Amazon Luna Vs Nvidia GeForce Now Vs Xbox Cloud Gaming: Which Service Is Best?

Video gaming has traditionally been an expensive hobby. Games cost a lot of money, to say nothing of the consoles or PCs needed to run them, which can easily stretch into the thousands of dollars. But today, for around the price of a movie ticket, anyone with a good internet connection can play the latest titles from the biggest gaming studios on nearly any device by subscribing to a games streaming platform. You play on your device, but the actual work of rendering games is done in the cloud. The biggest cloud gaming services are Amazon Luna, NVIDIA GeForce Now, and Xbox Cloud Gaming, each of which claims (in one form or another) to satisfy all your gaming needs without dedicated hardware.

Many companies have tried their hand at cloud gaming services, and few have survived. That's because cloud gaming is very resource-intensive and hard to implement well, even for massive companies. Some readers will undoubtedly remember the most flat-footed failures, chief among them Google's short-lived Stadia. It's difficult to create a service that works for the majority of consumers, especially when you need to optimize for consumers with less than perfect Internet connections.

As an avid gamer who loves to take my titles on the go, I wanted to see which of these three cloud gaming subscriptions actually deserves your money. To find out, I signed up for all of them and put them in a battle royale to test their claims, comparing performance, libraries, and features. Which of these services can legitimately provide you with high-end graphics and blazing fast frame rates? Can they run on your devices? And do they have a great library of games to back that performance up? Read on to find out which of these cloud-based consoles made it through our gauntlet unscathed.

Amazon Luna launched in 2020, and it is the online retailer's big push into cloud gaming. Resolution is capped at 1080p, 60 frames per-second, and 10 GB of streaming per hour. The service is supported on PC, Windows, ChomeOS, Android, iOS/iPadOS, Linux, and Ubuntu, all through a Chromium-based web browser like Chrome, Edge, or Opera. It is also supported on Amazon Fire TVs and tablets, as well as Samsung smart TVs and LG webOS TVs.

Booting up "Control" with Luna in Chrome for Android prompted an unsupported browser warning. This despite the fact that Luna specifically claims to support Chrome on Android. Nonetheless, I clicked to continue regardless, and the game booted. Android's FPS counter showed a consistent 60 FPS, but that's what the screen was locked to, not necessarily what was rendered. There was just enough input lag to be noticeable. I also found that Luna does not allow you to change in-game graphics settings; the option does not even exist in the game's menu. On the bright side, controller support is excellent in Luna.

On PC, I noticed slightly better input, though lag still existed. However, I also saw artifacting around the edges of objects, including Jesse, the main playable character. Slight stuttering also occurred from time to time. Performance was better in the older "Fallout: New Vegas." There's an overlay menu, but it's bare bones, consisting of a button to broadcast gameplay to Twitch, a microphone toggle, and a button to exit the game. This menu would not load on Android.

Overall, Luna is a great platform for casual gamers and children or teens, but newer, AAA titles are not its specialty. If you're a capital G gamer, this is not the service for you. However, it's great for families, kids, and Ubisoft fans.

Amazon Luna has some games available for free to Amazon Prime subscribers, though it's not a large selection. Luna+, which gives access to most of the library with the exception of Ubisoft games, is $10 a month. Ubisoft+ provides access to Ubisoft titles like "Assassin's Creed: Valhalla" for a separate purchase of $18 a month. There's also a separate Jackbox Games subscription, which includes a bunch of the company's party games for $5 monthly. Amazon also sells a Luna Controller for $70, but it's not mandatory.

Amazon Luna has a decent library, though it falls behind Xbox and GeForce Now in that regard. Many of the best titles, like the "Assassin's Creed" series, are locked behind an Ubisoft+ account, which costs an extra $18 each month. It's nice to see some beloved older titles such as "Fallout: New Vegas," and "Fortnite" players will find the best support here, as will fans of the Lego games. For children below high school age, this is a great option, but for most gamers, you'll want to make sure the selection of games is to your preference. We do enjoy seeing a large selection of classic games from Capcom, SNK, and more, helping to expose new generations to gaming history.

