The server list is a menu screen where players can join and manage the servers they visit. Players can see if a server is online, check how many player slots it has, and how good the connection to the server is.
Description
The server list allows players to save a new server on the list, join an already existing one, or directly connect to a server by manually specifying the server address.
When first loading up the multiplayer list, the player receives a warning regarding online play not being rated. If the player wishes not to see this again, there is an option that disables the warning permanently.
Servers appear on the list in a set order, which can be changed by hovering over a server icon and using the arrows to move the server up or down on the list. Alternatively, player can hold ⇧ Shift and press the up ↑ and down ↓ arrow keys on the keyboard.
Once a server is added, it appears on the list and contains four main elements:
- Server icon and server title on the first row, which shows the server icon in 64×64 pixel size and the title specified by the player. The server icon can be specified by adding
server-icon.pngimage file into the server.jar's working directory. By default, if the server icon is not specified, it shows a grayscale pack.png as a fallback.
- Message of the day (often abbreviated as MOTD) on the second row, which shows a short message from the server. The message can be specified through
motdoption in the server.properties, and supports the legacy formatting codes for text customization. By default, the MOTD is written as "A Minecraft Server".
- Status indicator on the top right, which shows the number of online players in the server, and a network bar indicator that shows how good the player's connection to the server; when hovering over the indicator, a tooltip shows the player's ping time to the server.
The game automatically lists LAN-based servers at the bottom, usually containing the server's owner, world name, and address on the local network.
The ping icons correspond to the following ping times:
| Icon | Server ping time |
|---|---|
|
Can't connect to server |
|
Between 0 and 150ms |
|
Between 150 and 300ms |
|
Between 300 and 600ms |
|
Between 600 and 1000ms |
|
Above 1000ms |
Public server list
Official Minecraft Server List
The Official Minecraft Server List is published by GamerSafer and Mojang Studios. It includes variety of servers for players to choose, such as minigames, SMPs, creative builds, and more. The website also includes server badges, which are awarded by GamerSafer, and show additional safety features they provide.
All servers listed on the website are required to comply with Minecraft Usage Guidelines (MUG) and End-user license agreement (EULA), and have been vetted by both GamerSafer and the Mojang Enforcement Team. They must also provide official contact information and state the purpose of the server.
Community server list
Public server lists allow server owners to advertise their servers by listing their IP address and other information for players to discover. Early Minecraft featured an official server list for Classic, while the Minecraft Forums later became the primary hub for advertising multiplayer servers. As dedicated server-list websites emerged and grew in popularity, they gradually replaced forum-based discovery. Following the closure of the Minecraft Forums server listings in 2018, independent server-list websites became the primary method of finding public Java Edition servers.[1] In most cases, votes and bumps determine how servers rank within community server lists, with many resetting votes monthly.[2]
History
Classic server list
| ? | Since the Classic era, Mojang used to provide an official server list on the Minecraft.net website, where users can directly play and join other people's Minecraft servers on their browser. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 14, 2011 | The Classic server list was phased out after the release of Beta 1.8. Some functionality of Classic servers were not working, like sounds and saving levels to the online server. | ||||||
| September 12, 2015 | The Classic server list was removed entirely from the website. | ||||||
Java Edition
| Java Edition Beta | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.8 | Pre-release | Added server list. | |||||
| Before, the multiplayer section did not support saving multiple servers and displayed only the last server visited. It was just a simple input prompt box for the server IP address/site. | |||||||
| The ability to save and view multiple servers has now been added to server lists. | |||||||
| Java Edition | |||||||
| 1.3.2 | release | It is now possible to hit F1 on the player's keyboard to hide/show server IPs in the server list. | |||||
| 1.4.2 | ? | The server list now shows the version of an outdated server. | |||||
| The player can no longer attempt to connect to an outdated server via the server list menu. | |||||||
| 1.7.2 | 13w41a | Added server icons to the server list. | |||||
| The server list now lists the current players on a server when the player number is hovered over. | |||||||
| Support has now been added for multi-line MOTD comments for the server list. | |||||||
| Server IP is now always hidden in the server list, and "Polling..." is no longer shown. | |||||||
| 1.8 | 14w02a | Server lists now show the server platform. | |||||
Gallery
Historical screenshots
-
The original suggestion image for the server list -
The first image of the server list, posted by Notch on Reddit -
Various community server icons, posted by Dinnerbone on Twitter
Classic server
-
Classic server list page, captured from July 4, 2010 -
A spleef minigame played in Java Edition Classic on the browser
