What's the best browser for gaming?

When it comes to gaming, your graphics card and broadband speed usually get all the attention. But your browser plays its part too.  

If you’re playing a downloaded PC game, your browser won’t directly change your FPS, but it can affect everything happening around your game: the tabs you’ve left open, the YouTube video in the background, or the Discord window you keep checking.  

Where it really starts to matter is with browser-based games and cloud gaming sessions. Some browsers can chew through your RAM and CPU without you realising it. The result? Lag spikes and longer loading times can contribute to how smooth your overall gaming experience feels.

A good gaming browser should load pages quickly, manage memory efficiently and minimise lag during play.

Best browser for Windows gamers: Microsoft Edge

If you’re a Windows user, Microsoft Edge is hard to beat. It’s built on Chromium, so it’s fast and stable, but it’s also been optimised to play nicely with Windows itself, which matters when you’ve got a game running alongside a browser full of open tabs.  

If you tend to keep multiple tabs open, whether that’s walkthroughs, live streams or Discord in the browser, Edge can help minimise background resource usage and reduce unnecessary strain on your system.

Best browser for competitive gaming: Google Chrome

For those chasing competitive speed, Google Chrome is one of the fastest browsers around. It loads games and platforms quickly, handles extensions such as Twitch and Discord add-ons with ease, and keeps latency low for fast-paced multiplayer matches. 

The downside? It can be memory-hungry. If you’re running heavy games alongside dozens of open tabs, you may notice higher RAM usage compared to Edge, but the speed can be worth it. 

Best browser for customisation: Opera GX

Opera GX is designed specifically for gamers who want more control over performance. You can set limits on how much CPU, RAM and network bandwidth the browser uses, so it never eats into your game's performance. It also integrates with Twitch and Discord, which is handy if you switch between them regularly. 

If you like having control over how your system performs, Opera GX gives you more tools to play with than any standard browser. 

For cloud gaming, milliseconds count. The faster your browser processes data, the smoother your experience will feel, especially in multiplayer environments. 

• Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are typically the fastest options for gaming. Pages load fast, and browser-based games run smoothly with minimal slowdown, with multiplayer experiences feeling more responsive. 

• Mozilla Firefox is a solid alternative, particularly for users who prioritise privacy. While it may not always match Chrome or Edge in raw speed, it performs well for most online games. 

And, if your games are still lagging or you’re experiencing buffering during browser-based or cloud gaming sessions, the issue may not be your browser. It could be your broadband speed.

Head over to our broadband speed test to discover whether your connection is fast enough for you.

Cloud gaming relies heavily on browser performance and internet stability. That means latency, buffering and connection stability can have a bigger impact than your hardware alone. 

Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome are widely supported by most cloud gaming platforms and generally offer stable, consistent performance in-browser. However, even the best browser won’t fix high latency, network congestion or slow broadband speeds. Your connection plays a much bigger role in overall performance.

Gaming on a laptop means balancing performance with battery life. Some browsers use more system resources than others, which can affect how long you can play unplugged. Edge stays efficient on Windows, Opera GX lets you limit CPU and RAM usage, and Chome offers raw power at the cost of higher memory and battery use.  

If you’re gaming away from a power source, choosing a more resource-efficient browser can help extend your session. 

Gaming smoothly isn’t just about choosing the right browser; a few small tweaks can make your sessions feel faster and sharper:

The truth is, browser tweaks only go so far. Competitive and cloud gaming rely on a stable, low-latency broadband connection. Our gaming broadband packages are designed to keep you in the action: ultrafast speeds, low lag and reliable connectivity, even with multiple devices are online. 

From 130Mbps to 1Gbps and beyond when you go gigabit, our network works behind the scenes so you can focus on your game, not resets or buffering. No mid-match freezes. No sudden slowdowns. Just smooth, uninterrupted gameplay.