Overview of Game Center

Game Center is Apple’s social gaming network that helps players discover your games across Apple devices, track their scores on leaderboards, view achievement progress, invite friends to play, start multiplayer games through automatch, and more. Once you’ve implemented Game Center features, you’re ready to enter related metadata in App Store Connect.

Note: To add a game with Game Center features to a new app bundle, the game must be “Ready for Distribution" on at least one App Store storefront. Games distributed on alternative app marketplaces in the European Union will need to also be available on at least one App Store storefront to take advantage of Game Center functionality.

You can complete the steps below in the order they're listed or move between steps as needed.

Learn how to manage Game Center enabled app versions with the App Store Connect API.

Required role: Account Holder, Admin, App Manager, Developer, or Marketing. View role permissions.

Enable Game Center in Xcode.

In Xcode, create your project, enter an app name and bundle ID, then enable Game Center, which adds the GameKit framework and Game Center Entitlement to your project. Learn more about enabling Game Center in Xcode.
Configure Game Center in App Store Connect.

In App Store Connect, add an app to your account that matches the bundle ID in Xcode, enable your app version for Game Center, and configure Game Center components, such as leaderboards, achievements, challenges, groups, and multiplayer compatibility.
Implement Game Center features.

In Xcode, incorporate Game Center by adding code to your app and configuring the components used by the service. While these components are configured separately from your app bundle, they should be intimately tied to the code in your game to ensure that all design and development requirements are met. Learn more. For design guidance, visit Human Interface Guidelines and select Game Center from the Technology section.
Test your game.

Confirm that your Game Center components work individually and together. Apple enables all prerelease development to take place in the same server environment as released games, so you can play with the full player base, not just other testers.
Distribute your game.

Make sure your Game Center components have been added to your desired platform version before submitting your game for review.