Multiplayer games let players share a game session, either on one device or across connected devices. In an online game, each device runs a client that takes player input and displays graphics and sound. The clients exchange game data with a server or with one another; they generally do not stream a live video of each player’s screen.
What happens when players join the same game?
In local multiplayer, one machine can run the game for everyone playing on it. Online multiplayer connects devices over a network. Each device runs a client—the part of the game that accepts local input and presents the world to that player.
In many online games, a server coordinates play and maintains the shared game state: the positions, actions and other facts that determine what is happening in the session. Each client receives relevant updates and renders its own view. Unreal Engine’s version 4.27 networking overview describes this as clients simulating a local approximation of the server’s authoritative world: Unreal Engine 4.27 Networking Overview.
Not every game uses the same arrangement. Some use a player’s device to host the session, while others let player devices communicate with one another. The design depends on factors such as who controls the shared state, how hosting is operated, fairness, and the game’s responsiveness needs.
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How does an online action travel through the game?
Consider firing a projectile in a server-authoritative game. The client can respond to the button press immediately, but the server determines what happened in the shared world and sends updates to the players.
- The player acts. The local client registers the fire input.
- The client reports the action. It sends the relevant input or action information across the network to the server.
- The server processes the game event. It creates or tracks the projectile in the authoritative world and resolves events such as a collision or damage.
- The server distributes updates. Connected clients receive relevant changes and display the projectile, effects, and results in their own views.
The clients are not simply receiving the server’s rendered screen. They receive game information—such as changes to objects and values—and use it to update their local versions of the world. Replication helps keep those views aligned, although network delay means they may not show every event at precisely the same moment.
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What are the main multiplayer network designs?
| Design | How it works | Main trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Client-server | Player clients connect to a server that coordinates or authoritatively processes gameplay and distributes updates. | Centralized state handling can help keep players’ views consistent, but the server must be hosted and operated. |
| Dedicated server | A server process hosts the game without a player using that machine as their local game client. Unreal Engine describes dedicated servers as running without graphics, sound, or player input. | It separates hosting from play and is often used for persistent, secure, or larger-scale sessions; it requires server operation. |
| Listen server | One player’s machine hosts the session while that player also plays locally; other players connect over the network. | It is straightforward to start, but the host plays directly on the server while others connect remotely, which can create fairness or cheating concerns. |
| Peer-to-peer | Player applications communicate with one another rather than relying on a single dedicated game server to coordinate all gameplay. | Players’ devices must discover one another and establish connections. Latency still matters, even when peers are nearby. |
These categories describe common approaches, not mutually exclusive feature sets. A multiplayer game may also rely on separate platform services for finding players, joining friends, or communicating. Microsoft’s GDK Multiplayer overview lists hosting, peer-to-peer networking, matchmaking, session management, invites and joins, and in-game chat as distinct capabilities.
Why do multiplayer games lag?
Latency is the delay between an action and its visible in-game effect. Unity defines network latency as “the amount of time between a cause and its visible, in-game effect” in its guide to dealing with latency in multiplayer games.
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That delay can be affected by the distance data must travel, the network routes it takes, the game server’s tick or update rate, and changing network conditions. High latency can make controls feel unresponsive or cause events to appear late. It is different from low frame rate: latency is communication delay, while frame rate concerns how smoothly a device renders the game. Without measurements, a player cannot reliably identify which cause is responsible for a particular instance of perceived lag.
Roblox says that most players on its platform experience 100–300 milliseconds of network latency on its client-server runtime page. That figure is specific to Roblox; it is not a general benchmark for all multiplayer games.
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- Marvelous Durability: Internet cable wrapped with quality cotton braided cord, which makes the LAN cable stronger and more durable. The test proves that this internet cable can be bent at least 10000 times without broken, very suitable for long-term use
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How do games make delayed actions feel responsive?
If a client waits for a server response before showing every action, the time for a message to travel to the server and back can make controls feel sluggish. One way to reduce that perceived wait is client prediction: the player’s device shows a likely result immediately, before the server’s confirmation arrives.
In Roblox’s server authority model, the client reports input while the server remains the source of truth for the shared game state. The client predicts what its action will do, then compares that prediction with the server’s update. If they disagree, the client can reset to the authoritative state and simulate forward again. That correction can sometimes be visible as a brief adjustment or “snap.”
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Prediction improves responsiveness but cannot guarantee that every local guess will be right. The balance among security, responsiveness, and consistency depends on the game: a turn-based game and a fast action game do not have identical needs. Server authority can help prevent cheating based on falsified movement or state, but it does not eliminate every form of cheating.
What other systems support multiplayer?
The network that carries gameplay is only one part of a complete multiplayer experience. Games may use separate services to:
- Find players or organize a match through matchmaking.
- Manage a session and let players join friends through invites.
- Host game servers or establish peer-to-peer connections.
- Provide in-game chat and other social features.
These services help players meet and stay connected, but they are distinct from the exchange of gameplay state that keeps a match running.
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