A round trip, timed
Ping is the time it takes for a small message to travel from your device to another computer and for a reply to come back. It is measured in milliseconds, where a millisecond is one thousandth of a second. Because the number covers both directions, it is a round trip time, and it is not the time for data to go only one way.
The name comes from a network tool that sends a short request and waits for an answer, in the way a sonar pulse bounces back. Games borrow the idea. Many show a figure on screen that updates as the game exchanges messages with the server, though how it is calculated can vary between games.
What goes into the number
Several things add up to the figure you see.
- Distance. Data travels through cables and, over long distances, through fiber at a good fraction of the speed of light, but not instantly. A server far away means more travel time, and this is a floor you cannot go below. Distance in a straight line is also an underestimate, since cables rarely follow the shortest path.
- Hops. Between you and the server, data passes through multiple routers. Each one needs a moment to receive and forward packets.
- Congestion. If a link in the path is busy, packets may queue, which raises the figure.
- Your own network. Wi-Fi, a busy home network, and your router all contribute. Wired connections are typically steadier than wireless ones.
- The server’s response. The remote machine takes a moment to process and answer. A heavily loaded server can add delay.
Because the path can change from moment to moment, ping is not a fixed property of your connection. It moves around, and the number you see is generally a recent sample or an average.
What the number tells you
At a basic level, lower is generally better. A lower round trip time means the server learns about your actions sooner, and you learn about the world sooner. Because of how matches are judged, covered in more detail in the piece on lag compensation, the effects of those delays are not always symmetrical between players.
Rough categories are sometimes used in conversation, such as “low,” “fair” or “high,” but where these lines fall depends on the game. A slow-paced strategy game can work well at a figure that would feel poor in a fast shooter, so no single threshold is accurate for every title.
What the number does not tell you
This is where ping is most often misread.
It does not show consistency. A connection with a steady figure of moderate size can feel better than one that averages lower but swings widely. The variation is called jitter, and loss of data is covered in packet loss. Neither shows up in a single ping reading.
It does not include everything between your hand and the screen. Your controller, your display and your device’s processing add their own delays. The time from pressing a button to seeing a result is often called input latency, and it is separate from the network figure. A game running at a low frame rate adds delay even with a perfect network.
It does not tell you the server’s update speed. A server that updates the world infrequently can feel sluggish whatever the ping, and that update rhythm is described in tick rate.
It is measured to one place. The figure reflects the path to the server you are shown. If the game also uses direct links between players, or if voice chat uses a different route, those can behave differently. Also, some games measure to a regional gateway rather than to the machine hosting your match.
It may be measured differently from game to game. Some titles show a raw round trip. Others show a smoothed figure, or exclude processing time on the server. Comparing numbers across games can mislead.
Ping and the feel of a game
Delay matters most in situations that require quick reactions. Higher figures can make you feel like actions happen late, make other players appear to be somewhere they no longer are, and, in some designs, put you at a disadvantage in head-to-head fights. How large the effect is depends on how the game handles the gap, as hosting choices, prediction and the rules for judging shots all differ. The wider picture of online multiplayer, with servers, clients and constant messages, shows where this delay fits in.
Humans also vary. Many players can adapt to a steady delay, since they learn to lead their actions. Sudden changes are harder to adjust to than a constant figure.
Getting a better reading
If you want to know more about your own connection, a few habits help.
- Watch the figure over several minutes, not just once. Look for spikes as well as the typical value.
- If the game provides loss and variation indicators, read them with the ping.
- Compare wired and wireless, and compare different times of day.
- Try different server regions if the game lets you. A closer region typically gives a lower number, though a busier region may bring other downsides.
Treat any single reading as a rough guide. Ping is a useful clue about the distance and quality of the route to a server, but it measures only one slice of why a game feels the way it does.