In a hurry?
The best VPN for gaming in 2023, as found in our independent testing, is NordVPN!

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A top-tier VPN guarantees a constant connection and excellent speed and safeguards your data.

It ought to be user-friendly and dependable enough so that it doesn’t interfere with your gaming sessions.

Although VPNs are many, only a select few can deliver the safety and speed that PC gamers require. 

When using one of the VPNs we recommend below, your online activities will remain hidden, and you won’t experience any lag while playing games.

Monthly and annual subscriptions to the VPNs on this list are affordable.

Be aware of trying a free VPN because of their logging policies that some of your data will be recorded and sold to third parties. 

Here are the best VPNs for gaming in 2023. 

Best VPN for Gaming 2023

1. NordVPN – 🏆 Winner!
2. Surfshark
3. Atlas VPN
4. ExpressVPN
5. ProtonVPN

1. NordVPN

Recommended Guide: NordVPN Review

What serious gamer wouldn’t want faster connection speeds if a VPN service can offer that?

The lightning-fast speeds advertised by NordVPN were confirmed in our tests.

It has many servers in the most important countries, and all of them, whether in the United States, Hong Kong, or any other 57 countries where gamers may connect, provide incredible and consistently fast download and upload rates.

👉 Get NordVPN Here

👉 Get 63% OFF NordVPN!

Although it doesn’t support as many countries as other services, it provides access to all the most important gaming locations.

Gaming performance should improve using NordVPN’s service, as the company says their VPN can circumvent bandwidth limitations.

Strong IP Address Protection

Your IP address is your digital badge of identity and reveals your physical location to the world.

Suppose you’re concerned about your online security; even while gaming, it’s best to hide your true IP address.

As long as you’re connected to one of NordVPN’s VPN servers, your true IP address will be concealed, and the service’s leak protection will ensure that you remain completely anonymous online.

You won’t have to worry about your Internet service provider slowing down your connection, and your gaming performance will improve.

DDoS Protection On All Servers

Distributed denial-of-service attacks are becoming increasingly common. In online games, DDoS assaults are frequently employed to gain an edge over rival players.

An attacker floods a server or network with traffic called a distributed denial of service attack.

You could become a target of the DDoS assault or unwittingly join the attacking botnet in this scenario. 

A DDoS attack may not directly compromise security but can significantly degrade your online gaming experience by slowing down your connection or blocking access to a game server.

DDoS protection is included on all of NordVPN’s servers, giving gamers an extra safety net and competitive edge.

Rich Server Base

Using one of NordVPN’s more than 5600 VPN servers in 59 countries can greatly improve your online gaming experience.

If aliens invade your game, you can protect Earth by connecting to a virtual private network. Use the full potential of NordVPN by connecting to any of their servers worldwide.

Geo-Restrictions

There are a lot of online games that are only available in certain countries.

This includes game updates, features, and new packs restricted to specific regions. So, if you want to play all the games you want to play, you’ll need a VPN.

Using a VPN enables you to bypass geographical restrictions by masking your real IP address.

NordVPN Pricing

There aren’t any complicated price structures or package selections with NordVPN. The Standard, the Plus, and the Complete are the only available options.

Remember that the savings will be greater for a longer-term plan. Consider the difference between the annual and monthly rates:

• Standard: $4.99/month (1-year plan) or $11.99/month (1-month plan)
• Prices for The Plus begin at $5.89 per month (for a one-year commitment) and rise to $12.89 per month (1-month plan)
• The Complete Package: $7.19/mo. (yearly) or $14.19/mo (1-month plan)

2. Surfshark

Recommended Guide: Surfshark VPN Review

Our Surfshark review discovered the service to be highly good in several ways, including its low price and effectiveness as a gaming VPN.

While Surfshark hasn’t always been as fast as NordVPN, it recently matched both services in our speed tests, so you can rest assured that it won’t drag down your Wi-Fi.

👉 Try Surfshark FREE

It has a large network of 3,200 servers, but the mixture of unlimited connections and a price tag of less than $2.50 a month is what sells the service.

Both are extremely rare in the VPN market, making their combination unrivaled.

Without a doubt, Surfshark is the most cost-effective VPN service for online gamers.

Great Upload Speeds

Upload speeds on Surfshark were higher when connected to a server in the same country.

The speeds dropped minimally when connecting to servers in other countries, which is unusual for VPNs.

It’s known that long-distance gaming VPN servers cause significant performance drops for many services. 

To put it simply, Surfshark prevents your ISP from restricting your traffic, allowing you to play multiplayer games without interruption.

Compatible With Most Gaming Consoles

Surfshark allows you to link up with many different iterations of Xbox and PS consoles.

