Mini World — A Sandbox Platform Built on Huawei Cloud with Hundreds of Millions of Monthly Active Users

Mini World is a 3D free-to-play sandbox game, where players can explore and create their own worlds by combining blocks together on the platform. Since its launch in 2015, the number of monthly active users (MAUs) has exceeded 100 million.

Challenges

  • Stability

    A highly stable database is required to ensure a perfect gaming experience and enhance user stickiness.

    A highly stable database is required to ensure a perfect gaming experience and enhance user stickiness.

  • Mass data

    A large game data volume is generated from over 10 billion users.

    A large game data volume is generated from over 10 billion users.

  • Fast scaling

    Resources can be quickly provisioned, and configurations are easily upgraded during peak hours.

    Resources can be quickly provisioned, and configurations are easily upgraded during peak hours.

Solutions

  • Primary/Standby architecture

    RDS primary/standby instances have been fully verified by massive numbers of production system users, greatly improving the stability and efficiency of databases.

    RDS primary/standby instances have been fully verified by massive numbers of production system users, greatly improving the stability and efficiency of databases.

  • Database/Table sharding

    DDM and RDS are used for sharding. Ten RDS DB instances are associated with one DDM cluster. Services are split based on the unique key of a user. The original centralized deployment is now distributed.

    DDM and RDS are used for sharding. Ten RDS DB instances are associated with one DDM cluster. Services are split based on the unique key of a user. The original centralized deployment is now distributed.

  • Compute scaling

    DDM compute nodes can be quickly added and RDS node specifications can be easily changed based on customer service scenarios to quickly provision resources in peak hours.

    DDM compute nodes can be quickly added and RDS node specifications can be easily changed based on customer service scenarios to quickly provision resources in peak hours.

Benefits

  • Rapid service provisioning

    It takes only two months for a game to go through pre-launch testing before release.

    It takes only two months for a game to go through pre-launch testing before release.

  • Massive numbers of concurrent online players

    A stable gaming experience is provided for tens of millions of users.

    A stable gaming experience is provided for tens of millions of users.

  • Zero downtime

    The Mini World Hua Xiaolou concert was a success.

    The Mini World Hua Xiaolou concert was a success.