Most popular Minecraft server game modes, by the numbers

On the servers we measure, SMP and PvP had the most players over the last 30 days. The most common tag is SMP, 115 listings, but the typical server in a big tag is small. Among modes with at least five running servers, the biggest typical server is in Raiding, median 59.6 players.

Data from serverlist.net over the last 30 days, with hours of the day shown in your time zone. Every figure on this page is live and recalculated from our latest pings.

Forum threads on this question are mostly polls and opinions. This report counts instead: how many listed servers carry each mode, how many of them were actually running, how many players they had and how many votes they received.

Headline

One thing to keep in mind through the whole report: a server can carry several mode tags, and it counts in every one of them. Mode totals overlap, so they add up to far more than the players on the list.

The mode ledger

"Players" is the sum of each running server's average player count, "median" is the typical running server, and "on the biggest server" is how much of the mode's players sit on its single largest server.

Mode	Listed	Playable in 30 days	Players, 30 day average	Median players, 30 days	On the biggest server	Votes, 30 days
SMP	115	80	3,818	5.0	15%	14,150
PvP	104	66	3,732	8.3	15%	12,990
Survival	70	49	2,591	8.4	22%	12,638
LifeSteal	47	23	2,291	19	25%	11,292
Towny	12	7	1,363	27	52%	4,300
RPG	10	8	1,172	0.6	97%	680
Raiding	13	9	1,150	60	50%	9,071
Anarchy	29	21	992	0.7	58%	3,532
PvE	26	19	936	3.5	34%	1,295
Skyblock	15	8	920	33	63%	2,907
Factions	12	7	829	1.3	70%	3,841
OneBlock	9	5	766	24	75%	3,170
Prison	9	5	690	1.7	84%	2,815
KitPvP	14	7	662	0.9	87%	3,508
Vanilla	22	16	617	2.0	52%	7,143
Creative	9	7	605	0.3	95%	3,317
Bedwars	11	7	513	0.7	62%	174
Earth	6	4	422	68	68%	45
BoxPvP	7	4	168	7.7	91%	175
Gens	5	2	112	56	100%	0
Mini Games	20	14	79	0.4	49%	980
Skywars	4	3	40	0.7	98%	11
Modded	8	6	9	0.2	92%	110
Cobblemon	3	2	9	4.3	97%	109

A server tagged with three modes counts in all three, so the rows overlap and do not add up to the network total.

Measured 19 Oct 2026, 22:55 UTCHow we measure

Platform and access tags are not game modes, but players filter by them, so here they are on the same terms:

Mode	Listed	Playable in 30 days	Players, 30 day average	Median players, 30 days	On the biggest server	Votes, 30 days
Cross-Play	49	38	2,406	7.7	25%	8,548
Bedrock	27	23	1,769	27	18%	3,099
Cracked	39	26	1,677	2.8	34%	9,260

A server tagged with three modes counts in all three, so the rows overlap and do not add up to the network total.

Measured 19 Oct 2026, 22:55 UTCHow we measure

The biggest server column matters more than it looks. In many modes, one server holds more than half of the mode's players. When a mode line moves, it is often one server moving. With a list this size, a single server that grows, shrinks or joins the list can move a whole mode, so treat a mode that jumps in one month with some caution until the crowd has held for a while.

Crowded and open modes

Compare the number of running servers with the size of the typical one and two kinds of mode appear.

Crowded: many servers splitting the players, a small typical server. SMP is the clearest case, with 80 running servers and a typical server of 5.0 players.

Open: few servers, and the typical one has a real crowd. Raiding is the clearest case, with 9 running servers and a typical server of 59.6 players.

Sorted by the typical server, the ledger shows where every mode sits:

Mode	Playable in 30 days	Median players, 30 days	Top quarter from
Earth	4	68	173
Raiding	9	60	146
Gens	2	56	84
Skyblock	8	33	125
Towny	7	27	303
OneBlock	5	24	165
LifeSteal	23	19	149
Survival	49	8.4	67
PvP	66	8.3	74
BoxPvP	4	7.7	45
SMP	80	5.0	35
Cobblemon	2	4.3	6.4
PvE	19	3.5	45
Vanilla	16	2.0	28
Prison	5	1.7	111
Factions	7	1.3	125
KitPvP	7	0.9	42
Bedwars	7	0.7	96
Skywars	3	0.7	20
Anarchy	21	0.7	17
RPG	8	0.6	15
Mini Games	14	0.4	2.8
Creative	7	0.3	14
Modded	6	0.2	0.3

A server tagged with three modes counts in all three, so the rows overlap and do not add up to the network total.

