Is Superloop NBN a good choice for gaming? 6 reasons why the high-speed internet provider is a top pick for all types of gamers

While Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) has improved dramatically in recent years when it comes to its gaming prowess, your connection speed can still vary considerably depending on where you live, which service provider you use and the plan you’re subscribed to. In the right (or should that be wrong) circumstances, high pings can also still be a game-killing factor. Consequently, casual and competitive gamers alike can still find themselves at a huge disadvantage if they use an internet service that’s not gaming-optimised.

The good news is that Superloop understands gamers’ needs and provides numerous performance features and optimisations to improve all internet-related aspects of the gaming experience.

TL;DR

Superloop offers high-speed internet plans to suit all gamers’ budgets. Fast, reliable speeds mean massive updates download quicker – even in the busy, evening periods. And, with the right plan that suits your family’s size, you can all use the net at the same time without getting in each other’s way and taking up all the bandwidth.

Superloop gives gamers the performance they need to ensure pings and latencies are as low as possible, and a special app is provided to monitor, fix and speed-up your connection as needed. Superloop can also provide a Wi-Fi 7 router or mesh system that can improve range and minimise connectivity bottlenecks, ensuring the best possible gaming performance across the home.

1. Superloop’s fast internet plans help reduce delays and congestion for gamers

A new game install can be huge, and it’s not uncommon for updates to exceed 50GB. Having to wait interminable times for them to download can be a buzzkill at best, and see you miss out on critical matchmaking at worst. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the most popular NBN speed tier in Australia is still 50Mbps, so when you upgrade to a faster 500Mbps¹ plan with Superloop, the benefits for gaming can be transformative.

To help you understand just how important high performance internet is for gamers, here’s how long it should take a 50GB game update to download on the most popular NBN tiers (assuming no congestion or other factors are slowing the connection down):

The benefits are clear: a faster NBN plan means you’re gaming sooner and waiting less.

2. Sharing the internet can slow you down, but a faster plan can fix that

Gamers want an internet connection that’s fast – and stays fast at all times. But living with other people can make that difficult, especially during the evening, when everyone in your household is often online at the same time. It is possible, though, to solve this problem with an internet provider that delivers high speeds without dropoffs during peak times.

The latest ACMA research says that more-than double the number of Australians now watch streaming video compared to free-to-air TV (91% vs 44%). Aussies also have a penchant for large, high-resolution TVs and gaming monitors, meaning streaming 4K UHD video typically requires about 20-25Mbps per stream (based on YouTube and Netflix).

So when a home with multiple occupants has more than one 4K streaming service in use at the same time, an NBN 50 or NBN 100 plan can become rapidly saturated, with performance dropping off for everyone at once.

Many households also have numerous smart devices that further impact upon internet performance by either consuming large amounts of data or having everything try to connect to a network at once. Devices like TVs can also automatically download and install updates in the background, which can have a sudden impact on performance if your network is already congested. Even seemingly lightweight apps like TikTok and Instagram on a smartphone can hog bandwidth when they’re connected to the home network, as they’re almost-constantly preloading video streams as you scroll. Video calling with apps like Facetime or Zoom can consume bandwidth too (up to 3 to 5Mbps), while PC or cloud back ups that kick in while you’re playing can also interrupt your gaming.

Unfortunately, even if you’re home alone, your internet connection can still be affected by your neighbour’s internet usage at peak times – when neighbourhood NBN nodes become saturated. The ACCC defines the peak period as being between 7-11pm and it’s such an important metric that the consumer rights organisation has even published guidance for service providers regarding the claims they can make around the achievable speeds during this time. So, it’s important to choose an NBN provider that’s reliable in the evenings.

Superloop openly states what you can expect when it comes to real-world performance on each of its NBN plans in the evening hours. For example, its Family Max plan sits in NBN’s 500 tier – meaning it can theoretically achieve a maximum of around 500 Mbps downloads and 50 Mbps uploads. Like most reputable providers, Superloop also adds that its typical evening speeds are 500Mbps and 40Mbps (download and upload, respectively). Meanwhile, its Lightspeed NBN 1000 plan, which is theoretically capable of 1,000/100Mbps (download/upload), maintains impressive 860/85Mbps average speeds in the evening.

