic suggests trying the other regions to see which one gives you the best connection.
Why does my Fortnite ping spike suddenly?
Epic says sudden increases usually come from how your internet provider routes traffic, when an exchange point on the way is down or congested. A large upload on your own network can do it too. Run Epic's ping test once with your network quiet and once under your usual load, and compare the two.
Does NitroPing work with Fortnite?
Fortnite is in NitroPing's game list: the app knows Fortnite's game program and routes only its traffic through the relay, while everything else stays on your normal connection.