Question 1

Will antivirus lower my FPS?

Accepted Answer

In independent testing, top-tier antivirus engines cost between 1 and 4 frames per second on a mid-range rig — well below the threshold of human perception. AV-Comparatives' Performance Test publishes the slowdown numbers semi-annually and most paid products score 'Very Low' or 'Low'. The bigger risks to your frame rate are background browser tabs, Discord overlays, OBS, and the Xbox Game Bar — all of which most reviewers will not mention because none of them are antivirus.

Question 2

What does Game Mode actually do?

Accepted Answer

Game Mode is an industry term for four distinct behaviours: deferring scheduled scans, suppressing notification pop-ups, pausing cloud telemetry uploads, and (on some products) pinning game threads to high-performance cores. Different vendors implement different combinations. The comparison table above shows which brand does what — if your antivirus only suppresses pop-ups but still runs scans during play, you will see frame-time spikes regardless of how the marketing copy reads.

Question 3

Does antivirus break Easy Anti-Cheat or BattlEye?

Accepted Answer

Rarely, and almost never with the six brands above. Modern kernel-mode anti-cheat drivers were engineered after antivirus self-protection became mainstream and most vendors maintain explicit allowlists for Riot Vanguard, Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye. Issues arise when an antivirus update or anti-cheat update changes a driver signature mid-quarter; both sides typically push a hotfix within 48 hours. Check the official Riot status page or the EAC support thread before disabling AV self-protection.

Question 4

Is Microsoft Defender enough for a competitive gaming rig?

Accepted Answer

For most gamers, yes. Defender's recent AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives cycles place it among the top consumer engines for Windows 11 detection and at the very top of the field for performance overhead. The case for paying instead of using Defender is when you also need ransomware rollback, banking-grade phishing protection, a password manager, or coverage for less-cautious household members on the same machine. See our Microsoft Defender review for the long version.

Question 5

Should I disable my antivirus while gaming?

Accepted Answer

No. Disabling antivirus while connected to the public internet exposes you to drive-by exploits, malicious mods, and credential-theft browser attacks — the same threats anti-cheat is not designed to catch. Use Game Mode (or its vendor-specific equivalent) and add per-folder exclusions for your Steam / Epic / Battle.net / Riot directories if you see specific scan-during-play stutters. Disabling self-protection wholesale solves a problem you almost certainly do not have.

Question 6

What about anti-cheat false positives in my antivirus?

Accepted Answer

This is the inverse of the previous question and it does happen — particularly with Riot Vanguard and Ricochet, both of which load drivers before Windows logs in. If your antivirus flags an anti-cheat driver, do not delete the quarantined file; restore it, add the launcher folder to your AV exclusions, and report the false positive to your antivirus vendor. The vendor will push a signature update within 24-48 hours. Removing the AV is the wrong fix.

Question 7

Do I need extra protection for Steam, Epic and Battle.net wallets?

Accepted Answer

Account-takeover phishing is a bigger threat to gaming wallets than malware in 2026. Two-factor authentication (Steam Guard, Epic 2FA, Battle.net Authenticator) is the single most effective control — combined with Bitdefender's, Norton's or Defender's web-protection components, which block the credential-theft phishing kits we see on Discord and trade scams. A password manager (1Password, Bitwarden) covers the rest. Antivirus alone is not the bottleneck.

Question 8

Will renewal pricing burn me later?

Accepted Answer

Probably yes — that is why we publish the year-2 renewal column in the comparison table. Norton, McAfee and TotalAV in particular discount the first year by 60-80% and then auto-renew at full list price. Read our /antivirus-renewal-trap/ guide before checkout if you want the full set of cancellation and price-match scripts. ESET and Bitdefender discount the smallest amount in year 1 and therefore have the smallest renewal jump.

Product	First-year	Renewal	SafeScan Now score	Devices	VPN included	Free trial	Refund window
Bitdefender Total Security Bitdefender	[TBD]	[TBD]	[TBD] / 100	5	200 MB/day	30 days	30 days
ESET HOME Security ESET	[TBD]	[TBD]	[TBD] / 100	5	—	30 days	30 days
Norton 360 Gen Digital	[TBD]	[TBD]	[TBD] / 100	5	Unlimited	—	60 days
Microsoft Defender Microsoft	Free	Free	[TBD] / 100	Unlimited (per Microsoft account)	—	—	—
Kaspersky Premium Kaspersky Lab	[TBD]	[TBD]	[TBD] / 100	10	Unlimited	30 days	30 days
Malwarebytes Premium Security Malwarebytes	[TBD]	[TBD]	[TBD] / 100	5	—	14 days	60 days

Brand	Defers scans	Suppresses pop-ups	Pauses cloud uploads	Pins to E-cores
Bitdefender Total Security	Yes (Profile auto-trigger)	Yes	Partial (telemetry continues)	[TBD]
ESET HOME Security	Yes (Gamer Mode toggle)	Yes	Yes	[TBD]
Norton 360	Yes (Game Optimizer)	Yes	[TBD]	Yes (Intel 12th-gen+)
Microsoft Defender	Yes (auto-detect full-screen)	Yes	N/A (cloud-first)	[TBD]
Kaspersky Premium	Yes (per-process configurable)	Yes	Yes	[TBD]
Malwarebytes Premium Security	Yes (Play Mode)	Yes	[TBD]	[TBD]

Brand	AV-Comp Performance Impact	SafeScan Now Avg FPS Δ (Cyberpunk)	SafeScan Now 1% Low Δ	Verdict
Bitdefender Total Security	Very Low	[TBD] fps	[TBD] fps	Invisible during play
ESET HOME Security	Very Low	[TBD] fps	[TBD] fps	Invisible during play
Norton 360	Low	[TBD] fps	[TBD] fps	Effectively invisible
Microsoft Defender	Very Low (built-in)	[TBD] fps	[TBD] fps	Invisible during play
Kaspersky Premium	Low	[TBD] fps	[TBD] fps	Effectively invisible
Malwarebytes Premium Security	Low	[TBD] fps	[TBD] fps	Effectively invisible

Best Antivirus for Gaming in 2026

Top picks for gamers

Comparison table — FPS impact tested

What Game Mode actually does — by brand

FPS impact — what the labs measure

Detailed reviews

Bitdefender Total Security

ESET HOME Security

Norton 360

Free antivirus for gaming — what it costs you

Anti-cheat compatibility — what actually breaks

The price you pay in Year 2

Best antivirus for gaming — FAQs