By Jamieson Lee Hill, Video Game Narrative Designer, Nov 5th 2025

The global gaming industry is a powerhouse whose total revenue eclipses that of the movie and music industries combined. It is driven by the explosive growth of cloud gaming infrastructure in the UK and the competitive intensity of esports.

Both cloud gaming and esports often rely on colocation services as a foundation of instant data transmission.

For gaming companies, colocation data centre infrastructure can help millions of players enjoy seamless gaming fun. 

In this new article, we examine the biggest players in cloud gaming and esports in the UK why.  Also, we unravel why downtime is a killer for brands in the sector. We also look at the history of esports and cloud gaming, and the modern-day, including university degrees that include esports. Finally, we explore why colocation really is the ideal partner for esports and cloud gaming companies. 

Why is Downtime so Important for Cloud Gaming and Esports?

Data downtime poses a major threat to an esports organisation or gaming company’s reputation and revenue. For gamers, a server failure or a sudden spike in latency is instantly frustrating. For a gaming provider, it can be game over if players migrate away to more reliable platforms. For esports, data downtime can have immediate consequences: lost tournament revenue, mass player churn, and irreparable damage to brand loyalty. 

The pivot to colocation data centres for cloud gaming and esports is a robust, reliable strategy to deliver the ultra-low latency and resilient uptime that modern gaming demands. Anything less is not good enough for gamers. Let’s jump into the history of cloud gaming and esports now…

The History of Cloud Gaming

The idea of cloud gaming originated over two decades ago. The early pioneers of cloud gaming, like OnLive (2003) and Gaikai (2011), tried to demonstrate that streamed gameplay could rival traditional consoles. However, limited broadband speeds back in the day made early adoption difficult. Nevertheless, as fibre networks expanded and data centre performance in the UK improved, major tech players entered the playing field. Sony’s acquisition of Gaikai in 2012 paved the way for PlayStation Now, while NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW cloud gaming platform (2015) and Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming (2020) brought mainstream visibility. Cloud gaming was on the rise. 

Jump forward to today, cloud gaming colocation services rely less on the player’s device and more on network efficiency. Hosting compute power closer to users through colocation data centres like IP House London dramatically reduces latency. This major shift has transformed gaming.

“In theory, cloud gaming offers a way for you to pick up your games from anywhere on the planet, on any device you own, with virtually no downtime in between.”

Source: New York Times, Wirecutter, Oct 3rd, 2025

The Evolution of Esports

Esports have evolved from small local tournaments into a billion-pound global industry. From the first Spacewar! competition at Stanford University in 1972 to today’s packed arenas and million-pound prize pools, competitive esports has become a legitimate spectator sport in the UK and globally. Supported by gaming server colocation and data centre services by companies like IP House London, esports providers rely on reliable servers downtime-free. 

Streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube Gaming, combined with professional leagues such as the League of Legends Championship Series, accelerated growth throughout the 2010s. Esports teams now operate with the same structure and professionalism as traditional sports clubs, often relying on colocation data centres for hosting tournaments and live events.

“Esports is probably the biggest sport in the world that the mainstream doesn’t know about. There’s 3.4 billion people playing video games and we have 700 million esports fans.”

Source: Forbes, 14 July, 2025. 

Top 4 UK Esports Organisations of Recent Times 

A new wave of UK-based organisations is creating world-class success in diverse titles, employing unique strategies that blend competitive ambition with community and content development.

1. Tundra Esports: Crowned in the Global Arena

Tundra Esports stands as a benchmark for UK competitive excellence. Their most significant achievement was securing the Dota 2 World Championship, The International 2022 (TI11), and a colossal prize pool.

Tundra's model emphasises elite competitive performance, maintaining a top contender status in Tier 1 events like the BLAST Slam and PGL Wallachia series throughout 2024 and 2025.

"Tundra has consistently demonstrated their skill and strategic prowess, evidenced by... numerous top-three finishes in major tournaments, solidifying their position as a top-tier Dota 2 team."

Source:ggScore.com - Team Tundra (Tundra Esports) Dota 2, roster, matches, statistics, 2025

2. Fnatic: Legacy Esports Organisation

Fnatic are widely regarded as perhaps the most well-recognised and legacy UK-based esports team. Competing in multiple games such as League of Legends, CS2, VALORANT, and more, Fnatic have kept a solid competitive presence in the UK and globally since 2004.​

3. Endpoint: Quake, CS2 and Rocket League

Endpoint is possibly one of the most decorated UK esports teams ever. They are active in games such as CS2, Rocket League, and Quake. With other notable achievements in Rocket League, including European Open titles and actively supporting diverse rosters, including an all-female Rocket League team, Endpoint is certainly a significant part of the UK Esports landscape. 

