If you like games, you've probably seen the letters FPS before, but you might be confused about what they mean. You see, FPS actually has two different meanings, and they both can be used in the gaming space.

Here's everything you need to know about the phrase "FPS" in gaming.

FPS Has a Couple of Meanings in Video Games

If you don't know what it means, hearing or reading about FPS can be a bit confusing. Without context, you wouldn't know if FPS is a type of game or something else entirely.

FPS can mean "first-person shooter games" or "frames per second". And no, these terms aren't related, other than you can use them to talk about games and that they share the same acronym.

What Are Frames Per Second?

Frames per second, also referred to as "frame rate," is the frequency of consecutive images that are captured or displayed each second (i.e., the number of images that appear on your screen in one second). Contrary to what we may think, we don't see animations on our screens. Instead, we see a lot of images moving so fast that it looks like a moving animation.

This term is used in video games, but you'll also hear it in other industries like film and animation.

There's a lot to talk about with frames per second, but the basic idea is that the more images per second a movie or a game shows, the higher the frame rate and the smoother the overall animation will be. If a game you're playing has a low frame rate, it means it's showing fewer frames per second than it should, which would make your game look a bit choppy.

Having high or low frames per second will depend on your device. If you have a good computer with a good graphics card and processor, you won't deal with frame rate problems. Most people with an average computer will need to decide between a high frame rate and a high resolution since the lower the resolution, the better the frame rate.

For most people having 30FPS is good enough to play, albeit it is not the most ideal. You won't have any problems and barely see any issues if you aren't used to higher frame rates, but you can tell that something feels a bit off.

If you want smoother gameplay, 60FPS will be more than enough. You might want to consider getting a monitor with a high refresh rate for an even smoother experience.

What Are First-Person Shooter Games?

As you can probably guess by the name, a first-person shooter is a type of first-person game in which you play from your character's perspective. You're seeing the world through their eyes, and you can mostly see their hands, weapons, and sometimes the lower part of their bodies.

The main difference between first-person and third-person games is that you feel more immersed in the world. You interact with objects and enemies as the character, which is both awesome and scary, depending on the game you're playing.

FPS games are pretty popular nowadays, but they've been around for quite a while, with the first FPS games being available in the 80s. But it wasn't until the 90s that games like Wolfenstein and Doom took the world by storm and put FPS games on the map.

A few examples of popular or well-known FPS games are BioShock Infinite, the Call of Duty Games, Overwatch, and pretty much every Doom game.

Funny enough, some believe that, in order to be better in FPS games, you need to have high FPS to help your aim. This sentence would've been confusing before, but now it isn't anymore.

FPS vs. FPS

Now things should be clearer: FPS can be used for first-person shooters and frames per second. While they aren't related, having a high frame rate—and even a high refresh rate—can be helpful when playing first-person shooters.

Don't worry, you might need some time to get the hang of it. But soon, you'll instantly understand what someone's talking about when they use 'FPS'.