Case Study: Google achieves scalable multiplayer game performance with Firebase

How the Google Doodle team used the Realtime Database to build a multiplayer game

Google’s Doodle team needed a way to launch a multiplayer Lotería game that could suddenly attract millions of players while still supporting real-time gameplay and matchmaking. Using Firebase, specifically the Realtime Database, they built the backend for the game, including card dealing, winner detection, and player coordination.

Firebase implemented a scalable multiplayer architecture with Cloud Functions, transactions, and database sharding to manage random matchmaking and real-time state updates. The result was a game that went from zero to millions of players overnight, while letting the team spend more time on the user experience and less on infrastructure and scaling concerns.

Google

Jacob Howcraft

Engineer, Doodle Team