Amazon GameLift is a managed service for deploying, operating, and scaling session-based multiplayer game servers in the cloud. Amazon GameLift utilizes Amazon EC2’s On-Demand Instances, so you can pay for compute capacity by the hour with no long-term commitments. This allows you to replace the cost and complexity of upfront capital expenses with lower variable costs that scale with the success of your game. The pricing for Amazon GameLift is based on the aggregate number of Daily Active Users, plus the amount of Amazon EC2 resources you use during the billing cycle.
As part of AWS’s Free Tier, you can get started with Amazon GameLift for free. Upon sign-up, new AWS customers receive the following benefits each month for one year:
- 125 hours per month of Amazon GameLift Windows c3.large instance usage, plus 50 GB EBS General Purpose (SSD) storage
- 15 GB per month of bandwidth out, aggregated across all AWS services
- First 1,000 Daily Active Users in a month
You are charged for the sum of Daily Active Users (DAU) that use Amazon GameLift. Amazon GameLift counts a uniquely identified user as active when that user begins a play session on Amazon GameLift. If users start multiple sessions during a single day or single sessions that extend for multiple days, each user counts as one DAU.
- $1.50 per 1,000 DAU
You are charged data transfer fees for traffic between your game servers on EC2 and your customers' game clients.
- Inbound data transfer is free
- Outbound data transfer is set at standard Amazon EC2 Data Transfer Rates
You are charged for the EC2 instance type you select, at standard EC2 prices, plus 50 GB EBS General Purpose (SSD) volumes per EC2 instance. You can select from any of the Amazon EC2 On-Demand Instances below.
The Amazon GameLift pricing table below reflects the combination of standard fees for EC2 instances and EBS General Purpose (SSD) volumes.
Let’s consider a hypothetical first-person shooter that has 10,000 Daily Active Users (DAU) and 1,000 peak concurrent users. Your shooter's dedicated server runs on a c3.large instance and can host 32 players per instance.
To estimate your monthly Amazon EC2 instance charges, we first calculate the number of EC2 instances you need to handle your peak concurrent users. With 1,000 peak concurrent users and 32 players per instance, you will need at least 32 instances. We will assume for this example that you don’t know when your peak demand will occur during the month, so you will run these instances for the full month (24 hours per day for 30 days). Each of your EC2 instances requires 50 GB EBS storage.
We then add data transfer fees. Your game generates 75 kb/sec of outbound bandwidth per player, which is typical for a complex FPS game. Each of your active players averages one hour of play a day. The total data transfer in this example is 75 kb/sec * 3,600 seconds * 30 days * 10,000 players = 10,125 GB per month. Amazon EC2 outbound data transfer up to 10TB costs $0.09 per GB-month and the next 40 TB costs $0.085 per GB-month.
| 32 c3.large instance hours per day for 30 days | 32 * $0.195 * 24 * 30 = $4,492.80 |
| EC2 outbound data transfer (10,125 GB per month) | (10,000 * $0.09) + (125 * $0.085) = $910.63 |
| 10,000 DAU | (10,000 / 1000) * $1.50 * 30 = $450.00 |
| MONTHLY TOTAL | $5,853.43 |
Let’s consider a hypothetical multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) that has 10,000 Daily Active Users (DAU) and 2,000 peak concurrent users. Your MOBA's dedicated server runs on a t2.small and can host 10 players per instance.
To estimate your monthly Amazon EC2 instance charges, we first calculate the number of instances you need to handle your peak concurrent users. With 2,000 peak concurrent users and 10 players per instance, you will need at least 200 instances. We will assume for this example that you don’t know when your peak demand will occur during the month, so you will run these instances for the full month (24 hours per day for 30 days). Each of your EC2 instances requires 50 GB EBS storage.
We then add data transfer fees. Your game generates 10 kb/sec of outbound bandwidth per player, which is typical for a MOBA. Each of your active players averages one hour of play a day. The total data transfer in this example is 10 kb/sec * 3,600 seconds * 30 days * 10,000 players = 1,350 GB per month. Amazon EC2 outbound data transfer up to 10 TB costs $0.09 per GB-month.
| 200 t2.small instance hours per day for 30 days | 200 * $0.043 * 24* 30 = $6,192.00 |
| EC2 outbound data transfer (1,350 GB per month) | 1,350 * $0.09 = $121.50 |
| 10,000 DAU | (10,000 / 1,000) * $1.50 * 30 = $450.00 |
| MONTHLY TOTAL | $6,763.50 |
In addition to Amazon GameLift, Amazon offers a growing selection of cross-platform building blocks for game developers. These tools and services help you build on the shoulders of Amazon commerce, AWS, and Twitch, and make and deliver experiences that garner vibrant communities of passionate fans.
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