Game.service vs game:GetService("service")

[Bobytoeburrito (Innovator)]

I would like to know if there is any tangible difference between using :GetService() and not. In the example scripts Roblox provides, they always use :GetService(). I have always assumed there is some performance-improving reason for using :GetService(), but I have never found one. Are there any drawbacks to just doing game.service instead of :GetService()?

[YAYAYGPPR (Yayay27)]

Have a look at this post:

game.Players V.S. game:GetService("Players") Whats the difference?

GetService is mainly used for services that aren’t guaranteed to be instantiated, like Teams and InsertService. For Players, it is fine to not use it, but you may get one complaint from an error “Players is not a valid member of game” because they have the Players service renamed if someone who doesn’t know what they are doing uses your code. If it is private code and Players isn’t renamed, there is no difference.

[Dogekidd2012]

Please always use game:GetService when getting services. It is considered the canonical method.

[Bobytoeburrito (Innovator)]

Could you elaborate on why it is preferred? Is it just that, “GetService is mainly used for services that aren’t guaranteed to be instantiated” and renaming as Nexus said, or is there further reasoning?

[AustnBlox (Austin)]

By using game:GetService("ServiceName") it creates the requested service if it doesn’t already exist whereas game.ServiceName will get the service but if it doesn’t exist it will return an error instead of creating it.

In conclusion, it’s better practice to use game:GetService("ServiceName") when getting services.