Building A Large Scale Cost-Effective MMORPG
Edge of Chaos is a large-scale, single-shard sandbox MMORPG built in Unreal Engine 5. Using Quark Multiplayer, the team scaled from 32 to 15,000+ concurrent users (CCUs) in a single shard — without any custom backend infrastructure or dedicated DevOps team with no backend rebuild and zero DevOps team.
Executive Summary
To bring their ambitious vision of a massive, single-shard sandbox MMO to life, the Edge of Chaos team needed a networking solution that could scale well beyond the limits of Unreal Engine’s native systems. By integrating Quark Multiplayer’s low-level SDK, they rapidly built and tested a game world supporting over 15,000 concurrent simulated players—at a fraction of the infrastructure cost. This case study outlines how Quark enabled the team to achieve unprecedented scale, performance, and cost-efficiency in under three months.
The Vision
Edge of Chaos is a large-scale, single-shard sandbox MMORPG currently in development on Unreal Engine 5. The game is built around a vibrant player-driven economy and large-scale siege warfare, where thousands of players and AI units coexist and interact within a shared, continuous world.
The Challenge
Initial tests using Unreal Engine’s built-in networking (NetDriver, actor replication) showed stable performance with up to 32 players, with theoretical limits topping out near 100 players and AI actors combined. Scaling beyond this would have required extensive development time and still resulted in multiple isolated shards or artificial player caps—undermining the single-world vision.
The team needed a proven solution that could handle thousands of concurrent players within the same game world, and still support a cost-effective free-to-play model. This prompted them to evaluate Quark Multiplayer for both its technical capabilities and operational cost efficiency.
The Solution
The team moved from standard Unreal networking and integrated Quark Multiplayer’s low-level SDK. Within three months, they had a fully functional build that could handle thousands of players concurrently. To push the system’s limits, the team developed a custom simulation tool that allowed thousands of AI-controlled player clients to log in, roam the world, and engage in combat.
The Results
Over 15,000 concurrent connections were achieved with zero gameplay degradation. This setup was showcased live to more than 300 community members globally, who joined play sessions alongside these simulated players validating the system’s performance in real-world conditions.
Key Benefits
- Massively scalable architecture
Quark is purpose-built to support thousands of simultaneous connections without introducing lag or instability. - Reduced infrastructure complexity
Hosting a single unified world reduces the need for multiple shards or regions, lowering both technical and operational overhead. - Developer-friendly SDK
The low-level integration with Unreal made it easy to port systems and iterate quickly without rebuilding the entire game framework. - Cost-effective at scale With infrastructure costs of just ~$0.34 per 1,000 CCUs/hour, Quark enabled a viable free-to-play model without compromising scope or quality.
