Glossary

Review the definitions of key Matchmaker terms and concepts.

Read time 1 minute

Last updated 6 months ago

Important

Unity Matchmaker will support Multiplay Hosting until the deprecation date of March 31st, 2026. To aid your migration away from Multiplay Hosting, migration examples for alternative hosting providers are available. Matchmaker will continue to work with Relay and Distributed Authority after the Multiplay Hosting deprecation.

Allocation

An allocation is a reservation of a game server for a game session. Matchmaker uses Cloud Code to allocate to your preferred game server hosting service.

Assignment

A field on a matched ticket that holds the details of the match and server, once allocated.

Dedicated Game Server (DGS)

This is the game server binary that handles the game logic and where the Matchmaker allocates and routes the game clients upon successful matches.

Default pool

A default pool is the first pool created within a queue and doesn't have any filters. Tickets that aren't matched with other pools in the queue are placed in the default pool.

Default queue

A default queue is the first queue created. Tickets created without queue properties or with empty queue properties will be routed to the default queue.

Environment

An environment is a global container that represents an instance of a matchmaker. For example, development, staging, and production.

Filter

A filter defines how a ticket is routed to the correct pool.

Game client

Players use the game client to play the game and interact with the matchmaker.

Match

A match represents a group of tickets that are matched together into a game.

Matchmaking logic

This is the core of Matchmaker. Analyze how the matchmaking logic can best enhance your game.

Player

A player is a user trying to play a multiplayer game. Each player is represented by a unique ID.

Pool

A pool represents a dynamic separation of tickets within a queue. Each pool except the default pool contains a number of filters.

Quality of Service (QoS)

This represents the quality of the connection to different game servers. Specifically, the packet loss, latency, and an ID representing the region in which the game server resides.

Queue

A queue represents a predefined logical separation of matchmaking tickets within an environment. A queue has one or more pools.

Rules

Matchmaking rules determine how to logically pair tickets into matches when tickets are associated with a bucket.

Ticket

A matchmaker ticket represents a player's (game client's) intent to find a match.

Documentation

Development

User Acquisition

Monetization

Industry