What is Amazon GameLift Servers?
Amazon GameLift Servers is a managed service for hosting dedicated multiplayer game servers. The service handles the complete infrastructure: server deployment, scaling based on player activity, and matchmaking. Developers can focus on the game while AWS manages server operations. GameLift Servers is the dedicated server-hosting component of the Amazon GameLift family, complemented by the separate product Amazon GameLift Streams for cloud game streaming.
Core Features
- FlexMatch Matchmaking: Rule-based matchmaking for fair player groups by skill, latency, or custom criteria, with automatic placement via game session queues
- Auto-Scaling: Automatic capacity adjustment via Target Tracking based on player activity
- Multi-Region Deployment: Game servers in multiple regions for low latency worldwide
- Spot Instances: Cost savings compared to On-Demand pricing by using Spot capacity for non-critical sessions
- Realtime Servers: Lightweight option for session-based games with small amounts of shared data and low-complexity simulation, such as card or strategy games
Typical Use Cases
Competitive Multiplayer Games
Shooters, MOBAs, or battle royale games require low latency and fair matchmaking. GameLift Servers automatically places players on geographically optimal servers and groups them by skill level.
Session-Based Games
Games with clearly defined rounds benefit from dynamic server allocation. Servers are provisioned only for active sessions and released afterward.
Cross-Platform Gaming
GameLift Servers supports servers for PC, consoles, and mobile in a unified infrastructure with cross-platform matchmaking.
Benefits
- No server administration: AWS handles patching, monitoring, and failover
- Global presence with locally placed servers for minimal latency
- Pay-per-use without upfront hardware investments
- Integration with other AWS services like CloudWatch, S3, and Lambda
Integration with innFactory
As an AWS Reseller, innFactory supports you with Amazon GameLift Servers: architecture design for your game backend infrastructure, FlexMatch configuration for optimal matchmaking, and integration with authentication and leaderboard systems.
Typical Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Amazon GameLift Servers?
Amazon GameLift Servers is a managed service for deploying, operating, and scaling dedicated game servers for session-based multiplayer games. The service was previously known as Amazon GameLift; following a rename, server hosting now operates as GameLift Servers, while cloud game streaming is offered as the separate product Amazon GameLift Streams.
What is the difference from Amazon GameLift Streams?
GameLift Servers hosts dedicated game servers for session-based multiplayer games. GameLift Streams is a separate product that delivers complete games as a video stream to browsers, without requiring players to install anything. Both products belong to the Amazon GameLift family but address different use cases.
How does FlexMatch work?
FlexMatch is the matchmaking system in GameLift Servers. It groups players based on rules you define (such as skill level or latency) and automatically feeds the results into game session queues that place matches on geographically optimal servers.
What do Spot Instances cost with GameLift Servers?
According to AWS, GameLift Spot instances offer savings of roughly 50 to 85 percent compared to On-Demand prices. Because AWS can reclaim capacity when needed, running sessions receive a short termination warning in advance, so Spot is best suited for non-critical sessions.
Note: All product information on this page has been compiled with care, but is provided without guarantee and may be outdated or incomplete. Cloud services evolve rapidly — features, pricing, SLAs, and availability change frequently. Authoritative and up-to-date information can only be found on the official product page of AWS (official documentation). This page does not represent an offer by AWS.