Game server instances run your game’s server-side software on physical servers or virtual machines. For studios and publishers, choosing the wrong underlying infrastructure can mean disrupted gameplay, insufficient capacity during launches, or paying for resources that sit underused.
The right game server infrastructure provider should offer the compute capacity, connectivity, and regional coverage needed to run your multiplayer game reliably as player demand changes.
In this guide, we’ll cover how to define your requirements and evaluate providers across performance, networking, scalability, support, and cost. We’ll also explain the differences between managed and self-managed game server infrastructure.
Operating models for multiplayer game infrastructure
Studios and publishers can manage the infrastructure running their game server instances directly or use a managed service. The approach you choose determines which responsibilities your team handles and which it entrusts to an infrastructure provider.
Managed game server infrastructure
Managed orchestration platforms deploy game server instances, assign sessions to available instances, and scale the number running as player demand changes. This is the most “hands-off” way for your team to handle game server infrastructure.
Typically, your team provides a game server build and deployment requirements, and the platform handles running it across the underlying infrastructure. This reduces the work involved in managing deployments and maintaining enough instances for players to join.
Depending on the service, the platform may also choose the underlying infrastructure for your game server instances. Platforms like Gameye and Edgegap coordinate deployments across networks of infrastructure providers, so your team doesn’t have to select and manage each provider directly.
Self-managed game server infrastructure
With a self-managed setup, your team chooses the underlying infrastructure and manages how game server instances are deployed and scaled.
Your team can use an orchestration platform such as Agones, which runs on Kubernetes, or manage deployments through internal tooling and scripts.
Self-managed game server infrastructure gives you more control over performance and costs, while leaving your team responsible for capacity planning, monitoring, and recovery.
Bare metal, cloud, or hybrid?
Both managed and self-managed models can — and often do — combine cloud VMs and bare metal servers to run game server instances at scale. This is known as hybrid infrastructure.
Bare metal dedicates an entire physical machine to your workloads and can provide cost-effective baseline capacity for steady player demand. Cloud VMs offer flexibility to add capacity during temporary peaks or test new regions without committing to additional physical servers.
This approach lets teams keep baseline costs predictable while adding and removing cloud capacity as demand changes.
Key infrastructure requirements for multiplayer games
Whether your team manages deployments directly or uses a managed service, selecting the best game server infrastructure provider starts with your game’s requirements.
Expected player demand, the resources each game server instance consumes, and where players are located determine how much compute capacity you need and where it should run.
Below are a few of the key characteristics that can affect which infrastructure provider is right for your game server workloads:
Compute and hardware requirements
Each game server instance needs CPU resources to process gameplay, memory to hold active game data, and storage for its software and any locally saved data. How much it needs depends on the game and the number of players it supports.
CPU performance matters in two ways. Strong performance on an individual core (influenced by both clock speed and processor architecture) helps a game server instance process updates quickly enough to keep gameplay responsive. Additional cores can support more instances on the same physical server or VM, provided enough memory is available.
Storage needs vary from game to game. A persistent world may regularly read and write saved data, while a short, session-based game may have fewer local storage demands.
Testing under realistic player loads helps establish these requirements and how many instances a hardware configuration can reliably support.
Player concurrency and demand patterns
The number of players online at the same time, or concurrent users (CCU), is a starting point for estimating compute capacity. Your infrastructure needs to support the anticipated daily demand as well as peaks around launches, content updates, and seasonal events.
Load testing shows how many players each game server instance can handle and how many instances can run reliably on a physical server or VM. Combined with expected player counts, those results help estimate the capacity you’ll need during normal and peak periods.
For example, if load testing shows that one physical server can run 10 game server instances and each instance supports 20 players, one machine can handle 200 concurrent players. At an expected peak of 2,000 concurrent players (CCU), you’d need an estimated 10 physical servers before adding headroom for demand spikes or outages.
Regional and latency requirements
Game server instances need to run in locations that provide responsive connections to your players. Latency — the time it takes data to travel between players and the game server instance — will matter more for fast-paced competitive games than for turn-based titles.
Identify your main player markets and test connections to potential hosting locations. Hosting closer to players can reduce latency, but the quality of a provider’s network will also affect the connection players experience.
Providers that connect directly to major ISPs in your player markets or use transit partners with good routes into those networks can help traffic avoid unnecessary detours. Testing from the networks your players actually use gives you a clearer picture of the latency they’ll experience.
Planning for expansion and outages is recommended as well. Consider where you may need capacity as your audience grows, and whether another region could serve affected players during a potential outage.
What to look for when choosing a game server infrastructure provider
Once you understand the scope of your infrastructure needs, you can compare providers against those requirements.
With self-managed infrastructure, your team evaluates and selects the underlying providers and servers directly. A managed service may make many of those choices for you, but it can still be worth asking how the provider and their partners address the following criteria.
1. Performance and configuration options
A provider should offer configurations that fit your game’s requirements and help you test them before committing. Ask which processor, memory, and storage options they recommend for your workload and whether those configurations are available in your target regions.
Compare how many game server instances each configuration can run reliably under realistic player loads. A more expensive machine may offer better value if it supports enough additional instances to lower your cost per instance without compromising gameplay.
2. Network quality and connectivity
A provider should deliver reliable connections between your game server instances and players. Ask providers for access to a test server or network test endpoint in your target hosting locations. Measure connections from your main player markets at different times, including peak hours.
