Rust Population · notes

About Rust Population

We count Rust players on public servers every five minutes, and write down where and when we found them.

The in-game server browser tells you a name and a number and little else. Rust Population keeps a record instead. Every five minutes we read Steam's public Rust server list: names, player counts, queues and the tags each server publishes. We also ask each server directly for its map seed, FPS and entity count. Some servers do not answer those direct questions, so for those you see only what Steam publishes. Where a figure is missing, the site says so rather than filling the gap.

From those readings we keep population history, wipes, rankings and settings for every public server. That lets you check how busy a server is tonight, whether it was busy last Tuesday, when it last wiped and what its group limit is, before you spend an evening joining it. You can start from the full server population list, the servers that just wiped, or the wipe schedule.

Ranks come from players over the past week, counted hour by hour. A server that is busy every day sits above one that fills for a single evening after a wipe. Lists are ordered by player count and never by payment. The site is independent and run by Rust players. It is not affiliated with Facepunch Studios and nothing here is endorsed by them. Server names, descriptions and images belong to the people who run those servers.

Everything shown comes from what servers publish about themselves. If something about your server looks wrong, the correction usually sits in the server's own settings, and your change should appear within about five minutes. If it still looks wrong after that, write to hello@rustpopulation.world.

Queries from the field · 3

Questions

Q.1Who runs Rust Population?

Rust Population is an independent site built by Rust players. It has no connection to Facepunch Studios, and nothing on the site is endorsed by them. Server names, descriptions and images remain the property of the people who run those servers.

Q.2How often are the player counts updated?

We read Steam's public Rust server list and query servers directly every five minutes. Counts and rankings refresh on that cycle, so a number you see is at most about five minutes old. Where a server does not answer our direct queries, only its Steam figures are shown.

Q.3How are the server rankings worked out?

Ranks use the player count over the past week, measured hour by hour. That means a server that stays busy across the week ranks above one that fills up for a single evening after a wipe. Order is set by player count, never by payment.