4. Veloce Esports

Veloce Esports is a major UK sim racing competitor with a big community and numerous podium finishes in F1 Esports Championships. They also have real-life racing teams. Since 2018, Veloce has grown rapidly. They operate in gaming and racing with multiple esports teams in sim racing like Veloce, YasHeat, McLaren, Quadrant and Mercedes and compete in the Extreme E series.

Past Notable Mentions for Esports Organisations

Into the Breach (ITB): The Counter-Strike Underdog

Into the Breach's journey in Counter-Strike (now CS2) was one of the most compelling underdog stories in UK esports history. They made headlines with their remarkable run at the BLAST.TV Paris Major 2023.  ITB achieved the unprecedented feat of being the first majority-UK lineup to qualify for a CS: GO Major, culminating in an appearance in the quarter-finals.

Into The Breach, after major success in 2023, underwent a complete rebuild in 2024 but struggled with ‘roster instability’. Sadly, it was announced in January 2025 that ITB had shut down due to a financial scandal. It involved CEO embezzlement, unpaid salaries, and management failures. 

Quadrant: The Content-Creation Powerhouse

Founded by Formula 1 driver Lando Norris, Quadrant is redefining the intersection of gaming, lifestyle, and competition. Quadrant established itself as a leading force in titles like Halo  (one of my favourite games of all time). They achieved high-level placements at international majors, proving that brand-first strategies can lead to genuine competitive success.

"'Motorsport deserves a brand that captures its high-octane energy. Quadrant is built on a shared mindset - one that unites our athletes and audience through a deep love of competition.'"

Source: Quadrant.gg - About, 2025

However, Quadrant announced in October 2024 that it was stepping back from Esports to focus on other products. 

“..would step away from Halo Championship Series and competitive esports in general to focus on creating content for fans, apparel, and general motorsport culture”

Source: Esportsadvocate, October 2024

UK University Esports

The foundation for this success is increasingly being built at the university level. Organisations like the National University Esports League (NUEL) and National Student Esports (NSE), which runs the British University Esports Championship (BUEC), offer structured pathways for thousands of students. This grassroots environment feeds the competitive scene and develops future industry professionals.

Esports Degree Programs in UK Universities

Several UK universities now offer specialised undergraduate (BA/BSc Hons) and postgraduate (MA) degrees focused on the fast-growing esports industry. These programs typically focus on the business, management, and production aspects of competitive gaming, rather than just gameplay skills.

Common specialisations include:

• Esports Business Management: Focusing on the commercial side, including marketing, consumer behaviour, finance, and team management. (University of Northampton, Keele University, College of Esports).

• Esports Production and Media: Concentrating on live broadcasting, digital media creation, streaming tools, and event production workflows. (Nottingham Trent University, Falmouth University, Staffordshire University).

• Esports Coaching and Performance: Integrating sports science, psychology, and performance analytics to improve competitive play. (University of Chichester).

Top Cloud Gaming Brands in the UK

The UK cloud gaming market is dominated by three main brands that provide high-performance streaming to British gamers, effectively removing the need for local hardware. The biggest cloud gaming providers operating in the UK market are generally considered to be:

1. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (with Xbox Cloud Gaming/xCloud): This is highly popular due to its vast library of games (including all Xbox Game Studios titles) available as part of the subscription, which can be streamed to various devices.

2. NVIDIA GeForce Now:  This service is highly regarded for its performance, offering a full PC gaming experience and allowing users to stream games they already own on major PC platforms like Steam and Epic Games Store.

3. PlayStation Plus Premium (formerly PlayStation Now): This service is a strong contender, especially for PlayStation fans, offering a library of classic and modern PlayStation titles that can be streamed to a PS4, PS5, or PC.

Other notable platforms available and often mentioned in the UK include Amazon Luna and Shadow PC  (a full cloud-based Windows PC).

The most exciting cloud gaming development for me, having been a Windows gamer since the late 1990s, is that I may switch to playing AAA titles on a MacBook. This is something I never imagined possible back in the day. I started gaming in the late 1970s on a Binatone console as a kid! 

