The best thing that has ever happened for multiplayer games

Hi, I'm Glenn Fiedler, a professional game programmer with more than 25 years experience. I'm a world expert in game netcode and the author of gafferongames.com and mas-bandwidth.com.

Just recently on June 15th, 2026, Amazon made this announcement:

Starting today, Amazon GameLift Servers provides network bandwidth in and out of AWS at no additional charge for all instance types from generation 6 and later, including On-Demand and Spot, with no commitment required. You now pay only for your Amazon GameLift Servers instance hours; all network bandwidth is free.

Multiplayer game servers generate continuous network traffic to connected players, making bandwidth one of the most unpredictable cost components for game studio customers. With free network bandwidth included, Amazon GameLift Servers eliminates this cost, giving you the simplicity of bare-metal hosting with the global reach of AWS.

Free network bandwidth applies with no enrollment, pricing agreement, or configuration change required. Existing customers on eligible fleets receive the benefit immediately. It is now available in all Amazon GameLift Servers supported regions, except China.

Free Network Bandwidth Amazon GameLift Servers is Here! - AWS

Discover more about what’s new at AWS with Free Network Bandwidth Amazon GameLift Servers is Here!

AmazonAmazon Web Services

My first thought when reading this announcement was this article on The Onion:

My Advice To Anyone Starting A Business Is To Remember That Someday I Will Crush You

As you might imagine, I often get asked by young entrepreneurs for advice on how to start a business. What many seem to want is some sort of trick, some magic set of tools that will allow them to launch a thriving startup from scratch. Well, there’s no magic involved, but the keys to success are quite simple: Value your customers, hire well, find a market that isn’t being served, and realize that someday I will utterly crush you.

The OnionThe Onion Staff

Thinking the awesomeness of this announcement was self-evident, I posted this announcement to Hacker News the day it was made... and got a single upvote.

It seems that outside of my specialty, multiplayer games, the absolutely massive ramifications of this announcement need a bit of explaining before people actually get it.

So, in this post I'm going to break this announcement down and explain why this announcement is the biggest and best thing that has happened for multiplayer games ever.

I will explain how this is a strategic master stroke. A move so bold, so incredibly disruptive, in a good way, that significantly reduces prices for game developers and may even help stabilize an industry that is in total chaos right now.

And I make the following predictions for the next 5 years:

• The vast majority of multiplayer games will migrate to AWS GameLift for server hosting from this point forward in lieu of other hosting providers, leaving absolute carnage in the bare metal game server hosting industry.
• Bare metal game server hosting companies are basically doomed, being forced now to compete vs. AWS Cloud directly on terms they simply cannot beat.
• Google will have to match this deal or give up on the game server hosting vertical entirely.
• More multiplayer games will launch and actually become profitable.
• A totally new class of high player count and high bandwidth multiplayer games are coming as a result of this announcement.

Check back Monday for the finished article!