Did you know that one of the world's leading platforms for gamers experienced an impressive 83% increase in viewership in a single year after the pandemic hit? Today, gaming is proving to be more than just an entertainment option, as its role has significantly evolved during the pandemic. While it was often associated with leisure activities confined to people's bedrooms, gaming is now demonstrating its true value in various aspects of life, including the classroom.

1. Perfecting Gamer’s Experiences with
Performance Testing for Gaming
Applications
Did you know that one of the world's leading platforms for gamers
experienced an impressive 83% increase in viewership in a single year after
the pandemic hit?
Today, gaming is proving to be more than just an entertainment option, as its
role has significantly evolved during the pandemic. While it was often
associated with leisure activities confined to people's bedrooms, gaming is
now demonstrating its true value in various aspects of life, including the
classroom. Amid this boom in usage, ensuring optimal gaming experience is a
top priority for gaming companies to maintain a superior brand reputation.

2. Nobody wants their players to experience disappointment at any point in their
gaming journey. While impressive graphics, animations, and rich media can
make a game attractive, poor performance frustrates players the most.
Gamers expect a consistent and seamless gaming experience, highlighting
the importance of performance testing for gaming apps.
What is game performance testing?
Large-scale gaming applications need to undergo performance testing to be
able to deliver expected outcomes to the end users. Effective software testing
platforms for gaming apps help tune the servers for optimal performance to
obtain a realistic assessment of the game's performance.
Performance testing allows you to obtain crucial information on how the
games perform in terms of responsiveness, stability, and refresh rates under
specific user interaction patterns or certain workloads, and much more.
Without efficient performance testing, the app might be exposed to a myriad
of bugs, defects, security threats, and other issues with speed and reliability
on release. Performance testing effectively reduces productivity costs by
reducing system crashes, discovering bottlenecks, and ensuring that the
software is fast, stable, and can handle multiple users.
Benefits of game performance testing
Game performance testing ensures large-scale gaming applications run
smoothly across various devices and network conditions. Here are some key
benefits of implementing game performance testing:

3. 1.​ Enhanced user experience: Performance testing helps identify and
eliminate bottlenecks that can cause lag, crashes, or other issues. A
smooth, uninterrupted gameplay experience is critical for user
satisfaction and retention.
2.​ Scalability assurance: Performance testing ensures the game can
handle many concurrent users without degrading performance by
simulating high traffic loads. This is particularly important for
multiplayer games and during peak usage times.
3.​ Optimal resource utilization: Performance testing helps analyze how
well the game utilizes CPU, memory, and network bandwidth
resources. Efficient resource management leads to better
performance and reduces the chances of crashes or slowdowns.
4.​ Early issue detection: Detecting and resolving performance issues
early in the development cycle is cost-effective and prevents these
issues from affecting the user experience post-launch.
5.​ Improved monetization opportunities: A well-performing game keeps
players engaged longer, increasing the chances of in-game purchases,
ad views, and overall monetization success.
6.​ Device compatibility: Game performance testing across various
devices ensures the game performs consistently on different hardware
configurations, providing a reliable experience to a wider audience.
By leveraging these benefits, game developers can deliver high-quality gaming
experiences that meet user expectations and stand out in the competitive
gaming market.

4. Crucial metrics for testing the
performance of game apps
Effective performance testing focuses on three broad areas: speed, stability,
and stability. Testing the performance effectively requires several metrics that
help monitor and enhance the quality of performance easily. Following are
some metrics that game testers should focus on:
●​ Response time - This helps calculate the total time between the
sending of a request to the time of receiving the response. A faster
response time indicates higher performance.
●​ Average load time - This is an essential metric from the user's
perspective. The average load time is the measurement of the time
taken to deliver each request.
●​ Latency - Also known as the wait metric in performance testing,
latency helps indicate the time taken for the first response. It is
crucial to measure the time consumed before receiving the first byte
as a response that helps measure the performance levels of the web
servers.
●​ Connections per speed - This metric provides information regarding
the TCP/IP connections, which are opened and closed every second.
In case the number of connections per second is lesser than the hit
per second, it reflects effective performance.
●​ Concurrent users - The number of users using the applications
simultaneously significantly impacts the app's overall performance.

