Valorant is one of the most competitive tactical shooters in the world, where even split-second delays can determine victory or defeat. Yet many players run into a frustrating problem: their internet connection seems fine for browsing or streaming, but the game still lags, rubber-bands, or feels unresponsive. Unlike Netflix or YouTube, Valorant depends less on raw speed and more on stability, low latency, and consistent data flow.
Key Causes of Bad Connection in Valorant
Several factors can explain why your internet feels unreliable in Valorant:
- Wi-Fi instability: Wireless connections often introduce interference and lag spikes. A wired Ethernet cable is strongly recommended for smoother, more stable gameplay.
- High ping: Latency above 70 milliseconds causes noticeable delays in hit registration, player movement, and ability response—crippling in competitive matches.
- Network congestion: If family members are streaming, downloading, or gaming on the same network, your available bandwidth shrinks, leading to spikes in ping and packet loss.
- ISP routing and outages: Internet providers sometimes use inefficient routing paths or throttle traffic, causing unstable connections. Problems increase when connecting to servers far from your region.
- Background apps: Automatic updates, downloads, or cloud backups running in the background consume bandwidth, creating unpredictable slowdowns.
Minimum and Recommended Requirements
Riot Games sets relatively modest requirements for internet speed: at least 25–30 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. Most households meet this, but that doesn’t guarantee perfect performance.
What matters more is low and consistent ping—ideally under 50 ms, and certainly no higher than 70 ms for competitive play. Even players with ultrafast 300 Mbps connections may still struggle if their network is unstable, overloaded, or poorly routed to Riot’s servers.
Tips to Improve Your Valorant Internet
For smoother matches and fewer “bad internet” complaints, players can take practical steps:
- Use a wired connection: Switching from Wi-Fi to Ethernet is often the single biggest improvement, reducing spikes and stabilizing latency.
- Close background apps: Pause software updates, downloads, or cloud syncs before queuing up.
- Reduce other device usage: Ask others on your network to avoid heavy streaming or downloads during your matches.
- Pick the nearest Riot server: Choosing the geographically closest server minimizes routing delays and improves ping reliability.
Stability Over Speed
In Valorant, the issue isn’t usually how fast your internet is, but how stable. Lag, rubber-banding, and delayed hit registration often come from inconsistent data flow rather than slow download rates.
By focusing on wired connections, careful bandwidth management, and optimized server choices, most players can fix their “bad internet” problem—and finally experience Valorant the way it was meant to be played.
Written by:
Christian