How Much Data Does Online Gaming Use?

I have personally completed a Quest to see just how many MB or GB online gaming actually uses up. After originally googling it I found mixed results, but due to a friend considering signing up to a mobile broadband package with a data limit I put it to the test. I have a tethering plan with my mobile phone provider which allows me to use my mobile phone has a portable wifi hotspot. My first stage of the test, upon arriving at my friends house, was to perform a speed test in the area. I used the Ookla app on my phone and got a download speed of over 3 Mbps and an upload speed of less than 0.5Mbps. That might not sound too impressive but it was actually more than 3 times faster than his landline broadband due to living in a rural area.

Stage 2 was to find out how much data I had used on my phone already so that we would have a starting point to record the results. If I remember correctly it was around 19Mb. So, I booted up the test device (A Playstaion 3) and a test game (Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare). My friend started playing. It was pretty frequent with only slight pauses between rounds but after more than an hour I checked my phones usage and if I remember correctly (test was done a week or so ago) the amount was slightly over 80Mb.

So to answer the question How Much Data Does Online Gaming Use? Not a lot!

To put it in perspective and in allowing the possibility that other games may use up a little more then read this.

Let’s say at worse the most demanding game uses 100mb per hour. Then a 15Gb monthly data plan would allow you to play 153.6 Hours a month. That’s roughly 35 1/2 hours per week! I don’t know about you but that would be more than enough for myself and anyone I know combined.

Before I stop I must warn you that if you do have a limit on your data usage each month then avoid video streaming like the plague as it really does eat data. Online gaming though is good to go!

Thanks for reading.