How do I add matchmaking to a Unity game?
Install the open-source Pairiquium Unity SDK, run one small ticket endpoint on your backend, and configure a game mode in the dashboard. The SDK then handles queuing, searching, heartbeats and reconnects, and your game receives a match-found event when players are matched.
What the Unity SDK does
- Gets a fresh ticket from your backend for every connection, including reconnects.
- Opens the WebSocket, starts and cancels searches, answers latency checks and sends heartbeats.
- Supports parties, so friends can queue together.
- Reconnects with backoff and resumes a held search, and separates terminal errors from recoverable ones.
What you still build
You keep your game servers and your game design. Your backend mints tickets using your API key, so the key never ships in a game build, and it receives a webhook with the match details when a match is made. Pairiquium does not host your game servers.
How players are matched
Each game mode uses MMR (skill), ping (latency) or first-come-first-served matching, with team sizes from 1v1 to free-for-all. See Game Modes for the details.
Requirements
- Unity 2021.3 LTS or newer.
- Windows or Linux desktop builds. WebGL is not supported, and consoles need their own transport.
- A backend endpoint that mints tickets, and a Pairiquium account with at least one game mode.
Using another engine? The same flow works through the web API, but there is no official SDK for it yet.