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For gamers who strive for the best performance while gaming online, buying one of the best gaming routers may be just the thing your battle station or gaming room needs. Irrespective of whether you are competing in a battle royale game or attempting to work your way through a raid with your friends online, online gaming requires a fast and stable Internet connection. It is imperative that your router maintains that connection at all times in order to allow you to continue to play with ease, regardless of how many other people and devices are using it. A gaming router should provide you with more than just consistent internet speeds; it should minimize network lag so that you are always in the game without being inhibited by delays and long load times.
Meanwhile, bandwidth prioritization prevents your game from being interrupted when someone at home watches Netflix or initiates a video call. These routers also provide more customizability than most consumer models. Moreover, they offer more robust security features to ensure your gaming session is not adversely affected by malware. There are dozens of routers that we test and review every year, but only a handful are considered dedicated gaming routers. Here are the best of the best gaming routers we have reviewed, as well as a handful of less specialized devices that can still provide the necessary throughput and low lag times required by gamers.
Listed below are the top gaming routers available today.
Asus RT-AX86U
https://www.asus.com
Performance is the determining factor in choosing the best gaming router. As a Wi-Fi 6 powerhouse, the Asus RT-AX86U delivers great speed and powerful gaming abilities with many options for customization. In addition to providing lifetime protection against intrusions and malware, it is also an excellent choice for protecting your entire home network, coming without a subscription fee and carrying a two-year warranty. In fact, the real strength of the Asus RT-AX86U is its performance, which approaches the magical 1Gbps mark to provide seamless and rapid connectivity for all of your devices. Featuring excellent range and great performance - even by way of walls and between floors - the RT-AX86U does double duty as a general-purpose router and an elite gaming router, and its selection of features and ports are a steal compared to some of the top gaming gear on the market.
TP-Link Archer C5400X
https://www.tp-link.com
It was once the gaming router to beat, and it remains a top pick for those who do not wish to spend more money on a Wi-Fi 6 router. It offers some of the best 802.11ac performance you can find in any single home networking device, and provides best-in-class tri-band speeds, delivering 1Gbps over its 2.4GHz band and 2.167Gbps over each of its two 5GHz bands. This network has excellent coverage, with more than 100 feet of coverage that will provide a strong, clear signal throughout most houses. This device catches the eye with its spider-like design and red-on-black color scheme, but its real selling point lies in the collection of optimization and security features that are sure to delight power users. Featuring excellent bandwidth-allocation controls that let you utilize the amazing throughput as you wish, this router puts gaming and other applications at the user's disposal.
Netgear Nighthawk XR1000
https://www.netgear.com
Its powerful Wi-Fi 6 speeds set it apart from most other gaming routers. It offers excellent speeds and top-shelf gaming perks. Network gear's high-speed, low-latency design offers customization options as well as built-in security, helping protect against hackers as well as providing excellent Wi-Fi 6 performance. The range of 105 feet makes it perfect for slightly larger homes. It will easily cover that extra area that other routers can't quite cover with their range. The XR1000 is one of the best gaming routers we've ever reviewed if your current router isn't keeping up with your abilities. The router features an entire dashboard of editing tools that let you optimize its performance in many ways, including monitoring CPU usage, tracking which apps and devices are using the most data, and customizing connection settings based on ping rates and location.
Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000
https://rog.asus.com
The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 is the first gaming router on the market to support Wi-Fi 6, giving gamers better performance over longer range and low latency, as well as all the features they expect. With all of this, most other gaming routers can't compete. With an enormous base, eight swiveling antennas, and a 10.8Gbps maximum throughput, the GT-AX11000 is large and impressive. Thanks to its tri-band design, this wireless router has four downstream Gigabit LAN ports, a single 2.5G Base T Ethernet port, and two USB 3.0 ports. Asus routers offer plenty of control, and you can even pair them with other Asus routers for mesh networking to cover your entire home.
