Can flash games slow down your internet?

[385]

I've looked around online and people claim that they don't. However I've noticed that whenever my niece starts playing flash games on various sites, the internet slows way down. Is it just a coincidence?

[Edmond]

Depends on the game.

For all online flash games, they will drain bandwidth while they load up. Once done loading, it then depends on the type of game. Some games are multi-player types, or otherwise access to a central server while gaming. This too will drain bandwidth.

[Aj]

No its not a coincidence.

Because flash games stream data while they are in use, they take up more bandwidth, and so you get less bandwidth. Because of the way protocols work on the internet, you may experience degraded internet responsiveness, however the internet is not slowing down, it is just being used.

So for example if you have 50 mbps coming into your house and the flash game takes 25 mbps, then 25 mbs every second are not used and are left for other uses. So if you need to do something that takes 40 mbs every second, then the internet protocol will make choices to assign bandwidth and at some point trading of bandwidth occurs and the flash game will experience degraded responsiveness for a period of time.