The Short Answer

For almost everyone, enable UPnP on one router and stop there. It resolves the same connection problems as manual port forwarding, adapts automatically when games change ports, and requires no maintenance. Manual forwarding is the better choice in three specific cases: you host a dedicated server, you have multiple devices that need the same port, or your router's UPnP implementation is broken. Neither option changes your ping. Both only affect whether inbound connections can reach you at all.

What a Forwarded Port Actually Does

Your router keeps a translation table mapping outgoing connections to the devices that started them. Replies match an entry and get delivered. Anything unsolicited has no entry and gets dropped, which is the default and correct behaviour of a home firewall.

A port forward is a permanent, pre-written entry in that table. It says: traffic arriving on this external port always goes to this internal device on this internal port, regardless of whether that device asked for it. That is all. It does not accelerate anything, it does not prioritise traffic, and it does not reduce latency by a single millisecond. It only creates a doorway that stays open.

Games need this when they accept incoming sessions rather than only making outgoing ones: peer-to-peer matches where you might be host, party and voice systems, and any server you run yourself. Games that connect exclusively to publisher-run dedicated servers usually need nothing forwarded at all, which is why forwarding ports often produces no observable change.

What UPnP Does Differently

Universal Plug and Play lets an application on your network ask the router to create a port mapping on demand, then remove it when finished. Your console or game does the configuring; you do nothing. Because the mapping is created by the application that needs it and torn down afterwards, the doorway exists only while it is in use, which is a genuine security advantage over a permanent manual forward that stays open for years after you uninstall the game.

UPnP also handles the case manual forwarding handles badly: games that pick a port dynamically, or that change their port requirements in a patch. A manual forward configured for a 2023 port list quietly stops matching what the game does in 2026, and you get to troubleshoot a problem you thought you had solved. UPnP simply asks for whatever it needs each session.

The UPnP Security Argument, Honestly

UPnP has a bad reputation and it is worth understanding which parts of it still apply.

The historically serious problem was routers exposing the UPnP service on the WAN interface, meaning anyone on the internet could create port mappings on your router without ever being on your network. That was a genuine, widely exploited flaw. It was a firmware defect, it was addressed across the industry years ago, and it does not describe how a current router behaves out of the box. A related class of bugs allowed malformed requests to map ports to addresses outside your own network, turning routers into traffic relays. Again: old firmware, since patched.

The remaining, still-valid concern is different and much smaller. UPnP has no authentication by design. Any device already on your LAN can request a mapping, so a compromised machine, or a piece of malware, or an application you did not fully trust, can open a hole without asking you. That is a real trade-off. It is also a scenario in which you already have a compromised device on your network, which is a bigger problem than the port mapping.

The practical position: keep router firmware current, use UPnP, and check the router's active UPnP mappings list occasionally to see what has requested what. If you see mappings you cannot account for, that is worth investigating. If your router is old enough that it no longer receives firmware updates, replacing it fixes more than this one issue, and our gaming router guide covers what to look for.

When Manual Forwarding Is Genuinely Better

You host a persistent server. A game server, a voice server, or anything that must be reachable when you are not sitting at the machine needs a mapping that exists whether or not an application is currently asking for one.
Multiple devices want the same port. Two consoles both requesting the same external port will conflict. UPnP will hand it to whichever asked first and the second device degrades. Manual forwarding lets you deliberately map different external ports to each device, which is the only clean solution.
Your router's UPnP is unreliable. Some implementations leak mappings, fail to clean up, or stop responding until the router is rebooted. If enabling UPnP produced no improvement, forwarding manually is the next step rather than a parallel one.
Policy or preference. If you want an explicit, auditable list of every open path into your network, manual forwarding gives you exactly that and UPnP does not.

If you go manual, take the port list from the game publisher's official support page for your specific title and platform. Community lists go stale, mix up TCP and UDP, and frequently include ports the game has not used in years. Publishers maintain the authoritative version.

Why DMZ Is Almost Always the Wrong Answer

Putting a device in the DMZ forwards every unsolicited inbound port to it. It is popular because it works immediately and requires no thought, and it is a bad habit because it removes your firewall for that device entirely. Every service that device runs, including ones you forgot about or did not know existed, becomes reachable from the internet.

For a games console the risk is modest but the benefit is close to zero, because UPnP already achieves the same result with a fraction of the exposure. For a PC the risk is real: file sharing, remote desktop, development servers, and management interfaces are all suddenly exposed. Use DMZ as a temporary diagnostic to confirm that a NAT or port issue is really the cause, then turn it off and implement the targeted fix. Leaving it on permanently is how a convenience becomes an incident.

Decision Table

Your Situation	Use	Why
One console or PC, normal online play	UPnP	Automatic, self-cleaning, adapts to game updates
Two or more consoles playing the same game	Manual forwarding	Avoids external port conflicts UPnP cannot resolve
Hosting a dedicated or persistent server	Manual forwarding	Mapping must exist even when no application is requesting it
UPnP enabled but NAT still restrictive	Manual forwarding, after checking for double NAT	Indicates a broken or blocked UPnP path
Behind carrier-grade NAT	Neither works; contact your ISP	Translation happens upstream, outside your control
Troubleshooting only, for a few minutes	DMZ, then disable	Fast confirmation, unacceptable as a permanent state

How to Verify a Port Is Actually Open

Configuration is not confirmation. Routers accept settings that do nothing surprisingly often.

Make sure something is listening. A port only tests as open if an application is actively bound to it. Launch the game or start the server first, otherwise even a perfect forward reports closed.
Confirm the internal address is right. Check the device's current local address and make sure it matches the forward. Then convert it to a DHCP reservation so a reboot cannot silently break the rule.
Test from outside your network. Use an external port checking service, or ask someone on a different connection to try. Testing from inside your own LAN often succeeds regardless of whether the forward works, which produces a false pass.
Match the protocol. Most real-time game traffic is UDP. A TCP-only forward will look correct and do nothing. Forward what the publisher specifies, both if stated.
Check the device firewall too. Windows Firewall and console-level restrictions can drop traffic that arrived through your router perfectly.
Compare against the built-in test. Both major consoles report their resulting NAT type directly; that is the outcome you care about, more than any individual port result. Platform specifics are in How to Reduce Lag on PS5 and Xbox.

What This Will and Will Not Improve

Expect faster matchmaking, working party chat, reliable ability to host, and fewer failed joins. Do not expect lower ping, less jitter, or fewer packet drops, because none of those are affected by which ports are open. If your matches connect fine and still feel bad, the next lever is queue management rather than firewall rules, covered in router QoS setup for gaming, and the broader latency checklist lives in how to lower ping. If you are unsure which category your problem falls into, our FAQ separates connection-establishment issues from latency issues in plain terms.