Search "best DNS for gaming" and you'll find a hundred articles promising that swapping to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 will "reduce lag" and "lower your ping". Most of them are selling a VPN. The honest answer is shorter and more useful: DNS has no effect on your ping once you're in a match, but it does affect the bits of gaming that happen around the match — logins, matchmaking, store pages, and where your downloads come from.
This guide explains exactly what a DNS resolver does and doesn't touch, which public resolvers are worth using in 2026, how to test them on your own connection instead of trusting a global benchmark, and the current menu paths for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and Windows 11.
What DNS Does During a Gaming Session
DNS is the phone book. When your console or PC needs to reach matchmaking.example-game.com, it asks a resolver for the IP address, gets an answer back, and then talks to that IP directly. The resolver's job is done at that point.
Here is where DNS is and isn't involved in a typical evening:
- Launching the game and signing in — several DNS lookups (auth servers, telemetry, storefront, friends list). A slow resolver adds tens of milliseconds to each, which you feel as a sluggish launcher.
- Matchmaking — a handful of lookups to reach the matchmaking service. Once it hands you a server IP, DNS is out of the loop.
- The match itself — zero DNS lookups. Your client sends UDP packets straight to the game server's IP for the entire round. Your ping is set by physical distance, your ISP's routing, and whether your own connection is congested. Not by the resolver.
- Downloading a patch — one or two lookups to reach the CDN, and this is the one place where which resolver you use can genuinely change speed (more on that below).
So when someone says a DNS change "fixed their lag", one of three things happened: the launcher got snappier and they attributed it to the game, they changed something else at the same time (usually plugging in a cable), or it was placebo. If your ping spikes to 300 ms during downloads, that's bufferbloat, and no resolver on earth will touch it.
The one real exception: the ISP's resolver is broken
There is a scenario where changing DNS fixes an actual gaming problem: when your ISP's resolver is slow, overloaded, or intermittently failing. Symptoms look like this:
- Games that take 10–20 seconds to reach the "connecting to online services" step, then work normally
- "Cannot connect to server" errors that go away on the second try
- Xbox's network test reporting "DNS isn't resolving Xbox server names"
- Console error codes that mention DNS (PS5's NW-31253-4 family, Switch's 2110-3127)
In those cases a public resolver is a legitimate fix, not a tweak. The point is to recognise the symptom rather than swap DNS as a ritual.
The Public Resolvers Worth Considering in 2026
There are only four that matter for a UK gamer. Everything else on the "top 10 gaming DNS" lists is either a rebrand, a filtering service, or a resolver with no nearby presence.
| Resolver | Primary / Secondary (IPv4) | IPv6 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | 1.1.1.1 / 1.0.0.1 | 2606:4700:4700::1111 / ::1001 | Usually the fastest response in UK tests. Does not send EDNS Client Subnet. |
| 8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4 | 2001:4860:4860::8888 / ::8844 | A few ms slower than Cloudflare in most locations. Sends ECS, which helps CDN steering. | |
| Quad9 | 9.9.9.9 / 149.112.112.112 | 2620:fe::fe / 2620:fe::9 | Blocks known malware domains. No ECS by default (9.9.9.11 is the ECS-enabled variant). |
| OpenDNS | 208.67.222.222 / 208.67.220.220 | 2620:119:35::35 / 2620:119:53::53 | Cisco-owned. Sends ECS. Optional content filtering. |
A note on your ISP's resolver: BT, Sky, Virgin Media, Vodafone and the alt-net fibre providers all run resolvers that are physically close to you, and on a good day they respond faster than any public option because they're a hop or two away. The problem is consistency. ISP resolvers are the thing most likely to be overloaded at 8 pm on a Friday, and they are the ones that get hijacked to show a "this page is blocked" landing page. If yours is fine, there's no rule that says you must change it.
Cloudflare vs Google: the ECS trade-off nobody mentions
This is the detail that separates a real recommendation from a copy-paste list.
EDNS Client Subnet (ECS) is an extension where the resolver passes a trimmed version of your IP address (usually the first three octets) to the authoritative DNS server. CDNs — the networks that host game patches, PSN downloads and Xbox updates — use that hint to hand you the address of a node near you rather than a node near the resolver.
- Google and OpenDNS send ECS. A CDN sees "this client is on a Sky range in Manchester" and returns a Manchester or London edge node.
- Cloudflare does not send ECS, as a deliberate privacy decision. The CDN only sees Cloudflare's anycast node, which in the UK is almost always London anyway — so in practice the difference is small for most people here. It can matter more if you're on a rural or Northern Irish connection where the "nearest" node by Cloudflare's view isn't the nearest by yours.
- Quad9's default 9.9.9.9 doesn't send ECS either; use 9.9.9.11 if you want it.
Most large CDNs now also use anycast (the same IP announced from many locations, with routing picking the closest), which reduces how much ECS matters. But some game-specific delivery networks still lean on DNS-based steering. If you switch to Cloudflare and notice patch downloads have got slower, this is why. Try Google or your ISP's resolver for downloads and compare.
For gaming specifically, the practical summary is:
- Fastest lookups: Cloudflare, by a small margin
- Best download steering: Google, OpenDNS, or your ISP
- Best "set and forget" with malware blocking: Quad9
The differences are milliseconds on lookups you do a few dozen times per session. Do not agonise over it.
Test It on Your Own Connection (Two Minutes)
Global benchmarks measure from data centres, not from a house in Leeds behind a Virgin Hub. Test from where you actually play.
