Mimicking Real-Life Usage
Code Wizards, in collaboration with Heroic Labs, has conducted an impressive scale test of a commercially available backend in the games industry. This test, which is the largest and most successful of its kind, involved three distinct workload scenarios and achieved 2 million concurrently connected users (CCU) without any issues. Martin Thomas, the CTO of Code Wizards Group, expressed his excitement about the results, stating that this milestone is a game-changer for the gaming community as it provides developers with the confidence to scale their games using Nakama, an off-the-shelf product.
The Importance of Real-Life Usage Testing
To ensure that the platform was thoroughly tested, Code Wizards designed three scenarios that progressively increased in complexity to mimic real-life usage under load. The first scenario aimed to prove that the platform could easily scale to the target CCU. The second scenario introduced variable load and focused on real-time user interaction. The third scenario replicated user interactions with metagame features within the platform itself. Each scenario ran for four hours, and the database was restored to a clean state between tests to ensure fair and consistent results.
Scenario 1: Basic Stability at Scale
The first scenario aimed to achieve basic stability at scale and establish a baseline for future scenarios. The setup involved 82 AWS Fargate nodes, with each node having 4 CPUs, and 25,000 clients on each worker node. The 2 million CCU ramp was achieved over 50 minutes. The test results were extremely positive, with 2,050,000 worker clients successfully connected, 683 new accounts created per second, and a 0% error rate across client workers and server processes.
Scenario 2: Realtime Throughput
In the second scenario, the goal was to test the platform’s ability to handle variable load and real-time messaging. The setup involved 101 AWS Fargate nodes, each with 8 CPUs, and 20,000 clients on each worker node. Similar to the first scenario, the 2 million CCU ramp was achieved over 50 minutes. The test results showcased the platform’s scalability, with 2,020,000 worker clients successfully connected and billions of messages sent and received at peak average rates.
Scenario 3: Combined Workload
The third scenario focused on testing the platform’s performance under a workload that primarily involved database operations. The setup involved 67 AWS Fargate nodes, each with 16 CPUs, and 30,000 clients on each worker node. The 2 million CCU ramp was achieved over 50 minutes. The test results demonstrated the platform’s ability to handle database-bound workloads, with sustained high request rates and low processing times.
Supporting Great Games of Every Size
Heroic Cloud, the platform used for these scale tests, is trusted by thousands of studios worldwide and supports over 350 million monthly active users (MAU) across a wide range of games. The success of these scale tests highlights the reliability and scalability of Heroic Cloud and Nakama, making them ideal choices for game developers of all sizes.
Conclusion
Code Wizards’ scale tests of Nakama running on Heroic Cloud have proven the platform’s ability to handle massive concurrent user loads without any issues. The thorough testing across different scenarios has showcased the platform’s stability, scalability, and performance under variable workloads. With Heroic Cloud supporting millions of active users across various games, it’s clear that this backend solution is a reliable and effective choice for game developers. To learn more about the success stories of Heroic Labs and how Code Wizards can help game companies build great games on solid backend infrastructure, visit their website.