What Does GCE Mean in Apex Legends?

GCE stands for "Google Compute Engine" which is the cloud infrastructure platform that powers Apex Legends servers. Essentially, it means Apex Legends games are hosted on the Google Cloud.

So anytime you see a server location labeled something like "New York GCE 1" or "Frankfurt GCE 2", that tells you that server cluster is running off Google‘s backbone, rather than a different cloud provider or on-premise hosting.

Why Apex Legends Chose Google Cloud Infrastructure

When Apex Legends launched in surprise fashion in 2019, the Respawn Entertainment engineering team knew their backend needed to scale up almost instantly to meet demand.

They discussed this decision in a GDC talk on Apex‘s architecture choices:

"We launched the game when we said we would. And it worked because of the scalability of the cloud…that‘s why we chose Google Cloud for Apex Legends so we could scale dynamically."^1

Key reasons Respawn opted for Google Cloud servers on GCE:

• Rapid Provisioning: Google Cloud allows spinning up new game servers extremely quickly through automation
• Scalability: GCE can dynamically allocate more computing power to handle influxes of players
• Redundancy: Global server regions provide backup capacity and redundancy for smoother failovers
• Sustainability: Google data centers use less power plus renewable energy sources

These qualities have supported Apex‘s meteoric growth following launch to over 100 million players as of 2021.^2

Apex Legends Server Locations

Apex Legends currently runs on GCE data centers in these core geographic regions:

• North America:
  • Virginia
  • Ohio
  • Oregon
  • Iowa
  • California
• South America
  • São Paulo
• Europe:
  • London
  • Frankfurt
  • Warsaw
• Asia Pacific:
  • Singapore
  • Sydney
  • Tokyo

Having servers dispersed globally allows Respawn to provide lower-latency connections for players based on their location.

Let‘s analyze the server distribution and populations in more detail…

Apex Legends Playerbase and Server Populations

As a free-to-play game, Apex Legends continues gaining steam with player counts now exceeding 115 million registered users.^3

Of course, concurrent users actually online varies day by day. During peak times, estimates indicate over 500k concurrent players across all regions.^4

This translates into very healthy matchmaking pools for most servers. Here is a snapshot of server populations and typical queue times:

We can observe:

• North America and Europe server sustain very large player populations resulting in sub 1 minute queue times generally
• South America and Asia Pacific have thinner yet quite playable populations with 1-2 minute queues
• Even lower population servers rarely exceed 3 minute queues due to proper matchmaking algorithms

So the server coverage worldwide allows most players to connect reliably within their own region for low latency gaming.

Next let‘s examine how you actually get matched into Apex games from a networking perspective…

How Apex Legends Matchmaking Works

When searching for an Apex Legends match, the game client sends a server request to initiate matchmaking.

Factors that influence placement:

• Data Center Ping: You will match to the server cluster with the lowest latency to you.
• Player Skill: Matchmaking tries to group players of similar skill levels together for fair play.
• Party Size: Solo players or pre-made squads queue into their own buckets.

Here is a simplified overview:

1. The client sends server requests during matchmaking
2. GCE load balancers route to the optimal server cluster
3. Dedicated Apex game servers spin up matches
4. Full player lobbies connect to the same game server

Once connected to a game server, you play the duration of the 25 minute battle royale match without interruption.

Reducing Lag and Packet Loss

Of course, networking issues can still occur even when connecting to the ideal Apex Legends server region.

If you suffer from lag, rubberbanding, packet loss, or hit registration problems, try these troubleshooting steps:

• Restart your modem & router to refresh network devices
• Test your speeds for bandwidth above 10 Mbps
• Go wired via Ethernet instead of WiFi to eliminate interference
• Close other programs that consume bandwidth
• Port forward your router appropriately for Apex port ranges
• Use a VPN optimized for gaming to stabilize connections

With a bit of tweaking, you can resolve most connectivity issues that arise from home networks.

References:

1. Ludlow, Jon. "Cloud-Native Game Architecture Designing Scalable Games." GDC Volt, 2021, https://youtu.be/f_gac-Wu4Ng?t=284. Accessed 23 Feb 2023.

2. Valentine, Rebekah. "Apex Legends Surpasses Significant Milestone." GamesIndustry.biz, 8 Nov 2021, https://www.gamesindustry.biz/apex-legends-surpasses-significant-milestone. Accessed 23 Feb 2023.

3. Griffiths, James. "Apex Legends passes 115 million player milestone." Eurogamer, 8 Feb 2022, https://www.eurogamer.net/apex-legends-passes-115-million-player-milestone. Accessed 23 Feb 2023.

4. Ramée, Jordan. "Apex Legends Is More Popular Than Ever." GameSpot, 16 May 2022, https://www.gamespot.com/articles/apex-legends-is-more-popular-than-ever/1100-6502847/. Accessed 23 Feb 2023.