In 2003, a poll conducted by GameDev.net showed Lua as the most popular scripting language for game programming. On 12 January 2012, Lua was announced as a winner of the Front Line Award 2011 from the magazine Game Developer in the category Programming Tools.
Other uses
Other applications using Lua include:
3DMLW plugin uses Lua scripting for animating 3D and handling different events.
Artweaver graphics editor uses Lua for scripting filters.
Autodesk Stingray, a game engine which uses Lua for developing video games.
Awesome, a window manager, is written partly in Lua, also using it as its configuration file format
Blackmagic Fusion can be extended and automated through a comprehensive Lua API, as a faster alternative to the Python API.
The Canon Hack Development Kit (CHDK), an open source firmware for Canon cameras, uses Lua as one of two scripting languages.
Celestia, the astronomy educational program, uses Lua as its scripting language.
Cheat Engine, a memory editor/debugger, enables Lua scripts to be embedded in its "cheat table" files, and even includes a GUI designer.
Cisco Systems uses Lua to implement Dynamic Access Policies within the Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA), and also SIP normalization in Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM).
civetweb Easy to use, powerful, C (C/C++) embeddable web server with optional Lua support.
Conky, the Linux system monitoring app, uses Lua for advanced graphics.
Cocos2d uses Lua to build games with their Cocos Code IDE.
Codea is a Lua editor native to the iOS operating-system.
Damn Small Linux uses Lua to provide desktop-friendly interfaces for command-line utilities without sacrificing much disk space.
The darktable open-source photography workflow application is scriptable with Lua.
Certain tasks in DaVinci Resolve can be automated by Lua scripts, in addition to the more advanced scripting functions specific to the Fusion page integrated within DaVinci Resolve. Like in Fusion, a Python API can also be used.
The Daylon Leveller heightfield/terrain modeler uses embedded Lua to let plug-ins be more easily developed.
Defold is a game engine that uses Lua as scripting language.
ESPlorer Multiplatform IDE & tools for any ESP8266 developer from luatool author’s, including a LUA for NodeMCU and MicroPython. All AT commands are supported.
Eyeon's Fusion compositor uses embedded Lua and LuaJIT for internal and external scripts and also plugin prototyping.
In the videogame Factorio, Lua is used for creating mods and scenarios (expanding the game with scripting)
Flame, a large and highly sophisticated piece of malware being used for cyber espionage.
Friday Night Funkin': Psych Engine uses Lua for stage building, so-called "modcharts" and multi song functions, such as editing HUD or adding more functions.
Ginga, the middleware for Brazilian Digital Television System (SBTVD or ISDB-T), uses Lua as a script language to its declarative environment, Ginga-NCL. In Ginga-NCL, Lua is integrated as media objects (named NCLua) inside Nested Context Language (NCL) documents.
GrafX2, a pixel-art editor, can run Lua scripts for simple picture processing or generative illustration.
HAProxy, a reverse proxying software, may be extended with Lua starting from version 1.6.
Hollywood, a cross-platform programming language using Lua.
iClone, a 3D real-time animation studio to create animation movies uses Lua in the controls of its new physics simulation.
The drawing editor Ipe (mainly used for producing figures with LaTeX labeling) uses Lua for its functions and script extensions.
KumoMTA, open-source email infrastructure built for enterprises and high-volume senders
Minecraft modifications like ComputerCraft or OpenComputers allow players to execute Lua on in-game computers.
Moho, an animation software package distributed by Smith Micro Software, uses Lua as its scripting language, and all of its native tools are built as editable scripts.
Neovim text editor offers Lua functions as a replacement for Vimscript as a scripting language, both for plugin development and for user configuration.
NetBSD has a Lua driver that can create and control Lua states inside the kernel. This allows Lua to be used for packet filtering and creating device drivers.
nmap network security scanner uses Lua as the basis for its scripting language, named nse.
OpenMW, a free and open-source game engine recreation that reimplements the one powering Bethesda Softworks' 2002 open-world role-playing game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
OpenResty, a web platform based on nginx, supports Lua scripting in different execution phases.
Orbiter (simulator) Space Flight Simulator offers some Lua API allowing to customize simulation feedback, or to automatize simple maneuvers
pandoc, a universal document converter, allows modifications of the internal document representation via Lua scripts.
Sierra Wireless AirLink ALEOS GSM / CDMA / LTE gateways allow user applications to be written in Lua.
PewPew Live uses Lua scripting to define community levels.
PowerDNS offers extensive Lua scripting for serving and changing DNS answers, fixing up broken servers, and DoS protection.
Project Dogwaffle Professional offers Lua scripting to make filters through the DogLua filter. Lua filters can be shared between Project Dogwaffle, GIMP, Pixarra Twistedbrush and ArtWeaver.
Project Zomboid is a video game (similar to The Sims but in zombie theme) made in Java, that uses Lua for mods (expanding the game with scripting).
Quartz Composer, a visual programming tool by Apple, can be scripted in Lua via a free plugin produced by Boinx Software.
Ravenfield (video game) is a first person shooter sandbox game that uses a modified version of Lua.
REAPER digital audio workstation supports Lua scripting to extend function.
Reason digital audio workstation uses Lua to describe remote codecs.
Redis, an open source key-value database, uses Lua (starting with version 2.6) to write complex functions that run in the server itself, thus extending its function.
Renoise audio tracker uses Lua scripting to extend function.
RetroShare encrypted filesharing, serverless email, instant messaging, online chat and BBS software, has a Lua plugin for automation and control.
Roblox is a game platform with its own game engine. It uses a modified version of Lua 5.1 named Luau.
Rockbox, the open-source digital audio player firmware, supports plugins written in Lua.
RPM, software package management system mainly developed for Red Hat Linux, comes with an embedded Lua interpreter.
SAS integrates Lua with PROC LUA as an alternative to its legacy macro language.
Scrap Mechanic is a video game, that uses Lua in mods that can be downloaded from the Steam Workshop.
ScyllaDB uses Lua for user-defined functions, which let users deploy server-side scripts to perform data transforms such as aggregations, sums and averages.
New versions of SciTE editor can be extended using Lua.
Snort intrusion detection system includes a Lua interpreter since 3.0 beta release.
The Squeezebox music players from Logitech support plugins written in Lua on recent models (Controller, Radio and Touch).
Tarantool uses Lua as the stored procedure language for its NoSQL database management system, and acts as a Lua application server.
TeamSpeak has a Lua scripting plugin for modifications.
TI-Nspire calculators contain applications written in Lua, since TI added Lua scripting support with a calculator-specific API in OS 3+.
Torch is an open source deep learning library for Lua.
Trailmakers is a sandbox- vehicle builder game. It uses MoonSharp to bind Lua into Unity which gives the ability to script gamemodes, custom maps, and general gameplay functions.
Varnish can execute Lua scripts in the request process by extending VCL through the Lua VMOD (Varnish module).
Vim has Lua scripting support starting with version 7.3.