This powerful VPN shields your gaming consoles and other gadgets from cybercriminals since you may connect an unlimited number of devices at once.

Check out the list of supported devices below to see if your game console is one of them!

• The Xbox One, Series S, and Series X
• Playstation 4 and Playstation 5

Smart DNS Feature

Surfshark uses a Smart DNS to allow its users to play games on gaming consoles and TVs that are not VPN enabled, as several Smart TVs do not allow VPNs.

It even helps with routers!

Even though Smart DNS lets you connect your Smart TV to the same anonymized server as your VPN, your data is not encrypted when using this option. 

That’s why a Smart DNS is designed for entertainment purposes like streaming and gaming, not for safety.

Fortunately, Surfshark works with many different platforms and mobile devices.

Encryption

Encryption is the best feature of a VPN. The data transmitted through Surfshark is encrypted using AES-256.

This type of encryption is among the most secure available today and is extremely difficult to break.

Through encryption, Surfshark safeguards all of your data while you’re on the internet.

Surfshark’s Android app also includes a bonus function that lets users toggle between AES 256-GCM and Chacha20 Poly1305 cryptography.

You can expect increased velocities as a result of this.

Pricing

Surfshark has incredibly low prices. Its consistently low cost makes it a popular choice, and they provide seasonal and year-round promotions.

You save money compared to shorter subscriptions when you sign up for a longer length of time, as is the case with most VPN services.

Here are their current prices:

• Subscription cost each month: $12.95
• $3.99 per month for a yearly membership
• Two-year membership: $2.49 monthly

3. Atlas VPN

Recommended Guide: Atlas VPN Review

Despite its inexpensive cost, Atlas VPN offers a suite of useful features that no gamer should be without if they’re serious about lowering their ping and increasing their performance.

Because of our limitless bandwidth and speed-optimized servers, you won’t have to fret over ping or server latency.

👉 Get Atlas VPN FREE

There is robust DDoS protection, robust encryption, and a handy split tunneling function that lets you send only the data you specify while keeping the remainder of your connection on your real IP address.

The IPv6 encryption and DNS leak security afforded by the Atlas VPN apps will ensure that no sensitive information is leaked while you are engaged in online gaming.

Security Features

Among Atlas VPN’s many useful features are military-grade AES-256 encryption, a kill switch, DNS leak protection, and IPv6 leak protection.

Moreover, Atlas VPN’s IP address-changing SafeSwap feature adds an extra layer of security to your online activities.

To be completely transparent, SafeSwap exclusively has data centers in the United States (US), the Netherlands (NL), and Singapore (SG).

The availability of multi-hop (double VPN) means that you can further fortify the safety of your network.

Naturally, this will slow you down. Adding Smart DNS and split tunneling would have made Atlas VPN an even more compelling offering. 

The kill switch was also “kind of” functioning since it had some bugs here and there that needed to be worked out.

One other negative aspect is that Atlas VPN leases its server space. Also, they are not dependent on random access memory.

Being an American corporation, this might be a serious shortcoming.

SafeSwap

The service’s SafeSwap feature is particularly useful for gamers because it is an additional safeguard. IP address rotation is possible without switching Atlas VPN servers.

Simply sign in and link up with one of the SafeSwap nodes to begin exchanging files. The service provider will occasionally change your IP address. Be aware that this feature is reserved for paid subscribers only.

Tracker Blocker

The Tracker Blocker function, accessible on computers and mobile devices, blocks any implanted third-party trackers from monitoring your online movements.

Ads and pop-ups, which can occasionally spread malware and are very annoying while gaming, can also be disabled.

Kill Switch

The kill switch in Atlas VPN works across your devices and programs. Thankfully, it is also offered in a freemium form.

The “Always-on VPN” function is available natively on Android, and users can activate it.

If your VPN connection drops, a kill switch will immediately cut off your access to the internet.

Your IP address and other private information are safe from disclosure. 

Plans And Prices

Atlas VPN offers three affordable subscription options. Three different contract durations are available: $10.99 a month, $3.29 a year, and $2.05 a year.

4. ExpressVPN

Recommended Guide: ExpressVPN Review

Using ExpressVPN while playing games allows you to conceal your true location by connecting you to one of its many servers located in any of the 94 supported countries.

You can select between TCP and UDP, and the OpenVPN protocol provides top-notch security. For gaming purposes, the latter is recommended.

After successfully bypassing Netflix’s regional restrictions in the United States, you can be confident that it will also bypass restrictions on other big gaming platforms.

Moreover, no other system can match its speed.

While ExpressVPN isn’t the cheapest VPN option, its top-notch performance and 24/7 support make up for the cost.