TP-Link Archer GX90
https://www.tp-link.com
It may not be to your taste a few of the features included in TP-Link's Archer GX90. The device is large, bulky, and costly. In any case, these are easy to overlook when you realize you're getting a lot for your money. This router is a high-speed, reliable Wi-Fi 6 product with a number of features that are ideal for hard-core gamers. A 5GHz ‘gaming band’ will give you access to all your household bandwidth when you need it. There are also good parental controls, including content filters for blocking unsuitable content, and profiles that are pre-set for each age group.
D-Link DIR-867
https://www.dlink.com
Among the gaming routers tested for this roundup, the D-Link DIR-867 was the most affordable option, and it surprisingly performed well, boasting the fastest average speeds on the 2.4GHz band in both our lab-based top performance tests and our home-based real-world speed tests. As a result, it performed well on the faster 5GHz band as well, beating several routers that cost substantially more. Dedicated gamers will likely wish for more features tailored to their gaming experience, but the DIR-867 gaming router at least includes a quality of service engine that prioritizes gaming traffic above other types of network traffic. This should be sufficient for most people -- especially if you do not want to spend a lot of money on something more luxurious. The availability of this model in stores seems to be diminishing as stocks seem to be running low.
Netgear Orbi WiFi 6
https://www.netgear.com
If you have a large home, you might not get enough Wi-Fi coverage from a single router. Then you want a mesh router, which uses multiple nodes to create a single network that can cover even the largest of homes. However, gaming mesh routers don't really exist. In terms of performance, the Netgear Orbi WiFi 6 (RBK852) delivers the most throughput of any mesh router in its category, despite not having all the features that dedicated gaming routers have. For gamers, the Orbi mesh router is the best choice due to its easy setup and Wi-Fi 6. Featuring a strong signal that can penetrate ceilings, floors, and walls with ease, the RBK852 serves up category-leading performance with a two-pack consisting of only a base unit and satellite extension. Orbi also works with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa for voice control throughout the house, allowing for massive speed and handling improvements. It's the Netgear Orbi WiFi 6 (RBK852) that wins when it comes to mesh Wi-Fi 6.
Asus RT-AC86U
https://www.asus.com
The best gaming router is based on performance. An awesome Wi-Fi 6 powerhouse, the Asus RT-AX86U offers awesome gaming features and speed, as well as customization options. Providing high-end performance and lifetime protection against intrusions and malware, it's a great choice for securing your entire home network, providing long-term security without a subscription charge and backed by a two-year warranty. The overclocking performance of the Asus RT-AX86U approaches the magical 1Gbps mark, thus providing blazing-fast connectivity for all of your devices. The RT-AX86U is both a general-purpose router and an exceptional gaming router, and its array of features makes it a bargain compared to some of the best gaming gear. Thanks to its excellent range and excellent performance, the RT-AX86U does both very well.
TP-Link Archer AX6000
https://www.tp-link.com
Even if you do not feel there is a need for dedicated gaming features, but still require the performance needed for online gaming, we recommend TP-Link Archer AX6000, one of our favorite budget-friendly Wi-Fi 6 routers. The Archer AX6000 is one of the most affordable of the first-generation Wi-Fi 6 devices, selling for roughly $100 less than other Wi-Fi 6 models, while still offering strong throughput and great connectivity due to the eight LAN ports included with the device. In contrast to gaming routers, it does not provide detailed quality of service controls, but still offers gaming-grade performance, surpassing that of older 802.11ac models. TP-Link's Archer AX6000 also includes built-in security, ensuring performance and protection.
Netgear Nighthawk XR700
https://www.netgear.com
With one WAN port and six LAN ports, link aggregation, and even a 10 Gigabit LAN SFP+ port for ridiculous Ethernet bandwidth, the XR700 has plenty of the right ingredients. Due to the huge attention being directed at 802.11ax/Wi-Fi 6, the XR700 uses a combination of 802.11ac/Wi-Fi 5 wireless as well as 802.11ad (60 GHz), which unfortunately has not achieved mainstream acceptance. Four active antennas enable beamforming as well. XR700's gaming-centric Duma OS offers Geo-Filter technology to connect a player to the nearest server when gaming. By assigning a specific percentage to each device, the XR700 controls bandwidth granularly, prioritizes both uploads and downloads separately, and prevents any single device from becoming a bandwidth hog by balancing the load between all connected devices. The XR700 is an all-around top performer in our tests, covering 2.4 GHz with some of the fastest scores thus far of 284 Mbps at close range and 225 Mbps at a distance of greater than 20 feet. The results of our 5 GHz testing were similarly impressive with scores of 325 Mbps at close range and 332 Mbps at distant range respectively.
