How to Choose Dedicated Game Server Hosting

Choosing dedicated game server hosting involves learning several facts: what is "dedicated" meant to, how tick rate influences gameplay experience, how much CPU and RAM does the server need, how well it withstands a DDoS attack. Let us explore.

What actually makes a game server "dedicated," and why does that matter?

Unlike a listen server, a dedicated one simulates the game world without any players logged in — in contrast with listen server that is created on the client machine. It eliminates the unfair advantage one of the players could have due to lower latency.

We built our own network around that same latency principle: up to 100Gbps of bandwidth across 8 global data-center locations.

This difference is crucial as it changes who gets an unfair advantage and what happens when one of the players loses their connection.

What does "tick rate" mean, and why does it matter for a game server?

Tick is a step of the simulation that a server sends out to the clients to keep them synchronized with the game. Tick rate determines how often such updates occur, which is important in case of competitive games.

Per the Wikipedia article about game servers, "a 'tick' is a number associated with each simulation step which is broadcast to clients to help them synchronise with the server" — and increasing the rate of the steps is exactly what higher tick rate does.

How much CPU and memory does a dedicated game server actually need?

It all depends on the type of the game. While the resource-demanding titles usually require a top-notch CPU and its high single-threaded performance to run just one or a few game instances, games that do not take so many resources could use a manycore server to run dozens of instances of games on it.

As per the Wikipedia article mentioned above, modern dedicated servers "commonly use high-end consumer CPUs for their very high single-threaded performance, with each machine running a few or even just one instance," while less demanding games can see "a single physical server host dozens or hundreds of instances" on hardware with "a manycore CPU and very high memory capacity" — depending on which of the categories your game belongs to.

Why are game servers a common target for DDoS attacks?

Blocking the control packets the game uses breaks the gameplay instantly, making it a desirable target for DDoS attacks. The gaming infrastructure has been attacked with billions of packets per second.

As per the Wikipedia article on DoS attacks, DDoS is especially effective "in online gaming as the disruption of the control packet undermines gameplay and system functionality" — and one recent 2024 incident "targeted an undisclosed number of unofficial Minecraft game servers" with "3.15 billion packets per second."

What can a hosting provider actually do to mitigate a DDoS attack against a game server?

Redirects suspect traffic to go through a filtering center, blocking malicious packets before they reach the server, and deploys defense systems able to distinguish between regular traffic and the traffic of the attack. Both approaches should be prepared in advance.

As per the Wikipedia article above, the measures taken to mitigate the attacks include traffic being "diverted to pass through a cleaning center or a scrubbing center," while "a DDoS defense system (DDS) can block connection-based DoS attacks and those with legitimate content but bad intent" — all of the measures should be taken in advance, not during the attack.

Our Bare Metal servers and VPS plans may fit the criteria outlined above if a dedicated game server is what you are looking for.