Encryption And Privacy

The VPN’s Lightway protocol provides 256-bit AES encryption, a kill switch, and security against IPv6 and DNS leaks.

This protects you from DoS attacks and prevents other players from discovering your location or identity, thanks to your concealed IP address.

In addition, there is a no-logs policy in place to protect your privacy while you play.

ExpressVPN now supports all platforms and devices used for gaming. It’s compatible with PCs, PS5, Xbox One X, and Switch, among other consoles.

Enormous Server Network

ExpressVPN has over 3,000 servers in 94 locations across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, all using their private DNS.

With this, people in any part of the world can access the internet without fear of having their activity monitored or their connections filtered or blocked by a censored domain name system (DNS). 

Using distance, latency, and download speed as criteria, clever location tools can automatically choose the optimal VPN server location.

Pricing

Three subscription tiers are available with ExpressVPN, each with a different minimum commitment. Prices are as follows:

• Monthly: $12.95
• Six months at $9.99/month ($59.95 total charge)
• For the first 15 months, the monthly cost is $6.66 (paid as a single $99.95 payment), and after that, it rises to $8.33 (billed annually for $99.95).

5. ProtonVPN

Recommended Guide: ProtonVPN Review

You won’t find a better VPN than Proton VPN.

It is because Proton VPN is an established VPN service, meaning your privacy will be safeguarded, and you’ll have access to unlimited data transfer.

That’s an unusual feature set for a free VPN service.

High-Speed Servers

Connecting to the closest server can guarantee a lag-free gaming session, which is especially important for online games.

This VPN for online gaming boosts performance with lightning-fast technology, so you can safely explore the vast online gaming world without slowing down your connection.

Unlimited Data And Bandwidth

You may game uninterruptedly while protecting your data with ProtonVPN because the service doesn’t limit your bandwidth.

You’re free to keep playing and streaming your favorite games, as we don’t impose any bandwidth limits.

Forward Secrecy

The forward secrecy of a TLS/SSL connection is established by using a cipher suite with a powerful bulk encryption technique, a key exchange algorithm, and a message authentication code.

Using cryptographic methods for key exchange, encryption, and decryption ensures the confidentiality of transmitted messages.

When numerous devices are connected at once, massive encryption encrypts and decrypts data at each node in the network.

Whenever forward secrecy is in place, the data transmitted during each session is completely separate from any other.

Each session requires its unique encryption key. For each session, only one key is needed. This is an excellent feature for gamers. 

Kill Switch

The kill switch function of ProtonVPN is crucial, as it will shield your real IP address from being exposed if the VPN connection is lost.

Imagine downloading a massive game file via a torrent site; it could take several hours.

If the VPN connection drops any time, your ISP can see what you’re up to, which could lead to issues.

The kill switch function is available on Windows and Mac with ProtonVPN.

How to Choose the Best VPN for Games

A VPN chosen for gaming should give you gameplay that’s smooth, but at the same time protect you from issues and threats online

Let’s take a look at how to choose the right VPN for your gaming activities.

• Quick speeds: you need a VPN that is going to allow for quick downloads and quick speeds in general.
• Big server network: when you have a big server network to work with, you are going to be able to access more content that is geo-restricted, and more opponents in the process.
• Good security features: you need to be able to use a VPN that has military grade security, so that you can protect yourself against leaks and other issues online.
• Flexible connection settings: not only do you need robust connection settings, but they need to be flexible as well, so that you can easily change your protocol if you need to. You also should be able to change your connection if your speed isn’t to your liking.
• Device compatibility: you need to make sure that your VPN is going to work on your gaming device, whether this is Android, Windows, or a specific console. You might also want to think about multiple compatibility if you plan on using more than one device to game.
• Money-back guarantee: this is going to make it easy for you to try out the VPN and get to know it well without risking losing your money. The ones that we have listed above come with a money back guarantee, so you don’t need to worry.
• Good customer support: with a VPN, there is every chance that you are going to come across an issue from time to time. This is why you need to be able to access experts who are there for you to talk to whenever you need it.

FAQs

In Summary, the best VPNs in 2023 are;

Final Thoughts

The best VPN for gaming was discussed in this post.

Not all VPNs will let you use them for gaming. 

That’s why it’s so important to find the right VPN.

We tested various VPNs to narrow it down to the five that consistently delivered the best performance for online gaming.

👉 Get NordVPN’s FREE Trial

When comparing VPNs, NordVPN is the best VPN for online gaming option because of its superior security, speed, and ease of use.

Surfshark is a cheap VPN, and has several useful safety features that can improve your gaming experience.

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