The Silent Killer: Latency and the Cost of Lag

To understand why a few milliseconds can be fatal, one must first understand latency. Latency is the time it takes for a player’s input, a mouse click or button press, to be sent to the gaming server, processed, and for the response to be sent back to the player’s device. This delay is measured in milliseconds (ms), and anything above a minimal threshold results in lag.

“Lag is the result of high ping or high latency, which essentially means your internet connection is at a lower speed or quality than it should be. The main giveaway for lag is that it causes a delay in your gameplay, with your commands not being acted on by the game immediately.”

Source: Britishesports.org, 7 April 2022

Lag is the ultimate barrier to a seamless experience. In the fast-paced world of competitive esports, where millions of pounds are on the line, even the slightest delay can mean the difference between victory and defeat. For the cloud gamer, lag is the ultimate bugbear. For the developer, it signals a failure to deliver on the core promise of a responsive, fair experience. 

Thus, lag affects the brand reputation of a gaming organisation with a subsequent loss in sales and customer loyalty. 

“Systems with lower system latency have an advantage, as they reduce this delay and give players more reaction time.”

Source: Tony Tamasi quotation, IP House London’s Mini-Guide to Latency in Gaming, Dec 2024

For professional gamers, the competitive edge is tied directly to the speed of their connection. This competitive gap means that gaming companies must treat every millisecond as a mission-critical resource.

Colocation: The Architectural Solution for Cloud Gaming

The rise of cloud gaming services has further amplified the need for flawless connectivity. These platforms bypass the need for expensive local consoles or PCs, allowing users to stream high-end games on any device. This radical shift places the entire computational burden, rendering, processing, and transmitting the game, onto a remote server. The only way this model works is through an infrastructural solution that guarantees proximity, power, and performance: 

Colocation data centres in the UK.

Colocation provides gaming firms with the optimal balance of control and resilience. Rather than facing the massive upfront investment and complexity of building an in-house data centre, a company can house its dedicated servers and network hardware within a specialised colocation facility like IP House.

The strategic location of a colocation centre is paramount. The industry consensus is that physical proximity to the end user, the gamer, is non-negotiable for low-latency performance.

Read more here on How Colocation Supports Gaming. 

IP House: The Ideal Partner for Gaming Excellence

For gaming companies operating in the UK, finding the right colocation partner is a critical strategic decision. IP House, situated in the heart of London, offers a compelling solution specifically tailored to meet the demands of the gaming and esports sector.

1. Location and Latency: The London location of IP House is a significant advantage, particularly for esports providers and cloud gaming services targeting UK players. By being in proximity to major Internet Exchanges, IP House guarantees ultra-low latency and faster connections for competitive gameplay.

2. Resilience and Reliability: Data downtime can be very damaging to esports and cloud gaming brands. Resilience is built into the core design of a carrier-neutral data centre. IP House provides essential features like resilient power, backup generators, and precision cooling systems to maintain server stability under the intense processing loads of large-scale multiplayer games.

3. Expertise and Scalability:  Gaming companies, especially high-growth studios, need infrastructure that can scale rapidly with player demand. IP House offers scalable colocation solutions, from individual server units to full racks. This allows cloud gaming providers and esports studios of all sizes to access enterprise-class resources.

IP House London: No. 1 Colocation Solution for Esports and Cloud Gaming

Esports and Cloud Gaming organisations can leverage the power, proximity, and performance of IP House London colocation to meet their high data processing demands. 

Eliminate the risk of data downtime by partnering with IP House London.

Enjoy a seamless, lag-free gaming experience every time. 

BOOK A CALL WITH IP HOUSE LONDON TODAY TO DISCUSS YOUR COLOCATION NEEDS. FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW.

MAIN SOURCES

1. New York Times, Wirecutter, Oct 3rd, 2025
2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshualamb/2025/07/14/esports-is-the-biggest-sport-that-the-mainstream-doesnt-know-about/
3. bo3.gg - Rise and Fall of Into The Breach: The Story of British Success in Counter-Strike - CS2
4. https://www.ip-house.co.uk/a-mini-guide-to-latency-in-gaming-and-why-it-matters
5. https://www.ip-house.co.uk/how-colocation-data-centres-enhance-the-gaming-experience
6. https://quadrant.gg/pages/about
7. https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/nuel-esports-players-casters
8. https://bo3.gg/articles/rise-and-fall-of-into-the-breach-story-of-the-british-success-in-counter-strike
9. https://ggscore.com/en/dota-2/team/tundra