Best Wi-Fi Routers for Online Gaming

The ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 is a router that exists solely for gamers. Of course, it’ll work for your other internet connections as well, but all of its specs and features are oriented toward online gaming and making sure you have the single fastest, lag-less connection you can get.

The main features that help speed up your gaming connection are its dedicated gaming connections and its triple-level game data acceleration. That first feature consists of one Wi-Fi band and one multigigabit LAN port that are dedicated to gaming data. This helps lower congestion with both wired and wireless gaming connections.

The triple-layer game data acceleration consists of two layers of prioritization for gaming data traffic plus built-in support for Gamers Private Network, which optimizes connections to game servers to minimize lag.

All that said, this is the best gaming router to get if you’re a serious gamer and need the best equipment possible. But it’s a bit overkill for casual gamers or anyone who doesn’t want to get down and dirty with their router’s settings.

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• Built specifically for gaming
• Supports multigigabit internet

• High cost
• Potentially complex setup

If you’re a more casual gamer or aren’t the type to spend hundreds of dollars on gaming-specific hardware, we hear you. Fact is, you can play online games with most routers, including budget-friendly ones like the TP-Link Archer A9.

This is a good budget router for homes with moderate internet use. (I use this one with two people in the household who are constantly online.) It’s a breeze to set up and use thanks to the TP-Link tether app, and it offers basic QoS features and parental controls.

The downside? The Archer A9 doesn’t have quite as much processing power as other routers featured on this list. It has enough to handle a few simultaneous connections, but you may see more buffering or network stuttering if you have more than three high-bandwidth connections at a time.

But if you’re a no-fuss gamer or don’t usually have a busy network, this is a good buy.

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• Budget price
• Easy-to-use app

• Not as powerful as others

The Nighthawk Pro Gaming router is a Wi-Fi 5 device that has a lot of the same gameplay-enhancing features as other gaming routers, but it’s less expensive than the current top-of-the-line routers because of its slightly older (but far from obsolete) tech.

While Wi-Fi 6 routers are the newest and shiniest products on the market, they’re also the most expensive. For gaming that requires network prioritization features but not necessarily gigabit speed, we recommend the NETGEAR Pro Gaming router.

The Nighthawk Pro Gaming router is a good choice if you need a consistent gaming connection but don’t have multigigabit internet (and won’t in the near future). It has multiple features to minimize your gaming lag:

• QoS to prioritize gaming data
• Geo filter to make sure you’re connected to a nearby server
• Monitoring software to make sure none of your other devices are causing lag
• Support for a gaming VPN

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• Midrange price
• Gaming QoS
• VPN support

• No Wi-Fi 6

The ASUS-AX86U is a great all-around router, but it’s built for gaming. It has multiple levels of QoS features to prioritize gaming traffic and connections. These include a dedicated gaming port for wired connections that get first dibs at available bandwidth and adaptive QoS that allows you to arrange what kind of traffic you want to prioritize.

Most gaming routers put a heavy focus on PC and console gaming, but the ASUS-AX86U also takes serious mobile gaming into consideration. You can minimize latency and lag for mobile gaming sessions from the ASUS Router app with Game Boost.

This is actually also one of our favorite Wi-Fi 6 routers on the market—so it’s not just for gaming. It’s overall a good pick for a highly flexible router with some great gaming perks.

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• Multigigabit port and port aggregation
• Dedicated gaming port

• Requires updates from ASUS to enable QoS

If you’re looking for all the speed of a gaming router but don’t want to mess with all the gaming-specific settings, this TP-Link router is a good choice. You can pretty much set it up, leave it alone, and expect your network to perform well with any type of connection. This makes it a good pick for more hands-off networks with a mix of gaming and other connections.

The AX6000 also has great range thanks to its eight external antennas. And its eight gigabit Ethernet ports give you plenty of room for wired connections as well. All in all, this router is built to support a ton of connected devices.

A lifetime subscription to TP-Link HomeCare is also included. This extra security enables QoS, parental controls, and antivirus protection. It would be better if these features were just built in to the router itself, but at least they’re present with the subscription.

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• Good Wi-Fi range
• Included antivirus

• Not a gaming-specific router