Online gaming consumes an unexpectedly huge amount of data, which may come as a surprise to players who believe their experience is restricted to the game itself. Gaming websites that stream video, download applications, and play online video games are the three most prominent sources of excessive data consumption.
The popularity of online gaming has skyrocketed in recent years, with players generating billions of gigabytes of data every day as a result of their actions. Gamers may take a number of actions to improve their gaming experience while simultaneously limiting the amount of data they use. Read on to find out How Much Data Does Online Gaming Use.
What is the average data usage for popular online games?
WhistleOut has taken the effort to develop a list of the data that is utilized by the most popular online games available today. You may also be interested in some of our other games, such as There are a variety of factors that might influence these numbers.
Patching, software upgrades, and phone conversations all have the potential to boost data use. If you play a lot of video games, your monthly gaming data use will grow as a result. An example of how much data is used by online games per hour is shown in the figure below for some of the most popular games.
| Game Title | Avg. Data Used Per Hour |
| Fortnite | 100MB |
| Destiny 2 | 300MB |
| Overwatch | 135MB |
| Minecraft | 40MB-200MB |
| Diablo 3 | 16MB (single-player) 26MB (multiplayer) |
| World of Warcraft | 40MB |
| League of Legends | 45MB |
| Grand Theft Auto V Online | 60MB |
| Dota 2 | 120MB |
| Team Fortress 2 | 80MB |
| Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | 250MB |
| Call of Duty: World War II | 40MB |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 | 80MB |
As you can see, even data-hungry online games do not consume an excessive amount of data. Using voice chatting and patching are two ways that may boost the amount of data used per hour. If you are participating in a multiplayer game, you may communicate with your teammates via live voice chat to exchange strategy and keep them up to speed.
Some games have this capability built in, while others need you to utilize third-party tools such as Skype, TeamSpeak, or Discord. The extra bandwidth used by voice chat during Skype conversations may consume between 13 and 45MB per hour, depending on the duration of the session. This is for a two-person conference call. It is inevitable that your data use will rise as your team grows in size.
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Updates and patches are two more things that might use data while you’re playing a video game. Even if your game is a single-player title that is not played online, internet bandwidth will be used by the game to download patches and upgrades.
Single-player data usage
What is the difference between single-player gaming and internet gaming? Due to the fact that single-player games do not permit you to play with or against other players online, there is no voice chat available. Single-player gaming, on the other hand, needs regular updates and patches, which gradually depletes your bandwidth allocation.
If you have an unlimited membership, you won’t have to worry about missing out on any newly released games. You should stop automatic updates, though, if you have a limit on your account balance.
Downloading patches and updates and
Because, as previously said, any game that you download will need updates or patches at some point in the future. In addition, the size of these patches might vary significantly. If you have to download updates and patches that range in size from a few gigabytes to a hefty 15GB or more, you will lose data slowly but steadily over time.
On restricted bandwidth connections, get updates as soon as they are available to prevent losing out on important information. If you take an excessive amount of time to download updates for multiplayer games, you will lose access to network functions.
Voice Chatting
Modern games include the simplicity of connecting with other players via the use of voice over internet protocol (VoIP), which is a useful feature. It’s possible that you’re not aware that voice chat uses more bandwidth than text chat. This implies that merely yelling into the microphone for an hour may use around 40MB of data. Oh!
In addition, external VoIP applications such as Discord, Xbox Live Party Chat, and PlayStation Network can cause data loss as well. If you have a data cap, it is best not to speak unless absolutely necessary.
How much data do downloading games use?
Although online games are not very data-intensive, downloading them can take up significant data. It will take up a lot of bandwidth if you buy your game online and then need to download it. This will depend on the gaming console or device used.
Downloading popular PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One games can take up to 50GB. For example, CoD Black Ops 4 may take 45 to 55GB, depending on the console. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is 49GB and Read Dead Redemption 2, a total of 89GB. Fortnite takes up only 20GB.
Smaller consoles, such as the Nintendo Switch, offer lighter games that download in less than 10GB, making them ideal for streaming. Games for tablets and smartphones are smaller and lighter, weighing less than 1GB on average. Indie games may also be low-data, using as little as 5GB of data. Consider how much data an online game will use before you download it to your computer.
Downloading large files can be problematic if you have a limited internet plan or if you share your data with other people on your network. Keep in mind that even if the game is not downloaded but rather bought on a disc, patches will still need data to be installed. Some fixes will just need a few gigabytes of space. However, Destiny 2 contains updates that may be as much as 5GB in size on occasion.
The most recent update to CoD: Modern Warfare’s 1.14 was 60GB in size, and it was the most current update. There was a lot of multiplayer content in this game. The size varies depending on the console: 51GB for the PS4 and 67-68GB for the PC, for example.
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Conclusion
For the record, the average data usage incurred by online gaming is completely dependent on the type of game being played and the speed at which the game is being played. If you engage in a lot of video conferencing and online browsing, your data usage will most likely be rather high. If you play video games that do not need the use of high-definition graphics, your data consumption will most likely be minimal.
Thank you for taking the time to read this! I hope you were able to take away something beneficial from this. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to post a remark.
