How Big Time Studios Cut Analytics Costs by 80% While Building for 1M MAU
An 80-person game studio moved from expensive, fragmented tools to a unified analytics platform that handles massive volumes without breaking the budget.
"SparkLogs solved our biggest pain point: finding that one critical error instance among millions of logs without breaking our budget."
— Matt Tonks, CTO, Big Time Studios
The Challenge: Finding Critical Errors in Millions of Logs
Before SparkLogs, Big Time Studios faced escalating costs, fragmented tools, and analytics platforms that couldn't scale with their growing player base.
Cost Crisis
CloudWatch costs were spiraling out of control as their game scaled. GameAnalytics was eating up their budget for basic analytics capabilities.
"Before SparkLogs, we were drowning in CloudWatch costs and complexity."
Fragmentation Problem
Server logs in CloudWatch. Analytics events in GameAnalytics. Offline player data scattered across multiple systems. No unified way to query across all their data.
"We needed something bespoke for gaming that could handle our server logs, analytics events, and offline player data all in one place."
Gaming-Specific Gaps
Generic logging tools don't understand game analytics. Existing platforms had field limits, cardinality caps, and premium pricing to unlock basic features.
"As an 80-person studio, we needed enterprise-scale capabilities without enterprise-scale budgets."
From Big Time Studios' CTO
Matt Tonks explains how SparkLogs helped them cut costs by 80% while scaling to massive volumes.
"Before SparkLogs, we were drowning in CloudWatch costs and complexity. As an 80-person studio, we needed something bespoke for gaming that could handle our server logs, analytics events, and offline player data all in one place."
"The difference is night and day. We're ingesting massive volumes with excellent retention at 80% less cost than CloudWatch, and the search performance is incredibly fast."
— Matt Tonks, CTO, Big Time Studios
The Solution: Unified Logging and Analytics for Gaming
Big Time Studios found a platform that understands gaming workflows and handles their unique combination of server logs, client analytics, and offline data at scale—without the premium pricing.
Bespoke for Gaming
"We needed something bespoke for gaming that could handle our server logs, analytics events, and offline player data all in one place."
SparkLogs provides purpose-built analytics for games:
- 7 analytics event types (session, purchase, ad, resource, progression, design, log)
- Automatic DAU/MAU/retention snapshots
- Offline event queuing and batching
- Native Unreal Engine plugin
- Unified server logs + client analytics
Incredible Search Performance
"The search performance is incredibly fast. SparkLogs solved our biggest pain point: finding that one critical error instance among millions of logs."
Built on BigQuery for petabyte-scale queries:
- Full-text search across billions of events
- Infinite custom fields, unlimited cardinality
- Interactive histogram with severity filtering
- SQL-like query language (LQL)
- Custom dashboards for your team
80% Cost Reduction
"We're ingesting massive volumes with excellent retention at 80% less cost than CloudWatch."
Game-changing pricing without sacrificing capabilities:
- $0.10-$0.44/GB vs. CloudWatch's $0.50+/GB
- 20-year retention included (not 90 days)
- No per-seat charges for your team
- 25GB free tier = 1M+ sessions/month
- Pay only for what you use
Implementation: 10 Minutes to First Data
Big Time Studios went from evaluation to full production in under a month—with minimal engineering effort.
Installation & Testing
"The Unreal Engine plugin was literally a 10-minute integration."
- Installed SparkLogs Unreal plugin
- Configured auth credentials
- Tested with development environment
Parallel Running
- Ran SparkLogs alongside existing tools
- Validated data accuracy
- Team explored new query interface
Full Migration
- Deprecated old analytics tools
- Built custom dashboards in Looker Studio
- Entire team trained and onboarded
- Started realizing cost savings immediately
"SparkLogs integrates 2 tools we had into 1. The Unreal Engine plugin was literally a 10-minute integration."
— Matt Tonks, CTO, Big Time Studios
The Results: Centralized, Fast, and Affordable
SparkLogs became Big Time Studios' go-to platform for all logging needs, delivering measurable business value.
Cost Savings
"We saved in engineer resources and money"
- 80% reduction vs. CloudWatch
- Logging and Analytics in one place
- Predictable, usage-based pricing
- No surprise bills as they scale
Operational Improvements
"The difference is night and day."
- All data centralized in one platform
- Server logs + analytics + offline data unified
- Proper organizational access controls
- Fast search across massive datasets
Team Enablement
"Our entire team can access the data they need."
- Custom dashboards for different roles
- No more scattered across expensive tools
- Direct BigQuery access for ML models
- Go-to platform for all logging needs
"Finally, a solution that understands gaming workflows and doesn't punish us financially for generating the data we need to build great games."
— Matt Tonks, CTO, Big Time Studios
How SparkLogs Compares for Game Studios
An objective comparison based on Big Time Studios' research and industry standards.
| Capability | Traditional Analytics(GameAnalytics, Unity) | SparkLogs |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Fields | 20-100 limit | Unlimited |
| Cardinality | Limited, premium pricing to increase | Unlimited |
| Data Retention | 90 days standard, pay more for longer | 20 years included |
| Unified Logs + Analytics | Separate tools needed | Single platform |
| Cost (1TB/month) | $$$$ (often 5x more) | $440-$1,000/month |
| Search Performance | Dashboard queries only | Full-text search, LQL queries |
| Offline Data Support | Limited or none | Full offline buffering |
Based on publicly available pricing and information as of November 2025. Your costs may vary.
Common Questions from Game Studios
Start with Analytics For Games That Scales
Join Big Time Studios and game developers building better games with unlimited analytics.
Try It Free
- ✅ 25GB/month free forever
- ✅ 1M+ game sessions/month on free tier
- ✅ Full analytics features included
- ✅ No credit card required
Talk to Our Team
- → Questions about migrating from GameAnalytics?
- → Need help with Unreal Engine integration?
- → Want to discuss your specific scale?
- → Looking for custom pricing?
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