Alongside latency, check packet loss and jitter (variation in packet arrival times). Both can disrupt gameplay even when average latency is low.
Ask about the provider’s transit connections and peering relationships in those markets, particularly if testing reveals inconsistent results. This helps assess whether its network can meet your game’s requirements.
3. Bandwidth and data transfer
As concurrent player counts grow, so does the traffic your game server instances exchange with players. Your provider must be able to accommodate that traffic at peak demand, with pricing that works for the volume of data you transfer.
Check that each physical server or VM has enough network capacity to handle peak traffic from the game server instances running on it. Ask whether the advertised port speed is shared or dedicated and what throughput limits apply.
Then compare how that traffic is billed. Some providers include a monthly data transfer allowance with fees for additional usage. Others offer unmetered bandwidth at a fixed rate, subject to port speed and usage terms.
4. Regional coverage and capacity planning
A provider needs enough suitable compute capacity in the right locations to support your players. An extensive list of data center locations doesn’t guarantee a provider can supply the hardware you need when you need it.
Ask which configurations are available in your target regions, how quickly capacity can be added, and whether you can reserve it ahead of launches or major updates. This helps establish whether the provider can support both normal demand and expected peaks.
5. Operational support
When infrastructure problems affect live games, your team needs timely access to people who can resolve them. Look for 24/7 technical support, clear escalation paths, and defined response times for critical incidents.
6. Security and DDoS protection
DDoS attacks can prevent players from connecting or interrupt active sessions, making protection and incident response important parts of provider selection.
Key considerations include whether protection is included, how the provider handles attacks targeting your game’s protocols, and whether mitigation could disrupt legitimate player connections. The provider should also explain when it may block all traffic to an affected IP address and how it will coordinate with your team during an attack.
Beyond DDoS protection, responsibilities should be clear for operating system updates, access controls, and application security, particularly where those tasks remain with your team.
Comparing the total cost of game server infrastructure
The cost of running a multiplayer game extends beyond the physical servers or VMs hosting its game server instances. Bandwidth charges, other fees, and the engineering time needed to manage deployments also contribute to the total. A thorough comparison will account for these expenses alongside the cost of compute.
Breaking these costs into compute, networking, and operations makes it easier to compare what each provider would cost for your expected player demand:
Compute costs
Compute costs depend on the capacity your game needs and how it’s billed, whether you rent physical servers or cloud VMs directly or pay a managed service for the resources your game server instances use.
For self-managed infrastructure, compare the cost of running the same player load on different hardware configurations. A more expensive machine may offer better value if it can host enough additional game server instances while maintaining performance.
Fixed-price servers can be cost-effective for steady demand, while usage-based capacity lets you reduce spending as demand falls. A hybrid approach can combine bare metal for baseline capacity with cloud VMs for temporary peaks, balancing predictable costs with flexibility.
Network and bandwidth costs
Network costs depend on how much data your game server instances send to players and how the provider bills for that traffic. Physical server, cloud VM, and managed service plans may include bandwidth in the compute price or charge for it separately.
If bandwidth charges or egress fees apply, estimate monthly outbound data transfer at normal and peak demand, accounting for transfer allowances, overage fees, and any charges for traffic between regions or providers. Unmetered bandwidth with no egress fees can make costs more predictable.
Operational costs
Operating game server infrastructure requires ongoing engineering work, including deployment, monitoring, updates, and incident response. With self-managed infrastructure, your team takes on those responsibilities and the cost of any associated engineering time.
Managed services can reduce that workload by handling deployment, scaling, and parts of day-to-day operations. Their fees may be offset by less engineering time spent maintaining infrastructure, freeing your team to focus on other priorities.
Questions to ask a game server infrastructure provider
Talking through your game’s requirements can help clarify what each provider can deliver, what it will cost, and what your team will need to handle.
These questions can help you assess whether a provider can meet your technical requirements and support your plans for growth:
Which hardware configurations are available in our target regions?
Can we test performance and connectivity before committing?
How quickly can you add compute capacity, and can we reserve it ahead of launches?
How is bandwidth billed, and what limits or additional charges apply?
Which provisioning and management tasks can we automate?
Can your infrastructure work with our orchestration tools and existing stack?
What support and escalation options are available during launches and incidents?
What DDoS protection is included, and how are attacks handled?
If you’re considering a managed service, ask how it handles these requirements on your behalf. Getting clear answers ahead of making a commitment can help avoid surprises at launch or as your player base grows.
Deploy your game server infrastructure with Rackdog
Getting game server infrastructure right is vital to a multiplayer game’s success. By choosing an infrastructure model and provider that fit their needs, studios and publishers can keep the game running reliably, deliver a smooth player experience, and keep costs sustainable as demand grows.
Rackdog provides dedicated bare metal servers for gaming, combining dedicated hardware, unmetered bandwidth, and global deployment options for multiplayer workloads.
Teams can provision and manage servers through Rackdog’s API, Terraform provider, and CLI, bringing bare metal into existing infrastructure workflows. Rackdog can help support steady production capacity or form part of a hybrid deployment alongside your team’s cloud resources.
Create an account to start deploying your first server, or get in touch with our team of infrastructure experts to discuss a bare metal solution that’s right for your needs.