www.metacritic.com speed test — 20 Oct 2026
Measured from the wfix.shop server on 20 October 2026 at 16:01 UTC. Grade A (91/100), with the screenshots, the timings and the fixes that matter.
Where the first byte went
- DNS lookup 79 ms 22%
- TCP connect 52 ms 14%
- Server wait 235 ms 64%
Measured on the connection that fetched the HTML. Every other request on the page waits for the end of this bar before it can start.
How this page compares
Every report published here is in this comparison, so it is a reference population of pages tested from one server - not a benchmark of the whole web.
What these numbers mean
- The first byte arrived in 366 ms. That is workable, and the cheapest win left is caching or a warmer connection.
- The page transfers 535.4 KB over 26 request(s). Images files are 65% of it, so resize and recompress the largest images before anything else.
- The HTML itself arrives gzip-compressed.
- It runs over HTTP/3, so the assets share a connection instead of opening one each.
Fix first: Render-blocking resources - Add defer or async to scripts that do not change the first paint, inline the critical CSS, and load the rest with media="print" plus an onload swap.
Read on one shared server, not a visitor's phone: use it to compare pages against each other, not as a promise about every connection. We fix what these tests find.
The headless browser did not capture this page when the test ran, so only the server measurements are shown.
Page weight by type
What the page is made of
Transfer size, compressed as sent. 26 request(s) in total, 535.4 KB across all of them.
Top issues
Render-blocking resources
high impact14 render-blocking resource(s) in the document head (3 script(s), 11 stylesheet(s)). The page cannot paint until each one arrives.
Fix: Add defer or async to scripts that do not change the first paint, inline the critical CSS, and load the rest with media="print" plus an onload swap.
HTML document size
medium impactThe document transfers 185.9 KB. A bloated document delays every other request, because nothing else can start until it is parsed.
Fix: Paginate long listings, move repeated markup into a template, and stop inlining large data URIs into the HTML.
Avoid extra redirects
medium impact1 redirect hop(s) before the page load started, each one a full round trip before the first byte.
Fix: Link to the canonical URL (and make sure http, the apex domain and www all point at it) so no visitor pays a redirect first.
Strict-Transport-Security
low impactHSTS is not set, so the first visit on a hostile network can still be downgraded to HTTP.
Fix: Send Strict-Transport-Security with a max-age of at least six months. Add includeSubDomains once every subdomain is HTTPS.
Waterfall
Slowest requests
Each bar is one request's own response time, scaled to the slowest. Assets were fetched in parallel, so the bars overlap in real time rather than stacking. first party third party
| Request | Type | Status | Time | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/d9eb57b78e543b908cb2f945af33c82fd101ca8d/catalog/provider/2/13/2-911a9bd4474a60fe0496809db298fedd.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 1.13 s | 5.7 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/50e43b7fcf8e31e76f5d43274efe5c4d05661aec/catalog/provider/7/2/7-1791784971.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 1.04 s | 29.0 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/b53dcb9a0642294665539ea0e4ddca27aa31eaa0/catalog/provider/5/2/5-tt28535715.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 1.02 s | 8.4 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/03c11631056acc3495b7741c84681d388dbba763/catalog/provider/7/2/7-1790045075.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 1.01 s | 21.0 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/a4ec4a1a99ef92f8aa1cc7e0e79e855a02347ac7/catalog/provider/7/2/7-1790044924.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 1.01 s | 28.0 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/4600e2454426019a8975e0b5c10812d1058cf116/catalog/provider/7/2/7-1791873931.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 1.00 s | 25.5 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/a7c18bffbbd60ed47ae63c170828853dda7d1478/catalog/provider/7/2/7-1780856345.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 1.00 s | 12.9 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/ba12aa22a77e6023103a0eb66f72eea4382b7897/catalog/provider/7/2/7-1791426859.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 997 ms | 36.5 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/e247b6c26b55f629a754c2e2ead0e9a09926cf32/catalog/provider/7/2/7-1792433971.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 987 ms | 5.5 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/8a167f9c5988571970fd97a6917dfa862a6b9327/catalog/provider/7/2/7-1792342900.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 978 ms | 33.2 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/652db40c54284fc1a287c3ee6ef6d368d7502dbe/catalog/provider/2/13/2-da7f5a0ca7629260b4ba4e008b7bc0f1.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 978 ms | 22.8 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/e40e0eafc312d278f464c47f3e1b8e6687fe2340/catalog/provider/7/2/7-1782316122.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 968 ms | 4.6 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/3fa9996436079419042f3f582f76fe2e929dd3b2/hub/2026/09/29/1bb4b698-ba59-4bfd-8de7-5a5e07fb8658/gamepreview-fall2026.jpg?auto=webp&fit=cover&height=110&quality=80&width=196 | images | 200 | 965 ms | 5.3 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/7bc5d7eefb90c5abe136b38dbd47dec39c3d449d/hub/2026/10/07/b706eccf-07fa-43da-a69a-b6a033dc5a0d/mainaaronsorkin.jpg?auto=webp&fit=cover&height=110&quality=80&width=196 | images | 200 | 953 ms | 5.4 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/df60e054d77d0277547d526931bcfdc4e571ccdd/catalog/provider/7/2/7-1792085400.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 950 ms | 33.5 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/14ca0d56a80531c1811ab4b286af3aa163961728/catalog/provider/7/2/7-1792084673.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 950 ms | 28.7 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/b1e0fea1874d42caa7018fa9b5f2cbeff6a8c5ed/hub/2026/09/29/2ce6b31d-08e2-42c1-bba2-dd7602233752/tv-preview-2026-10-visionquest.jpg?auto=webp&fit=cover&height=110&quality=80&width=196 | images | 200 | 949 ms | 5.0 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/f48069102bba41fed90eb06c66d0d49fa53bf971/hub/2026/10/08/cd5a8f79-fd3d-4e39-b1c6-4f2468bbfb15/mainmoviesabouttechfounders.jpg?auto=webp&fit=cover&height=110&quality=80&width=196 | images | 200 | 943 ms | 6.0 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/f4cdaa3d29b1689153557059aeeb24cdd547b0cc/catalog/provider/7/2/7-1791754366.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 916 ms | 10.6 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/a933a25e76075cbcbc0eebdc601c819efbcbaa7a/catalog/provider/2/13/2-a4def066254ff6ec5a10ba13db366395.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=159&quality=80&width=280 | images | 200 | 913 ms | 11.6 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/a3b92635ae10bb7c24f1a3ae7cd96b94bfdccf12/hub/2026/10/05/2105438f-7fd6-41f6-9358-09f3f67956d2/maingearsofwarranked.jpg?auto=webp&fit=cover&height=110&quality=80&width=196 | images | 200 | 900 ms | 5.5 KB |
| https://www.metacritic.com/a/img/resize/9162c0d33b3ec78cfcac369db60957bd8fefe9ff/hub/2026/10/01/804d2614-6f05-4e20-a209-6ac2d00ab3b2/mainjesseplemons.jpg?auto=webp&fit=cover&height=110&quality=80&width=196 | images | 200 | 899 ms | 4.9 KB |
| https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/x9cNiZ97/poster.jpg?width=720 3rd party | images | 302 | 896 ms | 0 B |
| https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PcmsiepO/poster.jpg?width=720 3rd party | images | 302 | 873 ms | 0 B |
| https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/b7vg3sRh/poster.jpg?width=720 3rd party | images | 302 | 870 ms | 0 B |
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