How we rank servers
Short version: every server gets a Server Score out of 100. Live players count most, but votes, reviews, how busy a server is right now and how complete its listing is all add up, so the same giant doesn't sit on top forever and smaller servers get seen.
The Server Score
We work it out for every online server every 5 minutes. These are the parts and the most each can add:
| Part | Up to | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Players online | 38 | The live count we measure ourselves (the middle of the last three checks, so one odd reading can't spike it). It grows on a curve: going from 10 to 100 players is worth about as much as going from 1,000 to 10,000, so big servers lead without locking everyone else out. |
| Busy right now | 12 | Players who joined in the last hour, how today compares with the server's usual crowd at this hour, and the week's trend. |
| Votes | 15 | Votes this month compared with the most-voted server, plus votes in the last 24 hours. |
| Reviews | 8 | The star rating, weighted by how many reviews there are, so one 5-star review doesn't beat fifty 4.6s. |
| Listing strength | 12 | How complete the listing is: a real description, a summary, a video, photos, gameplay details, game modes, logo, banner, Discord and vote rewards. Our live badge on the server's own website is a bonus point inside the 12. |
| Trust | 7 | Uptime, a verified owner, how long the server has been listed and an active Discord. |
| Fresh | 4 | New to the list, or a new season or launch in the last two weeks. |
| Picked by players | 4 | How often people copy the server's address, with extra credit when they pick it from further down the list. |
Offline servers always sit below online ones. Staff can take up to 10 points off a server caught cheating (buying votes, faking counts), and every change is logged.
Vote spotlight
A vote does more than add to the monthly count. For a while after a server gets a vote, it has a chance of a short boost up the list: a 40% chance in each 10-minute window during the first hour, 25% for the next few hours and 10% until a day has passed. So servers whose players vote every day keep showing up higher, without anyone being able to buy the top spot.
Hot
In every list, up to 15% of the servers can be Hot at a time, with a flame on their number: the ones doing best in that list right now. To qualify, a server needs to be online with at least 5 players and a believable count, and doing better than usual (more players than an hour ago, than it usually has at this hour, or than in past weeks). The best of those for that list get the flame, weighing how big they are for the list by how well they're doing, so a mid-size server can be hot among roleplay servers without being hot in the overall list.
Rising spots
Three places on the first page (6th, 13th and 20th) go to Rising servers: smaller servers that are growing, marked Rising. We pick them from the fastest-growing servers that aren't already on page 1, and rotate them every 30 minutes so more of them get a turn. To qualify, a server needs to be online with at least a few players, a believable player count, a claimed listing (a verified owner) with a strength of at least 8 out of 12, and to actually be growing: busier than an hour ago, busier than usual for the hour, or trending up over the week.
Boosts and "Boosted"
Our team can give a server a boost in the Top order for a limited time, which multiplies its Server Score (a 20% boost is ×1.2) until it ends. Boosts never touch votes, player counts, reviews or the other sorts. If a server paid for its boost, it says Boosted on the listing, with a blue glow, for as long as the boost runs.
Game mode lists
On a game mode's own list, a server whose main game mode is that one ranks a little higher than a big network that lists it as one of many games. Player counts on each mode's list are compared with the biggest servers of that mode, not the whole list, so a busy Skyblock server with 300 players can lead the Skyblock list.
Other sorts
Top is the default. When you pick another sort, you get exactly that: Most players is sorted by players online, Top voted by votes this month and Newest by when the server was added, with no boosts or Rising spots mixed in. Searching by name puts servers whose names match first.
For server owners: how to rank higher
- Fill in your listing. Your edit page shows your listing strength out of 12 and what each missing piece is worth. A description of 250+ characters, a summary of 40+, a YouTube video and a few photos are the biggest steps.
- Put your live badge on your own website. It shows visitors your player count and a vote button, and while it's up it's worth a bonus point toward the 12, so it can make up for something you can't add, like a trailer. The code is on your edit page.
- Pick your main game mode, so you count as a specialist on that mode's list.
- Set up vote rewards and ask your players to vote each day. Fresh votes give you spotlight chances.
- Keep your server online. Uptime counts, and offline servers drop below every online one.
Player counts and uptime
Most lists show whatever number a server reports on its own page. We check every server ourselves at least every 5 minutes (the busiest every minute, and any server whose page you have open every minute), the same way the Minecraft client does when it refreshes your server list, and keep the history. That's where the player charts, 24-hour peaks and 7-day uptime come from.
"Player count looks unusual"
Some servers use plugins that inflate the number they report. We can't prove that from outside, so we don't accuse anyone; we just point out a count that looks unusual, when:
- it's higher than the server's own maximum,
- the maximum is 1 while it claims many players,
- it hasn't changed at all for hours (real player counts always move), or
- it's been exactly full at every check.
Flagged servers stay listed, but they never get the "busiest server" spotlight or a Rising spot, only part of their count goes into the Server Score (a little less for a cosmetic maximum like "15/0", a lot less for a count far above its own maximum, and almost nothing for impossible numbers in the millions), and they're sorted below believable counts when you sort by players.
Votes
One vote per Minecraft username per server each day, and at most three names from one internet connection, so a family or a school can all vote. The day resets at midnight UTC, the same kind of daily reset the big server lists use. We use a bot check and keep only a scrambled fingerprint of your IP address, never the address itself. Vote rewards are delivered to servers through Votifier and NuVotifier (how owners set them up).
Promoted listings
If a server pays to be featured, it says Promoted on it in plain words, in gold, and doesn't take a rank number from the real list. Paying never changes votes, player counts or flags.
Verified owners
A server shows Verified owner when the person managing its listing proved they run it by putting a one-time code in the server's message of the day.
What we don't list
Servers on Mojang's blocked-server list, servers whose owners asked to be removed, and anything reported and confirmed as a scam. Servers that stay offline for 30 days drop off the list automatically.