Packet loss in games
Packet loss is data that leaves your PC or the game server and never arrives. EA defines it as the number, or percentage, of packets that fail to make the round trip to the data centers and back. Riot's 2021 Valorant guide describes what network trouble like this looks like in a match: you or other players moving erratically, and your actions delayed or disregarded on the server. This guide covers how to see it, how much is too much, where it comes from and what the publishers suggest.
How to see it in your game
- Valorant: turn on the incoming and outgoing packet loss graphs under Settings, Video, Stats. The Network Problem indicator appears when networking issues begin to affect gameplay, and Riot's 2021 guide says it is most commonly triggered by consistent, high rates of packet loss or brief disconnects.
- CS2: in the Telemetry HUD, the network jitter / misdelivery graph draws a red line for each lost message and a purple line for each reordered one, and the detailed network display shows loss as a number. Valve notes that a tick miss rate of 0% does not mean conditions are perfect: it counts only the network problems that cost a tick.
- Fortnite: turn on Net Debug Stats under Settings, Game UI to see ping and packet loss once a match starts.
- Apex Legends: the Performance Display under Settings, Gameplay shows packet loss as a percentage of packets per second, next to latency and frame rate.
- League of Legends: after a game with lag, upload its netlog file (in the League folder, under Logs, GameLogs) to Riot's Log Reader for network statistics, with sections for ping, jitter and packet loss over time. Riot says that if the connection score is 90 or above, the problem is likely not the network.
How much is too much
Epic's latency guide says packet loss should be 0%, and that anything consistently above about 1% will cause problems in game even when your average ping holds steady. Riot's Valorant team wrote in 2021 that high-quality wireless and most wired connections should have packet loss close to zero at all times.
A brief blip is generally safe to ignore, according to the same 2021 post: look deeper when the instability indicators show frequently or for long durations. Valve makes a similar point for CS2. In its example, packet loss and jitter are present but the tick miss rate stays at 0%, so gameplay should not be affected.
Where it comes from
- Wi-Fi and a busy home network. EA lists many people in your home or nearby on the same Wi-Fi, a wireless connection, lots of applications running in the background, and a router that is blocked or far away. Riot's router guide adds that where many devices or Wi-Fi networks share an area, the signals can overlap and cause packet loss.
- Overloaded routers along the way. Riot's 2015 engineering post explains that a router that gets more packets than it can handle drops them. Game messages are small and constant, around 55 bytes against the 1500-byte packets most internet traffic uses, so they fill a router's buffer faster. And when routers become overwhelmed, many start ignoring UDP packets, which most games use, because unlike TCP a dropped UDP packet is not sent again.
- Your provider and the links between networks. Respawn's 2021 deep dive says packet loss is probably not your fault, and usually not the game's either: your provider may be having an outage, or a link between your provider's network and the data center's is weak. In Respawn's example trace of a pro player, it was nearly certain of packet loss between his local provider and the next network on the path.
- Damaged cables. Riot's 2021 Valorant guide says that if a wired connection does not help, the problem is commonly physical damage to your provider's cables, which the provider may already know about or can send someone to repair.
- The game's side. In 2021 Respawn reported finding one faulty piece of network equipment in its own data center causing massive packet loss for every game on a handful of servers. EA's Apex guide says data centers can have high ping and packet loss when lots of people are playing or the servers have issues.
What to do about it
- Rule out the game's side. When every Apex data center shows high ping or packet loss, EA suggests checking the server status page for outages. If there are none, it says to troubleshoot your own connection.
- Fix the home end. Riot's 2021 Valorant guide suggests restarting your router and switching to a wired connection. When a cable is not an option, Riot's router guide suggests the 5 GHz band, or a Wi-Fi channel that does not overlap with the others nearby.
- Use the game's buffering setting, knowing what it costs. In Valorant, Riot's 2021 guide suggests the network buffering setting to reduce the game's demands on your network, and its 2022 consistency update explains that the server's buffering of your moves adds a delay before it processes them. In CS2, Valve's Buffering setting smooths over packet loss and jitter, and adds latency.
- In Fortnite on PC, try -limitclientticks. Epic suggests adding it to Fortnite's Additional Command Line Arguments in the Epic Games Launcher settings, to throttle network updates.
- Take the numbers to your provider. Riot's 2021 Valorant guide suggests checking your router's diagnostics and packet loss logs and taking that data to your provider. Epic suggests sending your ping and packet loss information.
How NitroPing helps
Your ping depends on the path your internet provider sends your game's traffic along, not only on the distance. NitroPing sends only your game'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 your game'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.
Common questions
What is packet loss in gaming?
Data sent between your PC and the game server that never arrives. EA measures it as the number, or percentage, of packets that fail to make the round trip. When it is high, other players can move erratically and your actions can be delayed or disregarded by the server, as Riot's 2021 Valorant guide describes.
How much packet loss is acceptable?
Epic says it should be 0%, and that anything consistently above about 1% will cause problems in game. Riot's 2021 Valorant guide says brief indicators that go away very quickly are generally safe to ignore.
Why do I have packet loss on a wired connection?
The loss can start past your home. Respawn's 2021 deep dive points to provider outages and weak links between networks, and Riot's 2021 Valorant guide says that when a cable does not help, the cause is commonly physical damage to the provider's cables. Take your router's loss data and your in-game numbers to your provider.
Can NitroPing fix packet loss?
It cannot fix loss that starts at home, such as Wi-Fi trouble or a connection that is already full. What it changes is the path: NitroPing sends only your game'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.
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