Gameplay Test Suite

Our gameplay test suite measures latency, packet loss and jitter for a wide array of popular online games.

Gameplay Test Methodology

The approach varies slightly depending on the game in question, but they all share common characteristics. Crucially, our test performs the measurement to the real gaming infrastructure of the game in question. This is sometimes determined in partnership with the game publisher, sometimes it is determined from publicly available information, and sometimes it is determined by studying the game’s traffic.

Wherever possible, we perform the measurement using the real gameplay protocol. Commonly this is based on UDP, using a non-standard port number and a custom application-layer protocol. Where this is not possible, we will fall back to using ICMP.

Supported Games

We are constantly adding new games, or versions of games, or removing older versions of games or games past their license period, while working directly with customers to ensure continuity. Therefore, the list of supported games below is a snapshot in time. Check with your account manager for the most up-to-date list.

• Among Us

• Apex Legends

• Battlefield V

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III

• Counter-Strike 2

• Diablo III & Diablo IV

• DOTA2

• EA Sports FC

• Fortnite

• Gears of War 5

• Halo Infinite

• Hearthstone

• Heroes of the Storm

• League of Legends

• Overwatch 2

• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (desktop and mobile)

• Roblox

• Rocket League

• StarCraft 2

• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege

• Valorant

• World of Warcraft

The following are also available but currently restricted to the Middle East:

• Call of Duty mobile

• eFootball 2024

• Free Fire MAX

• Honor of Kings

• Mobile Legends Bang Bang

Gameplay Test Metrics

For all games, the measurement is carried out in two phases:

1. The first phase carries out a brief latency measurement to every server globally that we know about for this game, to find the gameplay server with the lowest latency to our own test server.

2. The second phase then carries out fuller latency measurements to the gameplay server found in phase one. By default, only the results for the nearest gameplay server are reported. Optionally, measurements can be carried out to every destination.

The test uses ten packets to carry out its measurement by default. The test can also record the number of hops to the gameplay server.

The agent records the following measurements:

• The average, minimum and maximum, and standard deviation of round-trip time.

• The IP address of the gameplay server.

• The geographical region, city and hosting provider of the gameplay server, if available.

• The number of packets sent and received, allowing packet loss to be calculated.

Gameplay Test Use Case

Beyond downloading your 100 GB game, gamers need low latency and packet loss to stay competitive when gaming online. Gameplay servers are spread out all over the world, but the physical distance and performance to each of them is unique to every gamer.

The difference between testing to the nearest test server vs. nearest gameplay server