How much Data does Online Gaming use on PC? (Guide)

Online multiplayer games have gained popularity since the advent of the pandemic. Although they were famous before the pandemic, after the development of popular games like Fortnite, Minecraft, etc. people spend a lot of time online.

Data consumption in online gaming is usually not much and many games don’t take up much data. Unlike streaming games or downloading games, most online games take up well within the 100MB per hour mark.

Even the top-tier games don’t go beyond 300MB per hour except for Microsoft Flight Simulator which can go up to 700MB per hour. If you are a serious gamer, the overall consumption for a month can have considerable data usage.

Therefore, you need to have some knowledge regarding data consumption. Let us explore the data consumption of popular online games and find out why they consume more data.

How much data does online gaming use on PC?

Data consumption differs according to the type of game and the level of graphics used. Generally it consumes from 4 MB to 700 MB. Here is a list of popular games and their respective data usage while gaming online.

As you can see from the above list, only seven games consume more than 100MB per hour of data and among that only one game consumes 700MB. Therefore, most of the time, online gaming is not a concern.

Even if you are a serious gamer, adding up hours of data for a month doesn’t affect your internet bill. For example,

If you are playing PUBG for approximately 10 hours per day the data consumption will be about 400MB. When you calculate this for a month of 30 days, it will be about 12GB. In the U.S, popular service providers give you a minimum of 1TB of data per month for less than $50. So, it will not be a problem even if you play more than 10 hours per day.

Therefore, data consumption is not a concern while playing games online especially when you are using your PC. You can enjoy hours of gaming with your friends and still balance out some data at the end of each day.

Read: Best Zombie Shooting Games For Low End PC

Why do some online games consume more data?

If you look at the table, only some of the games seem to take up a lot of data. Apart from the internet speed, these games consume data due to the intensity of graphics present in the games.

Give another glance at the table and you can find that only some heavy games like Call of Duty, Destiny 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Fortnite, Battlefield, Dota 2, etc. consume more than 100MB per hour of data.

These games have great graphics which makes the gameplay more immersive. When there is more detail, it consumes more data to replicate it. If you have high internet speed, the consumption will be more for such games since it will devour the available bandwidth to maintain stability and latency.

Stability and latency play a big part in data consumption. Since most online games are played in multiplayer mode, they will try to maintain high stability with reduced latency. This will take a toll on your data.

Games such as PUBG, Battlefield, Overwatch, etc. require more responsiveness which can be attained only with lower latency. Only then the communication between players will be almost seamless and better for gameplay.

That is why you can experience a lot of data consumption in some games. Games like Microsoft Flight Simulator have high graphics for rendering scenes. So, naturally, it consumes more data than any other game.

Read: Can you play any PC game with a controller?

Methods to Prevent Data Consuming While Playing Online Games

Although we have established the fact that there is no need to worry about data consumption, some might need more data for other purposes. Therefore, it is important to have some tricks in the bag to save data after gaming.

Turn off Certain Graphics Settings

Nowadays games are coming with different graphic settings like Anti-Aliasing, Ray Tracing, etc. for more realistic gaming. Turning off those settings will help you to save a considerable amount of data easily.

You can find these settings in the video settings or graphics settings of the game. When you turn it off, you may not have high-quality gaming, but you will have faster responsiveness and lag-free gameplay.

You will be able to communicate with your friends better and play faster. The only disadvantage is the immersive experience will be missed out.

Here are some of the settings you can turn off in the settings:

• Texture Quality
• Anti-Aliasing
• Supersampling
• Volumetric Lighting
• Shadows

When you turn off these, you don’t have to drop down on resolution and refresh rate, because they are the heart of high-quality online gaming. Turning off these other factors will not affect the game too much.

Don’t Download Patches 

Another easy way to reduce data consumption is to stop downloading patch updates. We are not suggesting that you don’t do it at all. But when you are in dire need of data for the rest of the month, don’t do it right away.

You can do them at your convenience whenever you have sufficient data. Because most of these updates will take away a bunch of your bandwidth. 

Therefore, you don’t have to download them on low data. If you have automatic updates on, then turn them off at once to avoid unexpected data consumption.

Read: How to Play Real Flight Simulator on PC?

Conclusion

Online gaming is fun and more enjoyable. You can enjoy it without any worries about data. Because online games don’t consume much data. Even if you want to preserve more data for other uses, you can simply turn off graphics settings and save more. So, game all you want online and don’t worry about internet bills.