How to Reduce PlayStation Lag (PS5/PS4)

Many players like to play online multiplayer games on PlayStation. Because of the large player base, developers also pay great attention to the multiplayer experience of PlayStation games, such as Call of Duty. But the situation is not always so rosy. Sometimes you enter the ranked lobby and everything is smooth—until the first team fight starts, when the visuals become stuttery and voice chat begins to cut in and out.

All of this seems to happen suddenly, but the PlayStation system is not as open as Windows, and there aren’t many things we can tweak, which makes PlayStation lag difficult to solve. Is that really the case? How can PlayStation online gaming be made smoother? I think this guide can help you.

Why PS5/PS4 Lag Gets Bad?

PlayStation lag mainly stems from two parts:

1. Part one: your living room — Wi‑Fi interference, router bufferbloat, and frequent communication between devices all force game packets to wait. Even if the ping looks normal, this will show up as visual stuttering and slight lag.
2. Part two: the paths across the wider Internet — your data must traverse many routing nodes, and those nodes or routes can be affected at any time by peak load or jitter. This is why one match may feel very smooth while the next suddenly becomes unstable.

As for server status, you have no control over it; whether it’s a game server fault or a PlayStation service outage, all we can do is wait for recovery.

Next, we’ll take a detailed look at how to address each of these two parts.

How to Fix Lag in Your Living Room

Local network–caused PlayStation lag basically comes from the choice of network signal, the router’s settings, and the use of other programs or devices. You can:

Choose A Stable Network

• Whenever possible, use a wired connection for your PlayStation — even if the router and the console are close together, Wi‑Fi is still less stable than a cable.
• If you must use Wi‑Fi, use the 5 GHz or 6 GHz band and make sure there is a clear line of sight between devices. Avoid metal racks, mirrored doors, and thick walls that block the signal, and pick a clean channel — you don’t need to hunt for a new one every night.

Avoid Double NAT

What double NAT is: If you have more than one router or a router plus an ISP modem/router in your home, both devices may be doing NAT (turning the internet into your private home network). That means incoming game connections have to pass through two layers of address translation, which can block or complicate multiplayer, voice chat, and hosting.

How to avoid it (simple steps):

• Put the ISP modem/router into bridge mode so it stops acting as a router and your own router becomes the only device doing NAT. If you don’t know how, contact your ISP.
• Or set the second device (usually your own router) to Access Point (AP) mode or disable its DHCP server — this makes it behave like a Wi‑Fi extender, not a router.
• A quick workaround: plug your PlayStation directly into the primary internet device (the one connected to the ISP) with an Ethernet cable.
• If neither option is available, you can place the downstream router’s WAN IP into the upstream router’s DMZ so traffic is forwarded to it (this is less ideal but can help).

If you’re unsure which device is which, check which box is connected to the incoming internet line (that’s the ISP device). Manuals and ISP support can help with bridge/AP mode and DHCP settings.

Prevent the Network from Being Occupied

Network bandwidth is like a water pipe — only so much data can flow at once. If other devices or apps are using high bandwidth, your PlayStation connection will be squeezed. Preferably close or pause these:

Hardware to disconnect or turn off

• Other game consoles (Xbox, Nintendo Switch) when not in use
• PCs or laptops doing large downloads or updates
• Smart TVs and streaming boxes (Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast) during gameplay
• Network‑attached storage (NAS) backups or large media transfers
• Smartphones/tablets running large updates or heavy syncing
• Cameras or IoT devices performing uploads or cloud backups

Software/services to stop or pause

• Game downloads and automatic updates (Steam, Epic, console auto‑updates)
• Streaming services (Netflix, YouTube, Twitch) on any device
• Torrent clients and P2P apps
• Cloud backup/sync (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox) and large file uploads
• Video calls and streaming (Zoom, Teams, OBS streaming)
• Background updaters and software installers
• VPNs (they rarely reduce latency and can make things worse)

Quick extra tips: pause downloads/updates on PCs/consoles, disable automatic updates on your PlayStation while gaming, use Ethernet where possible, and if your router supports QoS (traffic prioritization), give priority to your PlayStation’s traffic.

(Important)Optimize Your PlayStation Server Connection with HYPEREV

Fixing your living-room connection is only the first step. In fact, most PlayStation lag comes from the public network’s connection to the server. That part cannot be solved by adjusting your home router or by changing traffic priorities.

You need a more professional tool — HYPEREV, a gaming router from GearUP.

HYPEREV’s most powerful technology is its intelligent connection to global nodes. It diagnoses network faults and, based on the game you’re playing and the server you choose, matches the best node to ensure stability and transmission efficiency, thereby reducing game lag. Neither expensive esports routers nor your ISP can provide this kind of optimization.

Of course, HYPEREV’s advantages don’t stop there. It also offers:

• One‑click optimization, controllable via a mobile app with no need to change any network settings
• Game‑Fencing, which can fence the servers you connect to or the latency range, preventing you from being randomly matched worldwide
• Full platform support: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch — all major consoles — with over 2,500 games customizable for acceleration, down to individual servers

So, will HYPEREV cause double NAT?

Don’t worry. HYPEREV does not currently support PPPoE and will not negatively affect NAT. On the contrary, its basic acceleration features provide NAT optimization and can help you resolve problems caused by a poor NAT type.

What’s the Difference Between HYPEREV and Gaming Router?

We commonly refer to gaming routers (also called esports routers) as having many advanced features, but their purpose is to adjust and control the local network — that is, the first part mentioned above — while the public network is not within their control. At the same time, gaming routers cannot precisely optimize for every game and every server.

Except for some professional routers with built‑in HYPEREV plugins (for example, several ASUS products), ordinary routers cannot achieve HYPEREV’s effects. The table below lets you quickly see the differences between them:

Common Mistakes

• Chasing the tiniest ping while ignoring jitter. A steady 60–70 ms plays better than a 40 ms “low” that spikes to 150 the moment the house gets busy.
• Treating Wi-Fi like it’s infinite. Phones auto-upload videos, TVs stream, laptops patch in the background; without device priority, your inputs wait in line.
• Fiddling nightly. Constantly flipping bands, channels, and QoS makes it impossible to know what helped. Set a good profile, validate it, and stick to it for days.

The smart play is discipline: wire what matters, keep wireless orderly, and let routing policy prevent route wander.

Quick Answers for PS5/PS4 Latency

• Can a router delete distance? No. It cleans the first mile and keeps routes sane; geography still counts.
• Do I need manual port forwarding? Not usually. With a single gateway and UPnP on that device, the console opens what it needs and closes it afterward.
• Is Wi-Fi 6 mandatory? Not mandatory—but its airtime efficiency matters when many devices share the air. It’s about fewer retries, not just bigger headline speeds.
• Will this fix server-side issues? No. If the platform is struggling, wait it out or switch regions. Keep the home side steady so you can tell the difference quickly.

The takeaway

Reducing PlayStation latency isn’t magic; it’s a repeatable stack: wire the console or give it the cleanest 5/6 GHz lane, run a single-gateway topology with UPnP for painless sessions, and stop route wander with game fancing so peak-time paths stay close to home. HYPEREV rolls those habits into a one-tap routine—Wi-Fi 6 that behaves, live numbers you can trust, Full-path boost for consistency, and a routing-only design—so your next clutch fight isn’t decided by your living room.