When it comes to bells and whistles, Luna is rather spartan. Aside from the anemic in-game overlay, where Luna supports streaming to the Amazon-owned Twitch platform, there's only one standout feature. Luna Couch allows users to launch co-op gaming sessions with friends, even if those friends aren't subscribed to Luna. It works mostly with casual and kids games, such as "Stardew Valley," "Lego Star Wars," and "Hot Wheels Unleashed."

Microsoft has made a recent hard pivot into games streaming as its console sales continue to dip, so Xbox's cloud gaming platform has a lot riding on it. As a titan of the gaming industry, many other companies are looking to Microsoft, which owns studios including Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda, and more. Xbox Ultimate, which enables Cloud Gaming, costs $20 a month. Performance tops out at 1080p and 60 FPS.

When playing "Control" on Android over Wi-Fi, cutscenes ran fine, but the actual gameplay left much to be desired. The input lag was noticeable, and screen tearing, stuttering, and jittering were common. Android had the display cranked to a consistent 120 FPS, but that clearly wasn't translating into actual gameplay.

When it came to the PC app, "Control" refused to launch without a controller connected, despite the game fully supporting mouse and keyboard controls on Luna and GeForce Now. However, my controller wasn't being recognized despite working with locally installed Xbox games. Eventually, I closed out of the app and switched to the browser version, where the controller once again started working. Gameplay was much smoother than on Android, but I noticed some ghosting and artifacting. 

On both devices, combat was nearly impossible. I resorted to melee attacking enemies since the lag was too overwhelming to get a bead on them with a gun. I also tested "Halo: Infinite," which ran much better visually and looked quite gorgeous. Unfortunately, input lag persisted, and combat was still unnecessarily difficult thanks to that delay. Overall, Xbox Cloud Gaming was the most disappointing of the three streaming services, which is a shame because it would otherwise be a fantastic value for the price.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is supported on up-to-date versions of Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS/iPadOS, and certain gaming handhelds, as well as TV platforms including Samsung smart TV and Amazon Fire. However, the Android and iOS versions require you to play in a web browser rather than a dedicated app. A controller is mandatory, which may be annoying to gamers who are accustomed to using a mouse and keyboard, or for those who do not own a compatible controller.

Thanks to Game Pass, Xbox Cloud Gaming has the superior selection of games that come included with your subscription across all three tested services, hands down. Major, newly released, wildly popular, AAA titles like "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle" are to be found here, along with hundreds of other games ranging from unknown indie gems to everyday staples like "Call of Duty: Black Ops 6." You can also pay outright for games not included in that library. However, you could always pay for Game Pass alone ($12) and stream its library through GeForce Now ($10 for the 1440p plan, which is superior to Xbox Ultimate's 1080p limitation). You'd be paying the same price for what appears to be far superior streaming quality in our tests.

Xbox Cloud Gaming has very few bells and whistles. There's an in-game overlay where you can toggle your microphone and other basic settings, integration with Windows gaming tools on Windows PCs, and of course the ability to install games locally if you have a PC or Xbox console that can play them.

Few companies that don't make games are as synonymous with gaming as NVIDIA. Its graphics cards are the go-to choice for many PC gaming enthusiasts, and the company has capitalized on that brand cachet with GeForce Now, its games streaming platform. It's a compelling offer: $20 a month for access to GeForce Now's remote RTX 4080-class gaming rigs that can stream games in 4K or 240 FPS. Of our three contestants, this is clearly aimed at people who game as a hobby.

In testing, GeForce Now absolutely crushed it when running "Control," which was played via Xbox Game Pass library syncing. On both Android and Windows PC, controls felt lightning fast, with no discernible input lag. Even when turning the in-game settings up to the maximum, including with DLSS frame generation and full ray-tracing features, the game maintained a steady range of 120-125 FPS according to the onscreen counter and looked great, too.