Windows: GRC DNS Benchmark
Steve Gibson's DNS Benchmark (free, from grc.com, a single portable .exe) is still the best tool for this in 2026. Run it, click Run Benchmark, and after a couple of minutes it ranks every major public resolver plus your current one by cached, uncached and dotcom lookup times. Look at the uncached column — that's the number that reflects real-world use, since cached answers are fast on every resolver.
What to look for:
- Anything under 20 ms uncached is fine. Chasing 8 ms over 12 ms is not worth a settings change.
- Large error bars (the red/green spread) matter more than the average. A resolver that averages 15 ms but occasionally takes 400 ms is worse for gaming than one that reliably takes 20 ms.
- If your ISP's resolver is at the top with tight error bars, leave it alone.
Any platform: the command line
On Windows:
nslookup steamcommunity.com 1.1.1.1
nslookup steamcommunity.com 8.8.8.8
On macOS or Linux, dig @1.1.1.1 steamcommunity.com prints a Query time: line at the bottom. Run each a few times — the first hit may be uncached and slow, the rest cached. Compare the uncached numbers between resolvers.
Test the thing you actually care about
If your real complaint is slow patches, don't benchmark lookups — benchmark the download. Start a large update with your current DNS, note the speed once it settles, cancel, change resolver, restart. The CDN steering effect described above shows up here and nowhere else.
How to Change DNS on Each Platform
Change it at the router if you want every device covered at once (the setting is usually under Internet, WAN or DHCP — look for "DNS server" and switch from "obtain automatically" to manual). Change it on the device if you only want to affect the console, or if your ISP router doesn't let you override DNS (Sky's hubs historically didn't).
PlayStation 5
- Settings → Network → Settings → Set Up Internet Connection
- Highlight your active Wi-Fi or LAN connection and press the Options button
- Select Advanced Settings
- Set DNS Settings to Manual
- Enter the primary and secondary addresses, then OK
- Run Test Internet Connection from the Network menu to confirm it resolves
The PS5 supports IPv6 but the manual DNS fields are IPv4 only; leave the IPv6 side on automatic.
Xbox Series X|S
- Press the Xbox button to open the guide
- Profile & system → Settings → General → Network settings
- Advanced settings → DNS settings
- Select Manual, enter the primary DNS, then the secondary
- Back out to Network settings and choose Test network connection
The Xbox also has a Test network speed & statistics screen on the same menu — worth a look while you're there, because it reports packet loss and latency to Xbox Live, which are the numbers that actually predict a good session.
Nintendo Switch 2 (and original Switch)
- Open System Settings from the HOME Menu
- Select Internet → Internet Settings
- Pick your network under Registered Networks
- Select Change Settings, scroll down, select DNS Settings
- Select Manual
- Select Primary DNS, hold B to clear the zeros, type the address, OK
- Repeat for Secondary DNS, then Save
Nintendo's own support article uses 8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4 as the worked example, and a public resolver is their standard fix for the 2110-3127 error, so this is officially sanctioned rather than a hack. If you use the Switch 2 dock's Ethernet port, the DNS setting applies to whichever registered network is active — check it's the wired profile you edited.
Windows 11
- Settings → Network & internet
- Click Ethernet (or Wi-Fi, then your network's properties)
- Next to DNS server assignment, click Edit
- Switch the dropdown to Manual, toggle IPv4 on
- Enter preferred and alternate DNS
- Under each address, set DNS over HTTPS to On (automatic template) if the provider supports it — Cloudflare, Google and Quad9 all do
- Save
Once DoH is active, the settings page shows (Encrypted) beside each server. Encryption stops your ISP or anyone on the same Wi-Fi from seeing or tampering with lookups; it adds a millisecond or two to the first query and nothing after that, so there's no gaming downside.
Steam Deck, ROG Ally and other handhelds
Steam Deck in Desktop Mode: click the network icon → Configure → IPv4 tab → set Method to Automatic (only addresses) and add DNS servers. Windows handhelds follow the Windows 11 steps above. If the handheld only ever games on your home Wi-Fi, setting it at the router is simpler.
What to Expect Afterwards
Be realistic about the result, because the difference is easy to over-read:
- Launcher and store pages may feel noticeably snappier if your ISP resolver was slow. This is the most common genuine improvement.
- "Connecting…" screens at game start may shave a second or two.
- In-game ping: no change. If you see a different number, it's normal variation. Run a proper ping test over several minutes if you want to confirm it for yourself.
- Downloads: may go up, down, or stay identical depending on the ECS/CDN behaviour above. Test rather than assume.
- Ads and trackers: unchanged unless you deliberately chose a filtering service (Quad9, OpenDNS FamilyShield, or 1.1.1.2 for Cloudflare's malware-blocking variant).
If you changed DNS looking for a ping improvement and didn't get one, the resolver was never the bottleneck. The fixes that actually move ping are, in order of impact: a wired connection, SQM to kill bufferbloat, picking a closer game region, and — if your ISP's routing to a specific game's servers is genuinely poor — a routing service rather than a DNS change.
Quick Reference
- Does DNS lower ping? No. In-match traffic never touches the resolver.
- Does DNS help gaming at all? Yes, marginally: faster logins, matchmaking and store pages; occasionally faster downloads; and a real fix if your ISP resolver is flaky.
- Which one? Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 for lookup speed, Google 8.8.8.8 if downloads matter more, Quad9 9.9.9.9 for malware blocking. Your ISP's is fine if it benchmarks well.
- How to check? GRC DNS Benchmark on Windows;
nslookup/diganywhere. Look at uncached times and consistency, not the average. - Where to set it? Router for everything; console for just the console; Windows 11 with DoH on for encrypted lookups.
Change it once, confirm the launcher feels fine, and then spend your effort on the things that actually determine whether you win the gunfight.