5. The concurrent user metrics assist in measuring the number of active
users at a point in time, indicating the engagement of the users.
●​ DAU/MAU(Daily active users/monthly active users) - This refers to
the ratio of active users who play each day over the total number of
monthly active users. This is also known as the stickiness factor.
●​ Session - Each time any user opens an app, that counts as a session.
The focus here lies on the average number of sessions per DAU.
●​ Download rank - This refers to the rank of the game in a specific app
store by monthly game downloads.
●​ Retention - This is a very crucial metric for an android game tester for
any free game. For calculating retention, it is required to separate the
users into cohorts based on the particular day the app was
downloaded.
●​ Throughput - This is measured by kilobytes per second that show the
amount of bandwidth utilized during the test.
●​ CPU utilization - This is a measure of the time required by the CPU to
process requests.
●​ Memory utilization - This refers to the amount of memory needed to
process the request.
Types of performance testing for the
gaming applications
It is important that QA testers understand the different forms of performance
testing to be able to identify the right one for their app.

6. 1. Load testing
Load testing measures the system performance as the workload increases.
The workload could refer to concurrent users or transactions. For this test, the
system is monitored to measure the response time and system staying power
with the increasing workload.
In the case of large-scale gaming apps, load testing helps determine the
maximum number of players that can play on a server or if the gaming app is
communicating effectively with your server or the memory used by the
software, and many more. Load testing can assist in checking the app against
these scenarios.
When a specific load is exposed to the game and infrastructure, the developer
can understand the possible bottlenecks and identify the parts of the
infrastructure that require optimization. Load testing might vary from basic
server upload/download function to database connection and queries and
various inputs provided to the game/infrastructure.
For instance: If the game requires you to pull something from a back-end
server and suddenly 200 plus devices do that in the same WiFi network, such
a scenario can offer insightful information about the game's capability during
this kind of scenario. It can also assist in providing deep insights into
hardware capabilities and how many resources are required for the games.
2. Interrupt testing
Interruptions can be very critical for any application. Imagine getting a call,
incoming SMS, network connection loss, app update reminders, or any other

7. notifications that might get in the way of your gameplay. Therefore, it is
essential to test for interruptions to test the app behavior and response during
and after the unexpected disturbance.
3. Stress testing
This type of testing technique determines the robustness of the software to
measure system performance beyond the parameters of normal working
conditions. Stress testing emphasizes robustness, availability, and error
handling under a heavy load rather than what is correct behavior under normal
situations. Stress testing commonly involves metrics like transaction
response time, transactions per second, pages per second, failure of
connection, and many more.
4. Endurance testing
This is crucial non-functional testing that is executed to check if the software
system can seamlessly sustain under a huge load continued over a long
period of time. Through this technique, the game is left running for a
prolonged period in different modes of operation, for instance, idling paused
or at the title screen. Endurance testing, also known as soak testing, critical
metrics like CPU, memory, and FPS can be monitored to detect potential
leaks.
For example — Assume a game has commenced and the character is made to
stand idle for 24 hours. With this technique, testers can detect crashes
brought on by memory leaks and other errors in the game engine.

8. 5. Spike testing
Spike testing is a technique leveraged to test apps with extreme increments
and decrements in traffic loads. The main aim of spike testing is to evaluate
the behavior or response of the app to changing user load and determine the
recovery time.
This form of testing is executed by suddenly increasing the load generated by
a large number of users, inputs, data, or other types of stimuli. This is a
periodical practice that helps determine if a dramatic change in load leads to
any errors or issues to the game and its infrastructure.
Things to keep in mind for executing
performance tests for gaming apps
- Ensure writing and conducting performance tests in whichever types of tests
make the optimal use for the game. Make sure to stress the game and the
entire gaming infrastructure as well. This involves back-end servers and
integration with social media and other third-party entities.
- It is essential to input every element, which helps to investigate further what
might happen to the game. This allows monitoring it in real-time during the
testing. Further, the logs will maintain all the vital information that can be used
to compare later with build-over-build to assess how things have regressed
with the new version of the game.
- Leverage real mobile devices and check for the following aspects:

9. ●​ The game's graphics and UI—whether the game display shows
properly on all devices
●​ If the UI and layout and other graphical elements like icons, and
buttons, display properly across all devices
●​ Ensuring that the usability of controls is identical in all devices
●​ Ensuring the proper flow of the animations
●​ Checking whether the game progress flows seamlessly
●​ Checking whether the screen resolution and orientation are correct
for the devices and similar other aspects.
Gaming app testing is a crucial yet complex task for the testers and
developers as it needs to cater to multiple requirements. Testing the
performance of these apps can be very different when compared to other
applications. The success of the apps not only depends on rendering good
user experiences but also on the time engagement of users with the
applications. Additionally, gaming apps have transformed significantly today.
Single-player online board games that ruled once upon a time are not the only
popular games today with emerging social games with enhanced graphics,
multiplayer features, interactive interfaces, and much more. These social
games need extensive testing not only for intricate graphics and smooth
gameplay tasks but other features like real-time response, communication, AR
VR functionalities, and many more. Following are some of the popular types of
games and their requirements:
●​ Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) - Games like Roblox
and Minecraft allow thousands of players from around the world to