Since I had access to my game library, I also tried "Cyberpunk 2077." On both PC and Android, it ran like a dream, pumping out a steady 120 FPS with every setting cranked to the max. In fact, when playing side-by-side with a local PC equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super GPU, the graphics and performance of the streamed version seemed somewhat preferable in many cases. Even "Destiny 2" performed well. I ran a mission from "The Witch Queen" expansion without issue on both devices, and I was able to crank the graphics settings higher than I can when playing locally on my PC before things started to stutter. Though there was a bit of jitter on Android over Wi-Fi. Ultimately, GeForce Now provides a truly impressive gaming experience that raises the bar for what consumers should expect of games streaming.

NVIDIA's GeForce Now platform is supported on up-to-date versions of Windows, Mac, iOS/iPadOS, Android, ChromeOS, and certain gaming handhelds, as well as on TV platforms including the NVIDIA SHIELD, LG webOS, Samsung TVs, and Android TV. However, the ChromeOS and iOS/iPadOS versions require you to play in a web browser rather than a dedicated app.

Of the three streaming services, GeForce Now has the best library by a landslide. It's not even close. Not only can you play any game from your Steam, Activision-Blizzard, or Ubisoft accounts, but you can even connect an Xbox Game Pass account. However, you do have to purchase game licenses through those platforms before you can play them, since GeForce Now does not have a library of its own. This makes it a great option if you already own a gaming PC and want to take your games on the go (they'll even stay synced with your PC), but it might be a less stellar choice if you don't have a gaming rig of your own, or if you're on a budget. Of course, there are still some free-to-play titles available through the connected storefronts.

As for other features, GeForce Now offers more granular control over streaming quality, and you'll be able to use full-fat Steam when playing games from a Steam account. That means you get all of Steam's features in addition to the in-game controls provided by NVIDIA.

Let's get right to the point: NVIDIA GeForce Now is the clear winner of our cloud gaming battle royale. Although it doesn't provide its own library of games, it lets you bring your own games along, and it has robust support across devices and operating systems. Most crucially, it far surpassed both Xbox Cloud Gaming and Amazon Luna when streaming our test title in terms of both visual quality and performance. Moreover, whereas those other services didn't allow us to adjust the in-game graphics settings for the game, GeForce Now let us crank everything up to the maximum, enjoying the game as if we were sitting in front of an actual gaming computer with a GeForce RTX 4080 card. The ability to play games at this quality from an Android tablet or phone feels like the future has finally arrived, though perhaps it's to be expected from the leader in PC graphics.

As for our silver medalist, it's Amazon Luna. While its library isn't the best, it does have a good selection of older, beloved titles, and its performance is solid enough to enable most of the experiences it provides. It has fantastic device and platform support, too, plus some great multiplayer features and family-oriented add-ons.

In last place is Microsoft's Xbox Ultimate Cloud Gaming. It's unfortunate that our testing revealed such poor gameplay experiences, because the Game Pass library is probably the best deal in all of gaming. There's nowhere else you can play so many brand-new titles for so little money. However, if you want access to that library, you'll be better off paying for the cheaper Game Pass subscription and actually playing those games through GeForce Now.

For our head-to-head comparison, we ran two games on all three services using two devices. For those devices, we chose a Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Android tablet and a Windows PC. That's 12 separate tests in total, or four for each service. The PC was hooked up to a gigabit connection via Ethernet cable, ensuring the best results, while the Android tablet was connected to the same network over Wi-Fi to provide a better sense of the average experience most people will have when streaming games. 

For our main testing title, we selected "Control ," one of the most graphics-intensive games available on all three services. We also tested an online multiplayer game on each, though different ones, since the titles available differ from platform to platform. We paid attention to how each game felt, noting things like input lag or noticeable graphics issues. We also ran an FPS counter whenever possible to get some more objective data.

We tested these services on a home network with gigabit speeds and multiple other devices connected, including lots of smart home tech. These conditions should reflect something close to an average experience for users. There are nuances of each platform that these tests will necessarily leave out of the equation, so in a separate section, we'll cover the platform support for, along with the libraries and features of each respective streamer to help you make a more informed decision.