Measured 19 Oct 2026, 22:55 UTCHow we measure

Rows with only a few running servers can top this table on one or two servers, which is why the headline only counts modes with five or more.

For players, a crowded mode means plenty of choice and a lot of near-empty servers to sift through, so sort by players at your hours and read the uptime. For owners, an open mode looks tempting, but it often means players have gathered on a few established servers, and the biggest server column tells you how hard those are to compete with. Our guide to getting your first 100 players has more on picking a niche you can win. What each mode actually is, from anarchy to whitelist, is in Minecraft server types explained A to Z.

Votes and players by mode

Votes and players measure different things. Players show who is online. Votes on serverlist.net show how many players a server persuades to vote here, usually with an in-game reward, so they reflect how much a server asks as much as how popular it is. Compare the players and votes columns of the ledger: some modes collect far more votes per player than others, and in small modes one server's vote campaign sets the number.

Votes are concentrated too. Over the last 30 days, the three most-voted listings received 62% of the 15,237 votes cast. A high vote count tells you a server has an organized community. It does not tell you the server is busy. Why servers ask you to vote explains how a vote travels and why rewards sometimes do not arrive.

Share of votesShare of players

Peak 12:00 UTC

0003060912151821

Times in UTC

Votes peak at 12:00 UTC, players at 15:00 UTC, 3 hours apart. Based on 15,246 votes.

Measured 19 Oct 2026, 22:52 UTCHow we measure

Spotlight: SMP

SMP is the biggest tag on the list. If you are new to the term, what SMP means covers it.

Right now 58 of 115 SMP listings are playable, with 2,390 players on them. Over the last 30 days:

• 80 SMP listings were running at least once.
• The typical running SMP averaged 5.0 players, and the top quarter started at 35.0.
• The five biggest SMPs held 44% of all SMP players, the ten biggest 67%.

1. 10
2. 33Under 1
3. 61 to 5
4. 155 to 20
5. 1120 to 100
6. 13100 to 500
7. 1500 or more

Median server

5.0

Five biggest

44%

Ten biggest

67%

Each column counts servers by their average players. Half of the 80 servers average 5.0 players or fewer.

Measured 19 Oct 2026, 22:55 UTCHow we measure

SMP is a label people combine with almost everything, most often PvP, survival, crossplay and economy, so the SMP line overlaps with most other big modes.

When to play: SMP players peak at 15:00 UTC and are fewest at 03:00 UTC, in your time zone. Saturdays and Sundays are 22% busier than weekdays over the last 28 days.

Peak 15:00 UTC

0003060912151821

Times in UTC

Busiest at 15:00 UTC with about 5,177 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

Few SMP listings declare a season length. These are the ones that do right now:

Mode	Declared	Median	Lengths
SMP	9	67 days	30 days4 times6 months90 days67 days120 days18 weeks

Season lengths come from what owners write on their listing. Ask in the server's Discord when the current season started.

Measured 19 Oct 2026, 22:55 UTCHow we measure

If you want a world that lasts, check the reset policy on the server page before you start building.

How we measured

• Window. The last 30 days for players, running servers and votes, the last 28 days for hours and weekdays, so every weekday has the same weight.
• Modes. A mode is a tag on the listing, chosen by the owner, with new tags reviewed before they go live. A server counts in every mode it carries. The average listing carries about three mode tags, and a few carry more than ten, which is why the biggest server column is there.
• Running. Playable at least once in the period: the server answered with more than zero player slots and no placeholder text such as sleeping, offline or maintenance.
• Players. For each server, the mean player count over all pings while it was answering, from daily rollups. A mode's players are the sum over its running servers. The headline count of a ping is the larger of the Java and Bedrock answers, never their sum.
• Exclusions. Listings that sit on a shared hosting lobby or point at another network's address are left out, 4 of 216 public listings right now. Every other listing counts on its own, so a network listed twice is counted twice.
• Editions. Each month's figures are kept as published in an archived edition, linked at the end of this page once it exists.

The ping method, the playable rule and the exclusion counts are on the methodology page. How players spread across servers in general is in how many players a Minecraft server really has, and the hour-by-hour pattern for the whole list is in when Minecraft servers are busiest.