What does SMP mean in Minecraft?

SMP stands for survival multiplayer: a Minecraft server where many players share one survival world, gathering, building and getting through the nights together, usually over months. Today the word also means the community around that world, a group of regulars who know each other, which is why YouTubers call their friend groups' servers SMPs.

If you came here to find one, the SMP list has 58 servers playable right now. SMP is the biggest tag on serverlist.net: 115 of our 216 listings use it (118 of 218 as of 18 October 2026, when 63 listings also had the letters SMP in their name).

SMP stands for survival multiplayer

Both halves are meant literally. Survival is the game mode with health, hunger, hostile mobs and resources you have to gather yourself, as opposed to creative mode with its endless blocks. Multiplayer means a server other people join, as opposed to a world on your own computer.

Put together, an SMP is one shared, persistent world. You log off and the world carries on. Your neighbor finishes the bridge while you sleep, the spawn town grows, the nether fills up with tunnels. That persistence is the real difference from a minigame server, where every round starts fresh.

Where the term came from

Minecraft had multiplayer before it had survival multiplayer. The Classic version of 2009 let players build together, but with no health, no mobs and nothing to survive. Survival multiplayer arrived with Alpha v1.0.15 on 3 August 2010, with the server software following a day later (Minecraft Wiki). Notch announced it on his blog under the title "SMP server release tomorrow, here's what'll be in".

Players needed words for the difference, and the forums of the time talk about SMP and SSP, survival multiplayer and survival single player. The distinction stopped mattering once survival was simply how multiplayer worked, but the abbreviation stuck, and creator servers turned it into a format. Hermitcraft, a whitelisted server of YouTubers, has been running seasons since 2012, and many later creator groups put "SMP" in the name of their series.

What people mean by SMP today

Public SMP servers

Anyone can join. You get a small starter kit or nothing, walk out from spawn and build. Most public SMPs add a few plugins: land claims so your base cannot be griefed, /home and /spawn teleports, and often a player economy. Nearly every SMP on our list is this kind.

Whitelisted SMPs with applications

You apply first, usually through a form on Discord that asks for your age, your time zone, what you like to build and how you found the server. Staff read it, sometimes chat with you, and add your name to the whitelist. The result is a smaller, steadier community where griefing is rare, because everyone was vetted and nobody wants to lose their place.

Whitelisted SMPs rarely advertise on server lists. They recruit through Discord, Reddit and word of mouth, and only 2 of the 118 SMP listings on our site carry the whitelist tag (18 October 2026). If that is what you want, the list is a start, but community forums are worth a look too.

YouTube SMPs and why you usually cannot join them

The SMPs from videos, such as Hermitcraft, the Lifesteal SMP and the Dream SMP, are or were private servers for an invited cast of creators. Their worlds exist to be filmed, and the players are the show. You cannot apply, and a public server using one of those names is not the real one. The Dream SMP closed for good in April 2023, so nobody can join it now.

What you can do is play the format. Lifesteal, where a kill takes a heart from the loser, spread from creator videos to many public servers: 49 listings on our site use the tag (49 as of 18 October 2026), and 31 of the 118 SMP listings are lifesteal servers too. How lifesteal works explains the rules, and the lifesteal list has servers you can actually join.

SMP or survival server: is there a difference?

Mostly a difference of emphasis. "Survival" describes the rules, the classic climb from punching trees to netherite. "SMP" describes the setup, a shared world and the people in it. On our list the two overlap heavily: 52 of the 70 survival servers are also tagged SMP (18 October 2026).

In practice, a server that calls itself an SMP usually puts the community first: regulars, events, a world that lasts. A server that calls itself "survival" may be one game mode on a big network, with many players you will never meet twice. Neither label tells you whether PvP is on. 77 of the 118 SMP listings on our site also carry the PvP tag (18 October 2026), so read the rules before you build next to someone.

Kinds of SMP

Browse vanilla servers for the first two kinds. Season lengths vary a lot. Only 9 of the SMP listings on our site declare one, and the most common is 30 days (4 of them), with the rest between 67 days and six months (18 October 2026). For every other server type and the slang that goes with it, see server types explained A to Z.

How big a typical SMP is

Most SMPs are small, and that is not a bad thing.

1. 00
2. 27Under 1
3. 81 to 5
4. 145 to 20
5. 1120 to 100
6. 12100 to 500
7. 1500 or more

Median server

7.6

Five biggest

47%

Ten biggest

69%

Each column counts servers by their average players. Half of the 73 servers average 7.6 players or fewer.

Measured 19 Oct 2026, 22:55 UTCHow we measure

Right now 2,390 players are online across 58 playable SMPs, and the typical SMP has 7.6 players online at any given moment.

In the 14 days to 17 October 2026, 74 SMP listings were playable at least once. 26 of them averaged under one player online, 10 averaged one to five, 13 averaged five to 20, 11 averaged 20 to 100, 13 averaged 100 to 500, and one averaged more than that. The median SMP averaged about 6 players, with a median peak of about 22. The five biggest SMPs held 45% of all SMP players, and the ten biggest held 67%.

What that means for you:

• On a small SMP you will know everyone. Six players online on average can mean a few dozen regulars spread across the day. That suits people who want neighbors, not crowds.
• Check the hours you play. An SMP that peaks at 22 players in the European evening can be empty at your time. Every server's stats page on our site shows its player curve by hour.
• A big SMP is a different game. With hundreds online you get busy markets and events, but spawn is far from your base, and so is everyone you know.

Peak 16:00 UTC

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Times in UTC

Busiest at 16:00 UTC with about 4,948 players, quietest at 03:00 UTC. The busiest hour holds 2.0 times the players of the quietest.

Measured 19 Oct 2026, 22:55 UTCHow we measure

Across all SMPs together, players peak at 16:00 UTC in your time zone. In the 14 days to 17 October 2026, that was 15:00 UTC with about 5,000 players across all SMPs, against about 2,500 at the quietest hour, 03:00 UTC. How SMP compares with every other mode is in Minecraft game modes by the numbers.

How to join an SMP

1. Pick one from the SMP list and read its listing: rules, claims, PvP and the age of the world.
2. On Java, open Multiplayer, choose Add Server and paste the address, as the guide to joining on Java shows. On Bedrock, you need a server that publishes a Bedrock address, like those on the Bedrock list, and the guide to joining on Bedrock and mobile has the steps.
3. For a whitelisted SMP, apply first and wait for an answer before you try to join.
4. Once you are in, read /rules, learn the claim tool (often a golden shovel), and walk well away from spawn before you build. The land near spawn is usually taken, picked clean, or both.

FAQ

Are SMP servers free?

Joining is free once you own Minecraft. Most public SMPs pay for their hosting by selling ranks or cosmetics, within the limits that the Minecraft Usage Guidelines set on what servers may sell.

Can you play SMP on Bedrock?

Yes. Many Java SMPs run Geyser so Bedrock players can join: over the last 30 days, 56% of the SMP listings that were playable at least once also answered our Bedrock ping (46 of 82 in the 30 days to 17 October 2026). There are also SMPs built on Bedrock's own server software, and a Bedrock Realm is in effect a small private SMP for friends. Can Java and Bedrock players play together? explains what changes for Bedrock players.

What is a seasonal SMP?

An SMP that resets its world on a schedule, so everyone starts again on a fresh map with the same chances. Resets bring old players back and give new ones a fair start, which matters most where progress can be taken from you, as on lifesteal servers. Some servers publish a download of the old world or keep it on an archive server, so ask before the reset if there is a build you want to keep.