Hosting a Web Game on Your Own Domain

Register a Domain and Choose a Hosting Method

Start by registering a domain name through a registrar like Namecheap, Cloudflare Registrar, or Google Domains. Choose a name that is short, memorable, and related to your game or studio brand. If you plan to host multiple games, a studio-branded domain (like "yourstudio.com") is more versatile than a game-specific domain, because it can house all your projects under one roof and accumulate search engine authority across all of them.

For the hosting itself, you have three main options. Cloud storage with a CDN (like Amazon S3 plus CloudFront, or Google Cloud Storage plus Cloud CDN) gives you the most control and scales to any traffic level. Static hosting platforms (Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages) handle the infrastructure automatically and offer generous free tiers. Traditional web servers (a VPS running Nginx or Apache) give full server access but require more administration. For most web game developers, a static hosting platform is the best starting point because it eliminates all server management while providing professional-grade performance.

Set Up Cloud Storage or Static Hosting

If you choose the cloud storage route with Amazon S3, create a new bucket in the AWS region closest to your primary audience. Enable static website hosting in the bucket properties, which tells S3 to serve index.html as the default document and handle URL routing. Set the bucket policy to allow public read access for all objects, since your game files need to be downloadable by any browser.

Upload your game's build output to the bucket. The directory structure should place index.html at the root, with JavaScript, CSS, and asset files organized in whatever structure your build tool produces. For Unity WebGL builds, this means uploading the Build folder contents (the .data, .framework.js, .loader.js, and .wasm files) alongside the index.html that references them.

If you prefer a static hosting platform, the setup is even simpler. On Cloudflare Pages, connect your Git repository (GitHub or GitLab) and configure the build command and output directory. Every time you push to the main branch, Cloudflare Pages automatically builds and deploys your site. On Netlify, you can drag and drop your build folder onto the dashboard for a manual deploy, or connect a Git repository for automatic deployments. Both platforms provide a free subdomain (like your-game.pages.dev) immediately, which you can replace with your custom domain later.

Configure a CDN for Global Delivery

If you are using S3 or another cloud storage service as your origin, set up a CDN distribution to cache your files at edge locations worldwide. On AWS, create a CloudFront distribution with your S3 bucket as the origin. Configure the distribution to redirect HTTP to HTTPS, enable Brotli and gzip compression for text-based files, and set a default cache behavior that caches objects for at least 24 hours.

For game files that use content-hashed filenames (like game.a3f8b2.js), set the cache TTL to one year, since the filename changes whenever the content changes, making long cache durations safe. For index.html itself, use a shorter TTL (five minutes to one hour) so that updates to the entry point propagate quickly without requiring a manual cache invalidation.

If you are using Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, or Vercel, the CDN is included automatically. These platforms deploy your files to a global edge network as part of the deployment process, and caching is configured with sensible defaults. You do not need to set up a separate CDN, and the performance is comparable to a manually configured CloudFront distribution.

Request an SSL certificate for your custom domain if your CDN does not provision one automatically. CloudFront integrates with AWS Certificate Manager for free SSL certificates. Cloudflare provides SSL automatically when you use their DNS. HTTPS is mandatory for modern web games because many browser APIs, including service workers, WebGL, gamepad input, and the Web Audio API, require a secure context to function.

Point DNS to Your Hosting

In your domain registrar's DNS management panel, create the records needed to point your domain to your hosting. For CloudFront, create a CNAME record that points your domain (or a subdomain like play.yourdomain.com) to the CloudFront distribution's domain name (something like d1234abcdef.cloudfront.net). For Cloudflare Pages, add a CNAME record pointing to your your-project.pages.dev URL. For Netlify, follow their custom domain setup which typically involves either a CNAME or an ALIAS record.

After updating DNS, allow up to an hour for the changes to propagate, though it often happens within minutes. Verify that your game loads correctly at your custom domain by visiting it in a browser. Check that HTTPS works, the game canvas renders, assets load without CORS errors, and audio plays after user interaction. If you see mixed content warnings, make sure all asset URLs in your game use relative paths rather than absolute HTTP URLs.

Build the Game Landing Page

A game page that consists only of a full-screen canvas element is technically functional but wastes the opportunity for search engine visibility. Build a proper landing page around your game that includes an H1 title with the game name, a paragraph describing what the game is and how to play it, a list of controls (keyboard shortcuts, mouse actions, touch gestures), and the game canvas embedded in the page.

Add structured data markup using the VideoGame or SoftwareApplication schema type to provide search engines with machine-readable metadata about the game. Include the game name, description, genre, platform (web browser), and author information. Also add an Article schema and BreadcrumbList schema for general page context. Place these schema blocks as application/ld+json script tags in the page head or body.

Include Open Graph and Twitter Card meta tags so the game page looks good when shared on social media. Set the og:image to a screenshot or promotional graphic, the og:title to the game name, and the og:description to a one-line hook. When someone shares your game link on Twitter, Discord, Facebook, or a messaging app, these tags control what the link preview looks like, which directly affects click-through rates.

Set Up Deployment Workflow

Manual uploads work fine for the initial launch, but you will want an automated deployment process for ongoing updates. The simplest approach is a shell script that builds your game, syncs the output directory to S3 (using aws s3 sync), and invalidates the CloudFront cache for changed files. For Cloudflare Pages and Netlify, the deployment is automatic when you push to your Git repository, so no additional scripting is needed.

For larger games with frequent updates, consider a CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or a similar service. The pipeline triggers on every push to the main branch, runs your build tool, runs any automated tests, uploads the build output to your hosting provider, and invalidates the CDN cache. This ensures every update goes through a consistent process and reduces the chance of deploying a broken build.

Keep your deployment costs in check by monitoring your AWS or cloud provider bill. S3 storage costs about $0.023 per GB per month, and CloudFront charges about $0.085 per GB of data transfer. For a 30 MB game that gets 10,000 monthly plays with returning players loading from cache, your monthly bill will typically be under two dollars. Static hosting platforms like Cloudflare Pages and Netlify are free for personal projects within their bandwidth limits.