Amplifi HD Gamer's Edition
https://amplifi.com
Amplifi HD Gamer's Edition is a great choice in terms of gaming-specific features, design, and multipoint mesh networking. It provides reliable, fast Wi-Fi coverage from room to room by using plug-in, simple-to-use range extenders. Thanks to its unique design and attractive LED lights on its base, you'll actually wish to use the router outside where its mesh technology works best. This app features an easy-to-use low-latency mode that can help you optimize your connection over multiple devices and prevent lag. Despite being an expensive option, it is not excessively high when compared with high-end mesh networks, which include two range extenders (for example, the Nest Wifi mesh system is priced at $349 for the three pieces).
Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC2900
https://rog.asus.com
The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC2900 dual-band router does not offer the same top speeds as the Asus GT-AX11000 with Wi-Fi 6, but that did not prevent it from outperforming it in my test laboratory throughout several rounds of testing. The GT-AC2900 was one of the best performers in terms of download speeds, latency, and range. The router boasts the same excellent gaming features as Asus's other gaming routers, including a customizable Quality of Service engine as well as game-specific open NAT port forwarding rules.
Netgear Nighthawk AX4
https://www.netgear.com
An excellent example of Wi-Fi 6 on a budget-friendly router is the Nighthawk AX4. Nighthawk AX4 does not have any LEDs or stripes. Besides two external antennas, it has four Gigabit LAN ports, a single USB port, and a row of green indicator LEDs. The interface can also be handled with the Nighthawk app or web interface. DumaOS is not available here, but Netgear's. There is also a Quality of Service option (which can be toggled on and off). However, there are no granular controls to optimally balance gaming needs and streaming video across multiple connected devices. With its performance results of 344 Mbps at the 2.4 GHz frequency and 345 Mbps at the 5 GHz frequency, AX4 achieved impressive results. A distance test showed 222 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz frequency and 309 Mbps on the 5 GHz frequency, which is the Wi-Fi 6 standard. Wi-Fi 6 throughput is more affordable than ever with the Netgear AX4.
Asus RT-AC88U
https://www.asus.com
A gaming router such as the Asus RT-AC88U can be very expensive. This router, however, is very powerful in terms of 802.11 wireless performance. This gaming router comes equipped with four antennas and NitroQAM technology, which boosts speed to an astounding 1GB/sec. To achieve these speeds, you will need to obtain a NitroQAM wireless adapter, such as the Asus PCE AC88. With speeds like this, it is easy to see why this is one of the top gaming routers available on the market.
Zyxel Armor Z2 AC2600
https://www.zyxelguard.com
Zyxel Armor Z2 AC2600 may appear to take your beloved family member or close friend away, but in actuality, the router is not as alien in function as it is in design. This gaming router boasts MU-MIMO, which maximizes speed when multiple devices are connected to the same network, which has been proven to increase performance when multiple devices are connected to the same network. As a gaming router you can use with several devices while prioritizing bandwidth for each connection according to the need, it can be considered one of the best options available on the market today.
Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500
https://www.netgear.com
In case you are a gaming enthusiast, the fact that your roommates are watching Netflix or downloading their own games at the same time may frustrate you. The Netgear Nighthawk XR500 might be something that you would like to take a look at. There is no doubt that this is an elite gaming router that will deliver incredible speeds - including multi-user MU-MIMO compatibility - as well as unique gaming features like location-based connection filtering and quality of service. Do some gaming all night without experiencing paralyzing lag spikes. The price is going to be high, so be ready for that and make sure that you're okay with the gamer aesthetic.