This is probably a really stupid question, but would a 2d game run better on multiplayer than a 3d one?
No; Unity is always a 3D engine no matter what you do with it.
–Eric
There’s no difference
Specifically concerning multiplayer: you could get away with sending less positional data in a 2D game since there’s 1 less axis to worry about. I don’t think you need me to tell you that though :p.
Performance difference and whatnot will be the same as in a non-multiplayer game.
What the other said is correct… However… It all depends on game design… Your 2D game will need X,Y instead of X,Y,Z which will probably be a tiny bit more efficient and you will not need to send rotation XYZ if its a topdown 2d sprite game, instead youd only need to send the direction (left, right, up, or down) and so on.
Conclussion: 2D vs 3D networking is no difference. When creating a new project and choosing 2d vs 3d… nothing is physically changed, only the view of the editor (Showing 2D view in the scene view). The same apis are still referenced.