10. log in and play together. Gamers can choose how much interaction
they wish to engage in. These games need to ensure the smooth
functioning of the interactive chatting features among players
irrespective of the number of players.
●​ Player versus Environment (PvE) - Player versus environment (PvE)
are video games where the players compete against artificial
intelligence instead of other players. The players usually compete
against AI-controlled opponents with varying difficulties as the game
progresses. These games cover a wide range of titles, from adventure
and action to role-playing games (RPGs) that require seamless video
quality and smooth transitions, with no latency, network jitters, or
slowdowns.‍
●​ Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) Games - MOBA is a popular
sub-genre of real-time strategy games. These games involve teams
competing against each other on a predefined battlefield. Every player
in this game controls a single virtual character and possesses
distinctive abilities that enhance over the course of the gameplay and
help improve the team's performance. These types of games involve
a large number of players and require smooth communication and
flawless audio and video quality across the game journey to avoid
any disruptions in the gameplay.
How to test game performance

11. Testing game performance is crucial for ensuring a seamless gaming
experience, especially for large-scale gaming applications. Here are steps to
effectively test game performance:
Define performance metrics
Before starting performance testing, defining the key performance metrics
that need to be measured is essential. Common metrics include:
●​ Frame Rate (FPS): Measures the smoothness of the game visuals.
●​ Load Time: The time it takes for the game to load.
●​ Latency: The delay between a user's action and the game's response.
●​ Memory Usage: The amount of memory the game consumes during
different states.
●​ Battery Usage: The game's impact on battery life, especially for
mobile games.
Create test scenarios
Develop realistic test scenarios that reflect actual gameplay. These scenarios
should cover:
●​ Normal Gameplay: Regular playthrough to observe performance
under standard conditions.
●​ Stress Testing: Simulating peak usage with many players or
high-intensity scenes.
●​ Network Conditions: Testing under various network conditions (3G,
4G, Wi-Fi) to measure latency and data usage.

12. Conduct automated and manual testing
Combine automated and manual testing to get a complete picture of game
performance. Automated tests help identify performance issues quickly and
consistently, while manual testing provides insights into the user experience.
Monitor and analyze results
Monitoring tools are used to collect data during the test. Analyze this data to
identify performance bottlenecks. Key aspects to analyze include:
●​ CPU and GPU Usage: High usage may indicate areas for optimization.
●​ Memory Leaks: Identify and fix memory leaks to improve
performance and stability.
●​ Network Traffic: Optimize data usage to reduce latency and improve
responsiveness.
Optimize and retest
Optimize the game code, assets, and configurations based on the analysis.
After making changes, retest the game to ensure the optimizations have
resolved the performance issues without introducing new problems.
By following these steps, you can ensure that your large-scale gaming
application provides players a smooth, responsive, and enjoyable experience,
regardless of the device or network conditions.

13. Extensive platform diversity — a
significant complexity for consistent
game testing
Testing game performance across different platforms introduces a complex
and dynamic dimension to quality assurance. Game developers must address
variations in hardware capabilities, operating systems, and user interfaces, all
while maintaining gameplay consistency and high-performance standards.
Cross-platform game performance testing is crucial to ensure that gamers on
various devices enjoy a seamless and engaging experience, free from glitches,
lags, or other platform-specific issues. This requires a comprehensive testing
approach that accounts for the unique characteristics of each platform while
striving for a unified, top-tier gaming experience.
Though it is critical to test game performance across platforms of various
types, it is often challenging due to the variables.
Cross-platform testing involves evaluating how a game performs on various
hardware configurations and operating systems, such as Windows, macOS,
iOS, Android, Xbox, PlayStation, and more. Here are some key aspects that
make it challenging to test game performance across platforms:
● Hardware variability
Different platforms have varying hardware capabilities, from CPU and GPU
power to memory and storage. Testing across platforms helps identify
performance discrepancies and ensures that the game functions smoothly on
all devices.

