Hathora helps Frost Giant stress test 1M concurrent users with multiplayer tech

Hathora helped Frost Giant Studios test the network for its online multiplayer real-time strategy game Stormgate, enabling it to hit a theoretical one million concurrent users.

In the world of online multiplayer gaming, the launch day of a hit game is a momentous occasion. The genre’s social nature often leads to viral popularity, with gamers from around the world eager to join in and play simultaneously. However, this surge of players can place immense strain on the backend infrastructure, requiring studios to be prepared to handle the load seamlessly from day one, Hathora said.

While major game studios such as Riot, Blizzard, Valve and Epic have invested billions in developing specialized solutions to address this issue, smaller studios are left to build their own infrastructure from scratch. The last thing any game developer wants is for players’ first experience to be one of frustration due to technical difficulties, Hathora said.

To tackle this problem, Hathora was created back in 2020 with the goal of providing a comprehensive solution. Hathora is a platform designed to handle server orchestration and scaling for multiplayer games. Game developers can easily sign up through the Hathora website and deploy their games in any of the ten available regions within minutes. The platform is built with scalability in mind, allowing studios to focus on creating the next generation of successful games without worrying about backend infrastructure.

To put their platform to the test, Hathora recently conducted a load test and achieved impressive results, reinforcing their confidence in the system’s capabilities. They are now eager to offer the same scalability to any studio looking to partner with them.

In order to conduct a realistic test, Hathora needed to use an actual game. Frost Giant Studios, one of Hathora’s early customers, allowed Hathora to use their upcoming game, Stormgate, as the medium for the load test. This presented an opportunity to demonstrate to Frost Giant Studios that Hathora could handle the load if Stormgate were to become massively popular upon its release next year.

Stormgate, developed by Frost Giant Studios, follows in the footsteps of iconic game series such as Warcraft and StarCraft. Early external playtests have garnered overwhelmingly positive feedback, indicating that Stormgate has the potential to be a major success upon its launch.

To achieve a realistic load during the test, Hathora aimed for a million concurrently connected users (1M CCU). The Stormgate game server was already running on the Hathora platform, and Frost Giant provided a headless client capable of replaying recordings of actual games and generating traffic to simulate the 1v1 mode with two players.

The successful load test not only showcased Hathora’s ability to handle a massive influx of players but also provided Frost Giant Studios with confidence in Hathora’s capabilities. This partnership highlights the platform’s potential to support game developers in managing and scaling their multiplayer games effectively. Hathora said it lets game developers focus on making their game, rather than dealing with the infrastructure.