We often joke that gamers in Australia share a secret hobby: testing internet speed at the most inconvenient times, usually right before a ranked match. In our small collective of tech-minded friends spread across Perth, Hobart, and even a late-joining friend from Adelaide, we decided to run a practical experiment. The goal was simple: understand how a VPN affects gaming performance across long distances within Australia.
Naturally, things started seriously and ended with a bit of laughter when someone blamed lag on “virtual kangaroos jumping through packets.”
When you play online games, especially from remote regions like Tasmania, latency can feel like a dramatic villain in a story you didn’t agree to star in. Hobart gamers often experience different routing paths compared to those in mainland cities like Perth or Sydney.
We wanted to evaluate:
Ping stability during gameplay
Download and upload speed consistency
Routing efficiency between cities
Real-world gaming usability (not just raw numbers)
Our focus wasn’t just on speed—it was about consistency under load, especially during peak evening hours when servers feel like they are hosting the entire continent.
Setup: Our Collective Testing Approach
We used a standard gaming setup across multiple locations:
Perth (main test origin)
Hobart (target gaming scenario)
Sydney (control comparison)
A surprise dataset from Cairns, contributed by a friend who insisted “the tropics affect latency vibes”
We tested popular multiplayer games and also ran repeated speed measurements while connected and disconnected from VPN servers.
In our PIA VPN speed test from Perth we observed how routing changes impacted performance when connecting to Hobart-based game servers.
Numbers, Surprises, and a Bit of Chaos
Here is what we collectively observed during multiple sessions:
Without VPN:
Perth to Hobart ping: ~55–70 ms
Download speed: ~92 Mbps average
Upload speed: ~18 Mbps average
With VPN enabled:
Perth to Hobart ping: ~60–85 ms
Download speed: ~70–80 Mbps
Upload speed: ~15–17 Mbps
At first glance, it looked like a downgrade. However, something interesting happened during peak hours: VPN routing occasionally stabilized jitter, making gameplay feel smoother even with slightly higher ping values.
One of us from Sydney described it perfectly: “It’s like trading a fast but shaky bridge for a slightly longer bridge that doesn’t wobble when someone sneezes.”
What We Learned as a Group
After several evenings of testing (and more snacks than necessary), we came to a few shared conclusions:
Distance still matters more than anything else in Australias vast geography
VPNs can slightly increase latency but may improve stability
Hobart gamers benefit more from consistency than raw speed spikes
Perth remains a surprisingly strong hub for baseline connectivity
Cairns contributed nothing scientifically but provided moral support
We also learned that blaming lag on imaginary server gremlins is socially acceptable in every Australian city we tested.
A Calm but Honest Reflection
From our collective perspective, using a VPN for gaming between Perth and Hobart is not a magical performance booster, but it is not a disaster either. It is more like adjusting the suspension on a car—you trade a bit of raw speed for smoother handling.
If anything, this experiment reminded us that online gaming performance is rarely about one perfect number. It is about patterns, consistency, and how well your connection behaves when everything else is competing for bandwidth.
And somewhere between Perth’s steady signals and Hobart’s unpredictable routing paths, we found a simple truth: good gaming is less about chasing perfect ping and more about keeping the game playable enough that nobody rage-quits before the match even starts.
A Group Experiment with Serious Curiosity
We often joke that gamers in Australia share a secret hobby: testing internet speed at the most inconvenient times, usually right before a ranked match. In our small collective of tech-minded friends spread across Perth, Hobart, and even a late-joining friend from Adelaide, we decided to run a practical experiment. The goal was simple: understand how a VPN affects gaming performance across long distances within Australia.
Naturally, things started seriously and ended with a bit of laughter when someone blamed lag on “virtual kangaroos jumping through packets.”
Hobart gamers checking WA server speeds can review the PIA VPN speed test from Perth to optimise their gaming setup. Access the test results here: https://www.wellnessdepartment.com.au/group/juns-group/discussion/c969a042-643c-477b-adbe-3559097ffd64
Why This Test Actually Matters
When you play online games, especially from remote regions like Tasmania, latency can feel like a dramatic villain in a story you didn’t agree to star in. Hobart gamers often experience different routing paths compared to those in mainland cities like Perth or Sydney.
We wanted to evaluate:
Ping stability during gameplay
Download and upload speed consistency
Routing efficiency between cities
Real-world gaming usability (not just raw numbers)
Our focus wasn’t just on speed—it was about consistency under load, especially during peak evening hours when servers feel like they are hosting the entire continent.
Setup: Our Collective Testing Approach
We used a standard gaming setup across multiple locations:
Perth (main test origin)
Hobart (target gaming scenario)
Sydney (control comparison)
A surprise dataset from Cairns, contributed by a friend who insisted “the tropics affect latency vibes”
We tested popular multiplayer games and also ran repeated speed measurements while connected and disconnected from VPN servers.
In our PIA VPN speed test from Perth we observed how routing changes impacted performance when connecting to Hobart-based game servers.
Numbers, Surprises, and a Bit of Chaos
Here is what we collectively observed during multiple sessions:
Without VPN:
Perth to Hobart ping: ~55–70 ms
Download speed: ~92 Mbps average
Upload speed: ~18 Mbps average
With VPN enabled:
Perth to Hobart ping: ~60–85 ms
Download speed: ~70–80 Mbps
Upload speed: ~15–17 Mbps
At first glance, it looked like a downgrade. However, something interesting happened during peak hours: VPN routing occasionally stabilized jitter, making gameplay feel smoother even with slightly higher ping values.
One of us from Sydney described it perfectly: “It’s like trading a fast but shaky bridge for a slightly longer bridge that doesn’t wobble when someone sneezes.”
What We Learned as a Group
After several evenings of testing (and more snacks than necessary), we came to a few shared conclusions:
Distance still matters more than anything else in Australias vast geography
VPNs can slightly increase latency but may improve stability
Hobart gamers benefit more from consistency than raw speed spikes
Perth remains a surprisingly strong hub for baseline connectivity
Cairns contributed nothing scientifically but provided moral support
We also learned that blaming lag on imaginary server gremlins is socially acceptable in every Australian city we tested.
A Calm but Honest Reflection
From our collective perspective, using a VPN for gaming between Perth and Hobart is not a magical performance booster, but it is not a disaster either. It is more like adjusting the suspension on a car—you trade a bit of raw speed for smoother handling.
If anything, this experiment reminded us that online gaming performance is rarely about one perfect number. It is about patterns, consistency, and how well your connection behaves when everything else is competing for bandwidth.
And somewhere between Perth’s steady signals and Hobart’s unpredictable routing paths, we found a simple truth: good gaming is less about chasing perfect ping and more about keeping the game playable enough that nobody rage-quits before the match even starts.