Why Your ISP Might Be Slowing Your Games and How a VPN Can Solve It

October 22, 2025 By Nick Anderson No Comments 7 minutes

You’re in the middle of an intense multiplayer match; the score is close, the lobby is sweaty, and losing concentration for even a second will cost your team the game. Victory is so close, you can taste it, but suddenly, your character’s movements are delayed, and your enemies are no longer taking damage. A sudden realization dawns: you’re lagging. By the time your internet fixes itself, the round was lost, and the other team came out on top. This is ISP Throttling (a gamer’s worst nightmare), when your connection is deliberately slowed for high-bandwidth activities. Here’s how a VPN can help you take back control of your ping:

Note: Your ISP may throttle gaming speeds to prioritize traffic or cut costs, causing lag and frustration. A VPN encrypts your connection and bypasses restrictions for smoother play. Try FastestVPN for lightning-fast servers and reliable performance.

The Invisible Lag: Where Throttling Hides

Contrary to popular belief, when a game is lagging, it is not always the game server’s fault. In fact, throttling is more common than you might think and has an array of invisible latency spikes that are tell-tale signs. If you know what to look out for, you will quickly come to realize that your internet provider might not always have your best interests at heart. For one, if you were in an intense game of League of Legends, stuttering and delayed ability activation may be the norm. However, in competitive titles such as these, even such small throttles can cost you reaction time and potentially the entire match.

An enjoyable session turned into a frustrating one, causing slow game loading, frozen screens, or dropped live dealer tables. A strong, stable connection keeps gameplay smooth and responsive, allowing every spin, hand, or round to unfold without interruption. The best payout online casino sites combine reliable, low-latency performance with top game providers, appealing Return to Player (RTP) percentages, and fast, secure, and flexible payouts. These features, together with generous bonuses and transparent terms, create an experience where less lag brings more consistency, comfort, and confidence while playing.

Unmasking the Culprit: Why Your ISP Throttles

Before you can fix the issue, it is important to understand what causes ISP throttling in the first place. The first reason usually revolves around capacity management, with ISPs trying to find ways to avoid any network congestion during peak hours. Let’s say you game in the evening once you get home from work, you’ll see a much more significant dip in your internet speed, as this is when most people are streaming or browsing. Unfortunately for you, your ISP is going to view your gaming session as a resource drain during this period, so you will experience severe throttling. A second reason (or rather, motive) could be for profitability; using throttling as a way to get users to purchase more expensive internet tier plans.

Additionally, quite a few things trigger ISP throttling besides your long gaming session, including protocols associated with large downloads. Your ISP might confuse this with you trying to install a game or download an update, and your connection will experience throttling. This can happen with PC updates, movie downloads, or 4K/8K streaming. Even just connecting to a game server in a bandwidth-intensive location can result in your speed dropping, as ISPs seem to have it out for gamers. The worst part of throttling is that it happens without the user’s knowledge or consent, so there is no way to prove or fight against it. 

The VPN Fix: Encryption is the Game-Changer

Of course, you may be wondering how a VPN is going to stop an ISP from throttling your internet speeds, and the answer is simpler than you might think. The core mechanism of a VPN is to mask your location and IP address so it is impossible for third parties to track you. In this case, you can think of your ISP as a third party, wherein the VPN will make a safe, secure, and encrypted tunnel for your data. This is how the “hiding effect” comes into play. With your data being encrypted, your ISP can only see that you’re connected to a VPN server, but not what the data is.

As such, if you are playing an online casino game, a Fortnite match, or just spectating your friends play, your ISP won’t know. If an ISP is unable to identify your traffic, it loses its power. Remember, throttling is done selectively, and without that knowledge, all traffic will need to be treated equally. Although it can be annoying that you need to hide the fact that you’re gaming, you will finally get the internet speed you are paying your ISP for. With FastestVPN specifically, there are WireGuard Protocol and 10Gbps servers that ensure your high-speed internet is maintained despite your traffic being encrypted. 

An additional benefit of using a VPN is that it can bypass geo-restrictions, which can further deliver high-speed gaming sessions. If you reside in an area that houses many gamers, it can lead to your internet being congested even if you do not experience throttling. A VPN will allow you to switch your virtual location so you get a less congested pathway. This is even better if you switch your location to an area with adequate game servers, as you can secure a more favorable ping and optimize your connection. Ultimately, a VPN will not only resolve the issue of ISP throttling, but it will also ensure you have high-speed internet at all times. 

Beyond Throttling: VPNs for the Dedicated Gamer

Outside of throttling, you might also want a VPN for security purposes. These tools work really well in protecting you from cyber criminals, with DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks being very common amongst gamers. To execute this cyber attack, the malicious party will flood a target server or network with requests, leading to an overwhelming volume of traffic. In turn, this impacts the server or connection, resulting in the website lagging, becoming unresponsive, or crashing completely. A VPN will shield you from this and keep your connection stable. Another advantage of using a VPN is the access you get to geo-restricted content.

While this is more popular with streaming sites, changing your virtual location can also give you access to games that may not be available in your region. You can even gain early access to upcoming titles, as some countries have releases scheduled for much sooner than other locations. Lastly, a VPN means having security on the go, no matter where you are. It is vital to secure your connection, especially when you are connected to a public Wi-FI. If you are engaging in online shopping, streaming, or gaming, a third party can easily intercept and steal this data. A VPN can prevent this from happening. 

Conclusion

Don’t let your ISP control you. Paying for a service means you should receive the high-speed connection you were promised. Albeit annoying to have to look at alternative methods to get what you are paying for, a VPN is the simplest, least intrusive solution. Beyond this, it comes with an array of other benefits that make it worth the extra effort. As such, conduct some due diligence, find and install a reputable VPN, and get to achieving that ultimate, lag-free gaming setup.