3. Superloop can deliver even more performance when you need it with My Speed Boost

Australian households’ internet needs can vary significantly, and it’s often the case that not everyone needs to pay for always-on maximum performance and Superloop recognises this. Whether you’re dealing with visitors, or a new game release or massive update has ground your gaming to a halt, on select plans Superloop lets you temporarily upgrade your internet performance up to five times a month via its free My Speed Boost feature. As an example, if you’re subscribed to Superloop 500Mbps Family Max plan, you can activate My Speed Boost to increase your speed to the 1,000Mbps Lightspeed tier¹. These increases last a full 24 hours and you can also rollover any unused activations for up to 30 days.

4. Superloop lets you take full control of your own IP

Australian ISPs use a specific technology for sharing the same IP for many users. Known as the Carrier-Grade Network Address Translation, or CGNAT, this allows multiple homes to use the same IPv4 address, which lets more users get online as these addresses are limited. This shouldn’t generally impact basic web activities like browsing or streaming, as the resulting extra layer of network address hopping is handled quickly enough to be unnoticeable.

But some customers might need a unique IP address. Certain applications or devices might require a unique IP to operate properly. Typically this could include some web or email servers, and a unique IP could alleviate issues with running security cameras and some devices. Superloop lets you have your own static IP for $5/mth to solve these issues, and ensure maximum performance. You can read more about Superloop and CGNAT here.

5. Superloop provides the latest Wi-Fi 7 routers to help eliminate weak signals and bottlenecks

If you’re going to upgrade your internet plan to a faster speed, then you’re likely going to need a new router to make the best of it. When signing up to a new Superloop NBN plan, you can optionally choose to purchase a new Wi-Fi 7 Eero router to go along with it. Wi-Fi 7 is the latest standard and is ideal for faster NBN plans of 500Mbps+, and the Eero 7 series is also mesh-capable, meaning you can deploy extra extenders to improve your wireless network’s range and help eliminate weak-signal blackspots – something that’s especially useful for those with larger homes.

Even if you’ve got a functional Wi-Fi 4 or 5 router already, it’s worth taking Superloop up on this offer because while an older model can usually handle basic internet speeds, they can struggle with higher speeds and more modern home environments where there’s a multitude of competing devices. For gamers particularly, making sure your router is a reasonably current model will give you the best chance of maintaining the low latencies that online games require.

6. Superloop gives you the tools you need to monitor speeds and quickly diagnose and fix many issues

Most larger NBN providers in Australia offer some sort of smartphone app to let customers manage their account or contact support, but Superloop’s app lets you do so much more. While the new 2.0 Superloop App for iOS and Android will of course let you manage your account, you can also purchase upgrades, add bundled services, monitor your connection and even activate your My Speed Boost Speed Upgrade Days.

What’s even more revolutionary is that the Superloop app provides a unique, one-click diagnose-and-fix button called Refreshify. This tool can diagnose connectivity issues, warn of any outages and, if required, manually refresh your connection on Superloop’s end in order to help resolve a range of problems. The latter step is the internet equivalent of turning your computer off and then on again: resetting remote network resources can often fix gaming glitches, refresh game-server connections and restore peak performance.

The Superloop app is a powerful tool that can be a complete solution to just about every issue you might encounter, and better yet, it can pre-emptively alert you to any potential issues with your account. If a technician is needed, it can book one for you too – all without needing to make any phone calls. There’s even an AI assistant on hand to help you 24/7. ‘Teddy’ will check your modem, run Refreshify if needed and can offer tips on how to get the most from your Superloop connection.

This DIY approach to support means many problems can be sorted without the need to contact support at all, and for gamers that means you can get back to gaming ASAP.

When it comes to gaming, there are few NBN providers like Superloop. Many rival providers act like utilities when it comes to their users’ needs, and don’t spend much time addressing the nuanced performance requirements of specific groups like gamers. NBN providers are not all the same. If you’re a gamer looking for fast NBN, Superloop’s end-to-end optimisations help ensure you get the seamless, gaming-grade internet connection your hobby deserves.