App Gaming on 5G Over Wifi

It’s official: app gaming on 5G is the future. According to recent data collected by Opensignal, an organization that analyzes mobile network connectivity around the world, 5G networks outperform even wifi in download speeds and what Opensignal calls ‘Games Experience’. Meaning that struggling through your favorite online app game on a 4G connection is soon to be a thing of the past. 

 

It’s no secret that app gaming is making serious waves in the wider games industry. Which is why Opensignal’s data collection and analysis is an invaluable tool as we forge ahead into a future of all things mobile. And their recent look into the power of 5G could mean great things for online app gaming capabilities, in particular. 

 

Opensignal recently took a look at five different connection types, including 4G, public wifi, home/office wifi, 5G and mmWave 5G. They then provided a Games Experience score based on the download and upload speeds of each connection type between the periods of December 2021 to February 2022. 

 

app gaming on 5g

 

Unsurprisingly, 4G scored the lowest in Games Experience, and home/office wifi was slightly better than 5G, which itself surpasses famously temperamental public wifi by a similar margin. Millimeter wave 5G (mmWave 5G), however, is a different story. 

 

MmWave 5G is a high-band frequency connection that provides superior download speeds to the mid-band levels of standard 5G. Though it does have a smaller range than 5G and is thus more expensive to implement, the power of mmWave 5G saw it score 81.8 to home wifi’s 76.3 and public wifi’s paltry 72.0. 

 

What does this mean for app gaming on 5G? Well, when we can get our hands on it, it means that if wifi doesn’t up its game, app gamers will be better off using their standard 5G network in any public space. It also means that if they are in range of a mmWave 5g cell, it might even be worth switching off that wifi altogether. You know, if you can afford the data plan.

 

There’s still plenty of time before this becomes a reality, however, and mmWave 5G saw a dip in download speeds since the last time Opensignal published data in 2021. But one thing is for certain: 4G gaming is on its way out. 

 

What do you think of app gaming on 5g?