Tap into your gaming community, shop, explore, and even manage your Xbox account from your mobile devices. Stevie Bonifield is a freelance tech journalist who has login devil138 written for PC Gamer, Tom’s Guide, and Laptop Mag on everything from gaming to smartwatches. Outside of writing, Stevie loves indie games, TTRPGs, and building way too many custom keyboards. I’ve never noticed significant latency issues or lag, but it depends heavily on what you’re playing, where you’re located, and what kind of internet service you have. What makes it stand out is the large number of kid-friendly titles and its relatively granular parental controls for managing what they can or can’t play. It’s also joined at the hip with Prime Gaming, so you get the time-limited freebies and perks, plus integrated broadcasting via Twitch.
It was founded in 2009, but OnLive was forced to shut down all of its services in 2015 when it was announced that Sony Interactive Entertainment had acquired its patents. Gaikai was one of OnLive’s competitors in the streaming industry. The Playcast Media System was founded in 2007, and its beta went live in 2008. It was one of the first Cloud Gaming services that had partnerships with well-known publishers such as Activision, Capcom, Disney, Atari, and more. After the acquisition, the streaming service was discontinued, but its technology was integrated into PlayStation products, and now Gaikai streaming technology exists in PlayStation Plus.
Several cloud gaming subscriptions are available, and they come with different perks and features. Use this guide to help you decide which is the best cloud gaming service for you. For the monthly subscription of $9.99, Vortex offered 50 hours of gaming experience coupled with 97 games. Parsec is a unique remote gaming service as it instructs users to manually rent a personal server for playing games and it works on the basic principals of the screen-sharing technology. With multi-user needs in mind, Blacknut is a cloud gaming service for families. There’s also a focus on privacy so that children using this service are as safe as possible online.
Not only does the Ultimate tier offer a deep library of Xbox and Windows PC games (including day one access to most Xbox Games Studio titles), but it also packs a robust streaming option at no extra cost. At present, there aren’t actually that many cloud gaming services on the market. Some, such as Xbox Game Pass, have made great strides over the past few years; others, such as Google Stadia, have already been axed. In either case, the concept of cloud gaming is still very much a work in progress. Many still ironing out major kinks, and there’s always a chance some of them will disappear (much like Stadia). Presently, PlayStation Now is available in 12 countries such as Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Switzerland, The Netherlands, UK, and the USA.
Best Cloud Gaming Services In 2025 [complete List]
We check the availability of 6453 games on 9 of the most popular cloud gaming services multiple times a day. Unfortunately, only a subset of games from each storefront is compatible with streaming, and each cloud gaming service supports a different roster of digital storefronts, so you’ll need to choose wisely. Considering all this, it’s not surprising that more and more gamers are starting to look to cloud gaming as hardware upgrades become unaffordable. If you’re in the same camp, there are a few cloud gaming services you should try out first.
How Much Does It Cost? Is Cloud Gaming Free?
Finally, your computer or console displays the delivered video and audio signals in real-time so you can interact with in-game elements without delay. If you’re a fan of retro games, AntStream Arcade is a cloud gaming service worth checking out. AntStream Arcade’s colorful website clarifies that they want to capture the glory and nostalgia of arcade gaming.
Cloud streaming services are typically compatible with the latest controllers via Bluetooth, along with the traditional mouse and keyboard setup. On devices with touchscreens, like phones and tablets, you’ll also see an option to use on-screen controls. Even Google Stadia works with these inputs unless you’re streaming through the Chromecast Ultra, which currently requires Google’s $70 Stadia Controller.
A beast of a gaming rig is in no way a requirement for cloud gaming. As we’ve already explained, you can use any device as long as it has a modern web browser installed. You can find a list of supported devices for each cloud gaming service here. In a nutshell, games are stored, loaded, and run on a server in a central location and delivered to your device of choice via internet streaming.