Game server

The server transmits enough data about its internal state to allow its connected clients to maintain their own accurate version of the game world for display to players.

Dedicated servers simulate game worlds without supporting direct input or output, except that required for their administration.

[1][2] The foremost advantage of dedicated servers is their suitability for hosting in professional data centers, with all of the reliability and performance benefits that entails.

These run on typical compute server hardware, including a manycore CPU and very high memory capacity.

[1][3] However, listen servers have the advantage of being essentially free and not requiring any special infrastructure or forward planning to set up, which makes them common at LAN parties where latency and bandwidth issues are not a concern.

In the alternative "peer-to-peer" model there is no server: each "peer" instead receives the raw input streams of each other player and determines the results itself.

[citation needed] The rate at which a game server runs simulation steps is commonly referred to as its "tickrate".

The last point is important for internet games, as network updates from the server can arrive at different intervals or even an incorrect order.