Game server hosting for New Zealand players

Every Play Your Way server runs in Sydney. We don't host in New Zealand, but from Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch, Sydney is a short hop across the Tasman: about 29 to 41 ms between data centres. This guide covers the ping to expect, which games you can host, how Australian dollar prices work on a New Zealand card and how to pick a plan.

Why a Sydney server suits New Zealand

Ping grows with distance, and Sydney is far closer to New Zealand than a server in the United States or Asia. WonderNetwork measured these round trips between data centres from 12 to 26 September 2026:

A link between two data centres is the best case. At home, the hop from your house to your provider, your provider's own route to Sydney and any Wi-Fi all add to it, so your number will be higher. How much depends on your connection, so measure it rather than guess.

A Sydney server also suits a group split across the Tasman: New Zealand and Australian friends share one server, and it is close to all of them.

What that ping means in game

• Minecraft, Palworld and Valheim: 50 ms is comfortable, and co-op survival games handle up to 100 ms without much fuss. The data centre figures above sit below both.
• Rust and Garry's Mod combat modes: this is where ping matters. Under 30 ms feels crisp and 30 to 60 ms is normal for Australian players. The New Zealand figures sit at the low end of that band, before your home connection adds its share.
• ARK: Survival Evolved: taming and building are fine at 60 ms, while PvP fights start to suffer around that number.

The latency guide has the figures for each Australian capital and a step-by-step ping test for once you have a server.

Measure your ping before you buy

Open the games page. The Your ping to Sydney pill under the heading times a few requests from your browser to our Sydney server and shows your number after a few seconds, with no account needed. If the pill disappears, the test couldn't run from your browser.

Games you can host

These games are on sale now:

• Minecraft, Java Edition
• Palworld
• Garry's Mod
• Valheim
• Rust
• ARK: Survival Evolved

The games page always has the current list. A game marked coming soon there is not on sale yet.

Prices are in Australian dollars

Every price on the site is in Australian dollars (AUD), and checkout charges your card in Australian dollars. If you pay with a New Zealand card, your card issuer converts the charge to New Zealand dollars at its own exchange rate. Each renewal is charged in Australian dollars too, so the amount on your statement can change from one renewal to the next as the exchange rate moves. Ask your card issuer whether it adds a fee to purchases in another currency.

The rules for billing, cancelling and refunds are in our Terms of Service and refund policy.

Pick a plan

Each plan on a game page lists its RAM, CPU and storage, and says what it suits, such as a player count or a map size. Not sure which one you need? Press Find my plan on the game page, answer a few questions about your server, and it points you at a size.

If you outgrow your plan later, Change plan on the Billing page of your dashboard moves you to a bigger one.

Minecraft

A Minecraft server runs Java Edition with Vanilla, Paper, Purpur, Fabric, Forge or NeoForge, and you can switch between them from the panel later. How much RAM you need depends on that software, your mods and how many people play at once:

• How much RAM does my Minecraft server need? explains what each amount runs.
• The Minecraft server RAM calculator gives a number for your own setup.

Palworld

Each Palworld plan says how many players it suits, so start from the size of your group. The World Settings tab turns the rules in PalWorldSettings.ini, such as capture rates, difficulty and the death penalty, into labelled controls, so you can tune your world without editing files. The Palworld guides cover the rest.

Connect to your server

Once your server is running, copy the Server address from the left rail of your server panel and join with it from the game. There is nothing to change on your router: the server's ports are already open on our network, so New Zealand players join the same way as Australian ones.

• Minecraft: Join your Minecraft server (and fix errors) walks through the first join.
• Other games: start from that game's guides, such as the Rust guides, Valheim guides or Palworld guides.

Support from New Zealand

Live chat, email and Discord are all on the contact page. The support hours there are in Western Australian time (AWST, UTC+8), which is four hours behind New Zealand Standard Time and five hours behind New Zealand Daylight Time.