Ably × PeopleFun
Ably x PeopleFun, realtime gameplay for 30 million users without building in-house
30 million active users per month
Could not do realtime to realtime at the core of every product
Members read free
Unlock the full breakdown
Enter your email to open every case study in the library: the full screenshot, why it works, and the one thing worth stealing. One email unlocks all of them.
Free. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
You're in — enjoy the library.
Why it works
The case study earns the New Capability tag because PeopleFun explicitly ruled out building realtime infrastructure themselves, making the capability genuinely impossible before Ably. The growth to 30 million monthly users provides a Breakthrough secondary signal, though the story correctly frames the core win as unlocking a capability rather than a number going up. The quote from the VP of Engineering carries real information about the decision criteria and the deployment experience, which lifts the piece above typical partner-praise filler.
Steal this
The explicit 'we looked at building it ourselves and rejected it' framing. Stating the build-vs-buy analysis concretely makes the vendor choice feel inevitable rather than arbitrary, and it pre-empts the reader's skepticism about why an engineering team would outsource.
Click to enlarge ↗ This is editorial commentary and curation. The case study, screenshot, and all metrics are Ably's published work; we link to the source and lead with our analysis.