Photon Realtime

Spec sheet

What it does

Photon Realtime is a low-level, cross-platform networking API for multiplayer applications with rooms, lobbies, matchmaking, region selection, message relay and cloud webhooks.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Product

Photon Realtime is a cloud-hosted networking service for building cross-platform real-time multiplayer games.Read 30 Sep 2026 · photonengine.com

Audience

The product is presented for multiplayer game developers ranging from indie developers to AAA studios.Read 30 Sep 2026 · photonengine.com

Integrations

The documented Realtime SDK variants are for Unity and .NET, and Photon’s SDK downloads also include JavaScript and native platform packages.Read 30 Sep 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Security

Photon Engine states that it is ISO 27001:2022 certified and aligned with GDPR and CCPA; it says Photon Cloud does not store personally identifiable information.Read 30 Sep 2026 · photonengine.com

Support

Photon offers public Discord, email contact and an authenticated support form.Read 15 Oct 2026 · photonengine.com

Headquarters

Hamburg, GermanyRead 28 Sep 2026 · photonengine.com

Founded

2003Read 28 Sep 2026 · photonengine.com

Authentication

Authentication accepts user IDs and external-provider data, including custom endpoints and platform providers such as Steam, Oculus, PlayStation, Xbox, Epic and Nintendo Switch.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Cloud operations

Photon says its operations team monitors cloud servers continuously and offers optional SLAs, enhanced DDoS protection and custom server plugins.Read 15 Oct 2026 · photonengine.com

Company founding

The German company register profile lists Exit Games GmbH as founded on 9 January 2003.Read 15 Oct 2026 · openregister.de

Company headquarters

Photon's LinkedIn profile lists Hamburg as headquarters and Hongkongstrasse 7, Hamburg as its primary location.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com

Company legal name

Crunchbase identifies the maker's legal name as Exit Games GmbH.Read 15 Oct 2026 · crunchbase.com

Company ownership

LinkedIn describes Photon Engine as privately held.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com

Company size

LinkedIn lists Photon Engine's company size as 11–50 employees.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com

Custom events

The client API supports events, custom properties, room and player views, and network statistics.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Developer adoption

Crunchbase says Photon is used by more than 330,000 game developers.Read 15 Oct 2026 · crunchbase.com

Documentation depth

Documentation includes getting started, API reference, release notes, authentication, regions, rooms, encryption, traffic statistics, network simulation and PlayFab integration.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Enterprise security

Enterprise Cloud includes dedicated servers, service-level guarantees, priority operations support, server plug-ins, and multi-layered DDoS protection.Read 30 Sep 2026 · photonengine.com

Funding record

Crunchbase shows five funding rounds and a corporate round involving Skillz, but does not expose total funding amounts in the public view.Read 15 Oct 2026 · crunchbase.com

Game modes

It supports synchronous and asynchronous turn-based gameplay, with room rejoin after disconnection.Read 30 Sep 2026 · photonengine.com

Independent integration documentation

Microsoft's PlayFab quickstart requires a Photon Realtime App ID and supports optional Photon Chat integration.Read 15 Oct 2026 · learn.microsoft.com

Licence

The SDK is proprietary under Exit Games end-user licence terms and requires an Exit Games account and App ID; it is not presented as open source.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com

Licence termination

The licence terms require use rights and software access to end when the agreement terminates, with software copies deleted and outstanding fees paid.Read 15 Oct 2026 · photonengine.com

Limit: C API

Realtime Core's C API currently cannot manually select a region and remains fixed to default region selection.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Limit: China deployment

China mainland access requires Photon approval, a separate App ID/build and a local name server; cross-border webhook and authentication connections may be unreliable.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Limit: low-level scope

Because Realtime is a low-level networking layer, teams must implement game-specific simulation and gameplay systems themselves.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Limit: PlayFab legacy path

Photon's PlayFab documentation warns that CloudScript Classic webhooks are deprecated and may fail for titles without legacy paid access.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Matchmaking

Realtime supports random and filtered matchmaking between players.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Notable release

Realtime 5.1.18, released 12 August 2026, fixed a WebSocket transport race and changed matchmaking timestamps to UTC.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Persistence

HTTP webhooks can persist player data, room data, properties, and the event cache to Photon Cloud or the developer’s own storage.Read 30 Sep 2026 · photonengine.com

Platform constraint

The Realtime .NET SDK is only tested for Windows applications, while the Unity SDK lists Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, consoles, and XR devices.Read 30 Sep 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

PlayFab integration

Microsoft's PlayFab integration supports Photon player authentication and room-event callbacks through CloudScript.Read 15 Oct 2026 · learn.microsoft.com

Privacy compliance

Photon states alignment with GDPR and COPPA in addition to ISO 27001:2022 certification.Read 15 Oct 2026 · blog.photonengine.com

Region selection

Clients can use default, manual or lowest-latency region selection, while matchmaking is isolated within each region.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Rooms and lobbies

The service provides room and lobby management for grouping players into multiplayer sessions.Read 15 Oct 2026 · photonengine.com

Scale and hosting

Photon Cloud hosts and scales applications across global regions; the product page describes scaling from a few users to tens of thousands of concurrent users.Read 30 Sep 2026 · photonengine.com

SDKs

Official Realtime SDK variants include Unity/C# and .NET, while Realtime Core supplies C++, a flat C API and a C# wrapper.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Security certification

Photon says its ISO 27001:2022 audit in 2025 found no major or minor deviations.Read 15 Oct 2026 · blog.photonengine.com

Self-hosting

Realtime Core can connect to a self-hosted Photon Server by supplying a custom name-server address.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Supported targets

The Unity SDK lists Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Xbox and XR targets.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

System requirements

Realtime Unity requires Unity 2022.3.x or newer, and the .NET SDK requires a .NET Standard 2.0-compatible project.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Transport

Photon Cloud supports Reliable UDP, TCP, HTTP, and WebSockets for client-to-server communication.Read 30 Sep 2026 · photonengine.com

Transport protocols

The SDK exposes UDP, TCP, unencrypted WebSocket and encrypted WebSocket transports.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Webhooks and WebRPC

Photon can call customer webhooks and WebRPC endpoints for room and event processing.Read 15 Oct 2026 · doc.photonengine.com

Plans and prices

Every Photon Realtime plan and price →

Where Specifiction places it

• Game Networking Middleware#2 of 298.9
• Game Matchmaking Software#9 of 288.8