How much data does Red Dead Online use?
Red Dead Online, the online multiplayer part of Red Dead Redemption II, includes complex storylines and battle modes with dozens of players. Because Red Dead Online is complex and well populated, it can end up using a lot of your mobile data. If you’re playing the game on a mobile connection like 4G LTE, you might need to monitor your data use to keep it low.
Here’s how much mobile data you can expect to use playing, downloading, and updating Red Dead Online on Playstation 4 or Xbox One. Because Rockstar Games is still making significant changes to the game based on player feedback on the ongoing beta version, these numbers could change significantly in the next few months.
Gameplay can use more than 150 MB of data per hour
While playing the beta, some gamers found that Red Dead Online used upwards of 150 MB of mobile data per hour. One gamer even managed to bump his household data use up to 30 GB per day when he started playing the game. While these numbers are outliers, Red Dead Online does seem to use more data than other online games.
The amount of data you use playing Red Dead Online varies based on the game mode you choose to play in. For example, the new battle-royale style Gun Rush mode has space for up to 32 players in a game, which means it will use a lot more data than other modes. The more populated the mode is, the more data it uses.
To find out exactly how much mobile data you use playing Red Dead Online, monitor your data use with your carrier (Verizon, AT&T, Sprit, or T-Mobile). To find out exactly how much of that data use belongs to your Playstation 4 or Xbox One, monitor the data use of all your devices through your router or check the bandwidth usage of your Xbox console in the network settings.
If you want to reduce your data use without cutting back on your play time, try switching to a less populated game mode or adjusting your game settings. Any game setting that makes the game run faster will likely also save you data. In your Red Dead Redemption II settings, try turning off anti-aliasing and setting your frame-rate cap to less than 144 FPS.
Downloading Red Dead Redemption II uses 90 GB of data
Red Dead Online is available to anyone who has Red Dead Redemption II on their console. Red Dead Redemption II has a download size of 89.2 GB on Playstation 4 and 88.15 GB on Xbox One. If you need to keep your data use low, don’t download Red Dead Redemption II from the Playstation 4 or Xbox One stores. Instead, purchase the disk.
Game updates sometimes use more than 5 GB of data
The update that brought Red Dead Online to Red Dead Redemption II players in November 2017 was 5.5 GB. Updates of this size aren’t uncommon for Red Dead Redemption II, at least not in the early months of the game. If you’re monitoring your data use, turn off auto-updates.
- Here’s how to turn on/off auto-updates on Playstation 4.
- Here’s how to turn off auto-updates on Xbox One.
Playing Red Dead Online on a 4G LTE connection
Today, wireless internet connections like 4G LTE are finally fast enough to support online gaming. For gamers who use 4G LTE as their primary internet connection, faster speeds open up new opportunities to play complex multiplayer games like Red Dead Online. Here’s how 4G LTE speeds compare to Xbox One’s minimum internet speeds, for example:
| Minimum internet speeds for online gaming | Average 4G LTE internet speeds | |
| Download speed | 3 Mbps | 5-12 Mbps |
| Upload speed | 500 Kbps | 2-5 Mbps |
| Latency | 150 milliseconds | 70 milliseconds |
While a 4G LTE connection is fast enough to support online gaming, mobile broadband connections often come with a fixed amount of mobile data. If you’re sick of counting the MBs that you use every time you sit down to play Red Dead Online, consider investing in an unlimited 4G LTE connection.