14. ● Screen resolutions
Games should adapt to different screen resolutions and aspect ratios, from
high-definition monitors to smartphone screens. Testing helps ensure that
graphics and user interfaces are appropriately scaled and rendered.
● Consistency
Gamers expect consistent gameplay experiences, regardless of the platform
they use. Cross-platform game performance testing helps maintain a uniform
gaming experience, preventing unfair advantages or disadvantages for players
on different devices.
● Bug identification
Testing helps uncover platform-specific bugs or issues that may affect
gameplay. Identifying and addressing these problems ensures a bug-free
gaming experience for all players.
Additionally, with a rising emphasis on assistive gaming, there are several
other considerations to be involved while testing gaming apps across different
mediums.
Assistive gaming, also known as accessibility gaming, leverages adaptive
technology to cater to individuals with a range of disabilities, including low
vision, blurred vision, blindness, color perception challenges, speech and
hearing impairments, as well as cognitive and motor mobility limitations.
Popular games like Cardinal Direction (CD) and Tower of London (TOL) have
been adapted to accommodate visually impaired users. These adaptations

15. typically replace visual stimuli with audio inputs, creating a more inclusive
gaming experience.
When testing such games, a video game tester should pay close attention to
the following aspects:
1.​ Color patterns: Ensure that colors flash in a discernible pattern,
accompanied by distinct audible tones for each color.
2.​ Auditory accompaniment: Each color should have an associated
audible tone to aid players in distinguishing between them.
3.​ Visual data description: Provide descriptive text for visual elements
within the game so that visually impaired players can access
information through screen readers effectively.
4.​ Three-dimensional sound: Implement three-dimensional audio and
spatialized sound to allow players to navigate the game world using
touchscreen controls while receiving audio cues from different
directions.
How can HeadSpin help you deliver
flawless gaming experiences?
Global gaming companies are leveraging HeadSpin to deliver unparalleled
gaming experiences for the gamers by using advanced ML models and
holistic testing suites. The key benefits that HeadSpin offers gaming
companies include—

16. ●​ End-to-end testing — HeadSpin assists in end-to-end testing for all
the gameplay scenarios to help measure gaming experiences across
real user conditions with real devices and consoles, carrier networks,
locations, and localized content. Additionally, create, execute and
automate tests easily on real devices with HeadSpin’s capability to
effectively support multiple automation frameworks and easy
integration with the existing frameworks.
●​ Cross-platform compatibility — HeadSpin's testing capabilities
extend to cross-browser and cross-platform scenarios. This means
gaming companies can confidently verify their gaming experiences
on various device types and across different global locations.
Ensuring cross-platform compatibility maximizes your reach and user
base without compromising the quality and performance of your
games.
●​ Critical KPIs — HeadSpin's gaming solution enables measuring the
KPIs essential for understanding the user experience issues and
improving the gamer’s engagement with the app, including memory
usage, battery usage, audio/video mean opinion score, frame rate,
launch time, and much more. Mean Opinion Score (MOS), an efficient
way to quantify the subjective perception of video content through a
single number, can be captured with HeadSpin, and the MOS time
series can be further paired with the HeadSpin Poor Quality Issue
Card, where the UI will surface perceptual video quality issue regions
to the time series. The video quality metrics in total enable a better

17. understanding of which metrics have the biggest impact on the user
quality of experience.
●​ Other critical factors impacting gameplay experiences — With
HeadSpin, test and monitor network latency and in-app transaction
performance, run multiplayer testing, and measure the performance
of in-game advertising campaigns.
How HeadSpin assisted a leading game
developer in delivering flawless gaming
experiences across the globe
While attempting to keep an engaged customer base by ensuring a seamless
gaming experience, this client was faced with the challenge of testing users'
experiences in diverse locations across the world.
HeadSpin's unique testing platform enabled the company to test the real-life
performance of their apps anywhere with thousands of real
SIM-card-equipped devices. The platform helped diagnose performance and
customer experience issues of critical user flows and identify the highest
priority issues. With HeadSpin, the client team could also leverage the
recorded UX sessions to understand better the UX aspects that are
challenging to quantify.
HeadSpin's gaming solution further enabled the client to make changes to
fine-tune the in-app purchases and provide a streamlined purchase
experience.

18. In a nutshell
Performance testing is a key to ensuring seamless gaming experiences for
the users with constant progress, smooth gameplay, and consistent
performance across the entire game journey. Offering compelling experiences
for the target audience helps enhance the brand reputation and win loyalty
across the clientele. It is crucial for the testers and developers to execute
thorough performance testing across every essential metric and diverse
gameplay scenarios to ensure delivering unparalleled gaming performance.
This article was originally published on:
https://www.headspin.io/blog/performance-testing-for-large-scale-gaming-appli
cations