Algorithm Visualizations

Algorithm Visualizations

You view the behavior of each routing mode in the examples below. You confirm an algorithm behaves as expected.

Legend

You represent the number of players on a server with each bar. You observe how evenly each algorithm spreads load.

█ = ~5 players
▌ = ~2-3 players

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Low Load: 5 Players, 3 Servers

least_players

lobby-1: ██   (2)
lobby-2: ██   (2)
lobby-3: █    (1)

power_of_two

lobby-1: ██   (2)
lobby-2: ██   (2)
lobby-3: █    (1)

round_robin

lobby-1: ██   (2)
lobby-2: ██   (2)
lobby-3: █    (1)

random

lobby-1: ███  (3)
lobby-2: █    (1)
lobby-3: █    (1)

You observe higher variance at low counts.

weighted_round_robin (weights: 3, 2, 1)

lobby-1: ███  (3)
lobby-2: █    (1)
lobby-3: █    (1)

least_connections

lobby-1: ██   (2)
lobby-2: ██   (2)
lobby-3: █    (1)

consistent_hash

lobby-1: ██   (2)
lobby-2: ██   (2)
lobby-3: █    (1)

You generate a typical distribution dependent on UUID hash.

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Medium Load: 30 Players, 5 Servers

least_players

lobby-1: ██████   (6)
lobby-2: ██████   (6)
lobby-3: ██████   (6)
lobby-4: ██████   (6)
lobby-5: ██████   (6)

You observe near-perfect even distribution.

power_of_two

lobby-1: ██████   (6)
lobby-2: ██████   (6)
lobby-3: ██████   (6)
lobby-4: ██████   (6)
lobby-5: ██████   (6)

You observe performance close to least_players at this scale.

round_robin

lobby-1: ██████   (6)
lobby-2: ██████   (6)
lobby-3: ██████   (6)
lobby-4: ██████   (6)
lobby-5: ██████   (6)

You observe strictly even distribution.

random

lobby-1: ████████ (8)
lobby-2: █████▌   (5)
lobby-3: ██████   (6)
lobby-4: ████▌    (4)
lobby-5: █████▌   (7)

You observe variance that evens out as player count grows.

weighted_round_robin (weights: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1)

lobby-1: ██████████   (10)
lobby-2: ████████     (8)
lobby-3: ██████       (6)
lobby-4: ████         (4)
lobby-5: ██           (2)

You observe distribution proportional to weight.

least_connections

lobby-1: ██████   (6)
lobby-2: ██████   (6)
lobby-3: ██████   (6)
lobby-4: ██████   (6)
lobby-5: ██████   (6)

You observe even distribution under steady load with EMA smoothing.

consistent_hash

lobby-1: ██████   (7)
lobby-2: ██████   (6)
lobby-3: █████    (5)
lobby-4: ██████   (6)
lobby-5: ██████   (6)

You observe minor variance from hash ring distribution.

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High Load: 100 Players, 10 Servers

least_players

srv-01: ██████████ (10)
srv-02: ██████████ (10)
srv-03: ██████████ (10)
srv-04: ██████████ (10)
srv-05: ██████████ (10)
srv-06: ██████████ (10)
srv-07: ██████████ (10)
srv-08: ██████████ (10)
srv-09: ██████████ (10)
srv-10: ██████████ (10)

power_of_two

srv-01: ██████████ (10)
srv-02: ██████████ (10)
srv-03: █████████▌ (11)
srv-04: █████████  (9)
srv-05: ██████████ (10)
srv-06: ██████████ (10)
srv-07: █████████▌ (11)
srv-08: █████████  (9)
srv-09: ██████████ (10)
srv-10: ██████████ (10)

You observe ±1 deviation at scale.

round_robin

srv-01: ██████████ (10)
srv-02: ██████████ (10)
srv-03: ██████████ (10)
srv-04: ██████████ (10)
srv-05: ██████████ (10)
srv-06: ██████████ (10)
srv-07: ██████████ (10)
srv-08: ██████████ (10)
srv-09: ██████████ (10)
srv-10: ██████████ (10)

random

srv-01: ███████████ (12)
srv-02: █████████▌  (9)
srv-03: ██████████  (10)
srv-04: ████████▌   (8)
srv-05: ███████████ (11)
srv-06: ██████████  (10)
srv-07: █████████▌  (9)
srv-08: ██████████  (10)
srv-09: ███████████ (11)
srv-10: ████████▌   (10)

You observe variance shrink with scale.

weighted_round_robin (weights: 5, 5, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1)

srv-01: ██████████████████  (19)
srv-02: ██████████████████  (19)
srv-03: ███████████         (11)
srv-04: ███████████         (11)
srv-05: ███████████         (11)
srv-06: ████████            (8)
srv-07: ████████            (8)
srv-08: ████████            (8)
srv-09: ████                (4)
srv-10: ████                (4)

least_connections

srv-01: ██████████ (10)
srv-02: ██████████ (10)
srv-03: ██████████ (10)
srv-04: ██████████ (10)
srv-05: ██████████ (10)
srv-06: ██████████ (10)
srv-07: ██████████ (10)
srv-08: ██████████ (10)
srv-09: ██████████ (10)
srv-10: ██████████ (10)

consistent_hash

srv-01: █████████▌ (11)
srv-02: ██████████ (10)
srv-03: █████████  (9)
srv-04: ██████████ (10)
srv-05: █████████▌ (11)
srv-06: █████████  (9)
srv-07: ██████████ (10)
srv-08: ██████████ (10)
srv-09: █████████▌ (10)
srv-10: █████████  (10)

You observe ±1 deviation across 10 servers with the hash ring.

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Latency Mode: Proxy-to-Backend Measurement

You observe latency rank healthy candidates by ping rather than producing an even distribution chart:

lobby-east:  25 ms  ← selected
lobby-west:  70 ms
lobby-eu:   110 ms

You route players using the same current ranking. You use this when backend network delay differs. You select the next eligible candidate when the 25 ms server becomes full, drained, unhealthy, circuit-open, or lifecycle-disallowed.

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Key Takeaways

Scenario	Best Algorithm
Want perfect balance, don't care about cost	least_players
Want near-perfect balance, low cost	power_of_two
Servers have different capacities	weighted_round_robin
Need sticky sessions	consistent_hash
Bursty traffic patterns	least_connections
Prefer the lowest proxy-to-backend ping	latency
Testing or strict fairness	round_robin
Very large server pool (50+)	random

See Routing Algorithms for detailed explanations of each mode.