Nakama: The leading open-source game backend for studios and publishers
Build and scale online games with one backend for realtime multiplayer, social systems, and competitive features. Own your stack with open-source infrastructure.
Choose an open source game backend
for ownership and peace of mind
Open Source
Nakama is the leading open source game backend framework for building online multiplayer games in Godot, Unity, Unreal Engine, MonoGame, LibGDX, Defold, Cocos2d, Phaser, Macroquad and more.
Real-time Multiplayer
Nakama is equipped with all the real-time multiplayer and social and competitive features you need for your game - all customizable from the client and on the server with Go, TypeScript and Lua.
Competitive Multiplayer
Make real-time client server multiplayer games, customize the multiplayer matchmaker algorithms, add daily rewards to your game, create leaderboards, add in-game currencies, add real-time in-game chat.
Nakama on GitHub
Fork Nakama on GitHub and contribute to open source by reporting issues, suggesting new features, and following development.
Community Passion
Join our passionate open source community forums of hobbyists, indie and AAA studios and publishers, and the Heroic Labs team.
Blog & Newsletter
Read our blog and subscribe to our newsletter for the latest open source and product news, customer case studies and tutorials.
Open-source client libraries for Nakama
Devices supported
Core game stack on one page
Multiplayer, competitive systems, social features, and deep customization.
Real-time multiplayer
Authoritative and relayed multiplayer, matchmaking, and match listing on your own infrastructure.
Read more →Competitive & progression
Leaderboards, tournaments, currencies, and validated purchases to keep players coming back.
Read more →Social gameplay
Friends, groups, chat, presence, notifications, and social sign-in out of the box.
Read more →Custom backend logic
Go, TypeScript, and Lua runtimes with hooks, RPCs, database access, and integrations.
Read more →Multiplayer
Authoritative multiplayer
Have the final say. Run your game logic in Nakama to verify moves and maintain coherent game state.
Relayed multiplayer
Super low-latency data relay for client driven multiplayer titles. Proven at scale on mobile networks.
Matchmaking and listing
Lightning fast, massively flexible player and lobby matching based on any properties you choose.
Run thousands of multiplayer matches on a single Nakama server
From one player to millions, Nakama gives you a rock-solid foundation to deliver smooth multiplayer experiences at all scales.
Server authoritative multiplayer
- Run custom code in Nakama to validate and respond to player input
- Async real-time, active turn-based, and passive turn-based models
- Keep the game universe moving by setting a custom tick rate - up to 30hz!
Client relayed multiplayer
- Nakama distributes game data directly to all current match players
- Super low overhead, making it easy to start and run matches for all game types
Matchmaking and match listing
- Custom characteristics for both players and matches, giving you total control
- Make matches based on required, desired, and optional characteristics
- Fast free-text search matching
Competitive gameplay
Matchmaking
Create matches for realtime, turn-based, asynchronous games or implement your custom gameplay.
Tournaments
Schedule, advertise, and manage competitions that will take place in your game world.
Leaderboards
Super-flexible leaderboards that let your player see where they are and which way is up.
Players want bragging rights,
you want long-term engagement
Plug into your players’ competitive streak by pitting them against each other. Match players, run tournaments, and maintain leaderboards to add a deeper dimension to your games.
Matchmaking
- Free text search for totally custom matches
- No limits on gaming model: realtime, turn-based, or whatever you choose
- Automatically filters out impossible matches
- Power 1 v 1 or many vs many matches
Tournaments
- Launch instantly or schedule for a future time
- You set the joining criteria, from open for all to condition based
- Optionally run your tournaments as server-authoritative
Leaderboards
- Create unlimited leaderboards
- Track any number: fastest lap, most kills, quickest level completion
- Pinpoint specific players and compare against friends and similarly skilled competitors
- Find and block cheaters
Custom game backend logic
Validate gameplay
Run custom game logic on Nakama to validate player inputs and maintain canonical game state.
Extend Nakama
Trigger your own code on Nakama in response to game events, timers, and external actions.
Go deeper
Nothing is off-limits. Direct database access, create custom modules, hook into your existing systems.
The most flexible and powerful game backend you’ll find
Nakama gives you as much control over the server as you have client-side.
If you can imagine it, you can make Nakama do it.
Server framework API
- Write your business logic in Typescript, Javascript, Go and Lua
- Hook code onto just about any events
- Make RPC calls from client code or securely use the REST API from anywhere
Direct database access
- Full read/write access
- Process data in your own on-server code or pass to third-party services
Game world validation
- Validate and manipulate client input
- Schedule background maintenance tasks
Integrate with external services
- Add support for any auth method you need
- REST API to trigger custom code and events on Nakama
Ready to prototype faster?
Talk to Heroic Labs
An Open Source Community
The community is growing and we welcome feature contributions, bug fixes, documentation improvements, and any other ways you can contribute. Nakama developers use the GitHub issues tracker to share and discuss changes.
To get started with contributing, follow these steps:
- Create a Git branch to work on
- Commit your work with clear commit messages and sign-offs
- Open a PR against the Nakama repository
Nakama Open Source Licenses
Server License
Apache 2.0. Commercial licenses are also available. Please Contact us for more information.
Client Licenses
All client libraries are licensed under Apache 2.0.
Third-party drivers
Licenses will vary. See the individual driver documentation for details.
Try Nakama
Build scalable multiplayer games with Nakama Open Source.
Download and install Nakama in minutes.
Nakama by Numbers
500K
Devs
Used by 500k game developers, studios and publishers.
8 Years
Developed since 2015, with more than 60 releases.
2M CCU
Proven scalability with performance tests up to 2 million CCU.
1B
Players
Handles gameplay for over 1 billion players and counting.
$1B
Supporting our customers bring in over $1 billion in annual revenue.
1000B
Requests
Nakama serves over 1 trillion requests per month.
Social features
Friends and Clans
Nakama puts friendships and groups at the heart of its data model for driving deeper engagement.
Messaging and Chat
Realtime direct messaging, chat rooms, and group chats supported by in-game notifications.
Social Sign-in
Integrate with Facebook, Steam, Google, and more for friction-free auth and friend imports.
Social means longer playtimes and boosted engagement
Social features increase long-term retention of players.
With Nakama, everything you need for social gameplay is right there at your fingertips.
Friends
Groups and clans
Messaging, status, and notifications