DDoS protection for game serversWhy game servers get attacked and what protection does

Published on October 20, 2026

What a DDoS attack is

In a distributed denial-of-service attack, many computers send pointless requests to a target at the same time. The aim is not to break in or steal data - the target is simply meant to be overloaded and thus unreachable.

For a game server, this means: the server itself keeps running, but the connection is so clogged that legitimate players can no longer get through or experience massive lag.

Game servers are hit disproportionately often. The reason is banal: competitive games have losers, and the threshold is low - such services are unfortunately easy to come by.

How the protection works

The protection sits in front of the server, in the network. Attack traffic is detected and filtered out there before it reaches the server's connection - legitimate game traffic keeps flowing.

The decisive figure is the capacity that can be absorbed. With us, that is 250 Gbit/⁠s. This is the order of magnitude in which typical attacks against game servers fall - so the filter kicks in before the line is blocked.

• The protection is included with all game servers and does not have to be booked separately.
• You do not have to configure anything - there is no switch you could forget.
• Nothing changes about your address: you keep connecting via the same address made of IP and port.

What protection cannot do

Honesty is part of it - a network filter does not solve every problem:

• It does not protect your own connection. If a player's home line is attacked, the server's protection does not help. This is exactly why a rented server has the advantage over hosting at home.
• It is not a firewall in the sense of access rules. Who may join your server is decided by you via whitelist, password and bans in the game.
• It does not replace backups. An attack costs availability, not data - but backups are still your job; they are self-service throughout.
• It does not prevent cheating or griefers. Those are game problems, not network problems - see Protect a Minecraft server against griefing.

Why this is missing when you self-host

If you run the server on your own computer, you hand your private IP address to all fellow players. That makes your own connection vulnerable - and an attack then hits not just the game, but the entire internet connection of the household.

There is no effective protection against this on an ordinary home connection. Besides availability and electricity costs, this is the strongest argument against hosting at home - the full comparison is in Rent or self-host?.

On a rented game server, on the other hand, your fellow players only ever see the server address, never your private IP.

What you can do yourself

A few habits noticeably reduce the risk:

• Secure the RCON password and do not pass it on - remote control does not belong in players' hands.
• Grant admin rights sparingly. Every additional admin is an additional risk. If friends help with administration, give them subuser access with limited rights instead of your login.
• Use a whitelist if the group is fixed anyway - see Set up a whitelist.
• Back up regularly, so that an incident does not cost you weeks.

The game servers are located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. What else is included in every plan is listed on the game server overview.

Frequently asked questions