How much data does World of Warcraft use?
In World of Warcraft, players interact in a massively multiplayer world that spans a variety of modes, maps, and expansions. The more players in a game, the more data your internet network exchanges with other players’ networks. Because a single World of Warcraft server might host thousands of players, you can end up using a lot of internet data during gameplay.
If you play World of Warcraft on an installed 4G LTE internet connection, you may have to monitor how much internet data you use each month. Let’s take a closer look at how much data you use downloading, updating, and playing World of Warcraft on your PC or Mac. Of course, switching to an unlimited 4G LTE connection is the best way to game with mobile broadband.
How much data do you use downloading World of Warcraft?
Downloading World of Warcraft typically uses much more data than actually playing the game. Sometimes, a single game download can use as much data as years of online gameplay. As of April 2019, these are the download sizes for World of Warcraft. Note that the download size of any game tends to increase over time as developers release patches and updates.
Platform | Download size |
Microsoft Windows | 79.43 GB |
macOS | 79.43 GB |
If you’re afraid your data plan won’t support the World of Warcraft download, purchase the disk and install the game offline instead.
How much data do you use updating WOW?
World of Warcraft patches and updates vary in size from 16 GB to 4 GB to 100 MB, depending on the problem they’re intended to fix or the complexity of the content update. Unfortunately, because they vary so much, it’s often difficult for players to predict the size of the next update. See every World of Warcraft update here.
If you’re worried about updates pushing you over your monthly data limit, turn off auto-updates in the game settings and, instead of automatically installing updates, manually install them at the beginning of the month when you have the most mobile data available.
How much data do you use playing World of Warcraft?
World of Warcraft uses up to 160 MB of internet data per hour, but the exact amount of data you use playing the game depends on the number of players in the mode, whether or not you use chat, your frame rate, and the tickrate of the server you’re on:
- The more players in a game, the more data your internet network exchanges with other players’ networks while you play the game. This data includes information like the current location and stats of each player. Standard raids only use 25 MB of data per hour, while 30-versus-30 standoffs in Alterac Valley use 160 MB of data per hour.
- If you use voice chat, expect to use as much as twice as much data during gameplay. Without voice chat, playing a game like PUBG for an hour uses less than 30 MB of data. With voice chat, it uses 50 MB of data. It will be similar for World of Warcraft.
- A higher frame rate refreshes the game more often, so that you exchange more up-to-date data with other players in the game. A lower frame rate will save you data, but makes it harder for you to react quickly. If you really need to save data while you play World of Warcraft, you can decrease your frame rate by turning off v-synch in the game settings.
- The server tickrate also affects your data use. A 128-tick server, which refreshes the game 128 times every second, uses about twice as much data as a 64-tick server, which refreshes the game 64 times every second.
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