as I said limiting home connections is not OK

not everyone is kid... a lot of developers do host their test servers. I also do it when test stuff for my main server and prefer to find it in the server browser instead of joining via IP. Also I was not poor 2 years but why should start with paid host when do not know what will happen and successfully run my server on my PC for bout year and a half then migrated to paid host. A lot of people still stay on home host if they have 2nd machine and resources and this do not means they are kids. Probabpy people have setup at home for streaming or whatever and can host 1 server on it.

A simple solution to this is if Facepunch would add an option for the config to make the server public or private. that way server owners could set up a test server without it being added to a server list.  
Also, i don't know why Facepunch don't allow Sever owners to add a password to Servers. that way small groups of friends or clans could play on their own password-protected server without being griefed by other players.

Just seen what's coming next month and Cant imagine playing flocking back to play with a camper van .... so another quiet month next month too.

Also they can mak singleplayer like hosting vanilla server from your game or idk (no connection required to the internet for solo play)... also useful... Anyways I think nothing of this will happen but password protected command would be great for events or private close friends servers...

jure12

That's why there are 2000 Rust servers to choose from on the Rust Master List unfortunately.

Why do you even care? No one plays on those servers the kids who run them and their friends? It has no impact on other server pops because they don't have a reason to go to Random Kid Sever #1210

There's probably a multitude of factors behind lower numbers on servers.

1. Going by Steam numbers, overall and peak players in Rust have dropped since July/August by substantial number. About 1/3rd (150k down to 100k peak). Those numbers were likely boosted in July because of the OTV server, getting some people into playing Rust for a bit. This mirrors a lot of what was seen at the start of the year, where Rust saw huge amounts of increases to player numbers because of the popularity that the OTV streamers were giving it at the time. This declined back down over the next few months, only to jump up again in July. 

2. COVID restrictions are being lessened in a lot of countries and were quite likely a major reason for Rust's more recent popularity in the last two years, March 2020 saw a very decent jump in player numbers on Steam which is about when countries started implementing COVID restrictions.

3. Patches, August patch was pretty interesting, adding subs and underwater content, but September's patch was pretty minor and not a lot of interest got changed. October's camper van is nice, but it's not really an attention grabber and I'd expect most of the patch will be QoL fixes/updates. Great for current players, but it doesn't really get people picking the game up again or buying it.

Taking all of that into account, it's not strange to see smaller servers (50 players or under) dropping numbers. As numbers drop due to people being able to go out and do stuff again or losing interest, players want to find more populated servers to play on, growing larger servers but starving smaller ones. 

But yeah, sure, 0-1 player servers run on kids computers are the real problem, right?

Home servers usually have poor speeds and even worse performance. I'm not sold on the idea that server pops are down because there are too many children hosting Rust from home. I'm not sure about you, but I use filters when searching and mostly sort by Ping. None of the zero pop servers show up when you do this. If you want a server to be successful you have to promote it via social and other channels and offer something people are looking for. It does help immensely when a popular player streams or advertises it for you.

ErikaSupreme

Why do you even care? No one plays on those servers the kids who run them and their friends? It has no impact on other server pops because they don't have a reason to go to Random Kid Sever #1210

There's probably a multitude of factors behind lower numbers on servers.

1. Going by Steam numbers, overall and peak players in Rust have dropped since July/August by substantial number. About 1/3rd (150k down to 100k peak). Those numbers were likely boosted in July because of the OTV server, getting some people into playing Rust for a bit. This mirrors a lot of what was seen at the start of the year, where Rust saw huge amounts of increases to player numbers because of the popularity that the OTV streamers were giving it at the time. This declined back down over the next few months, only to jump up again in July. 

2. COVID restrictions are being lessened in a lot of countries and were quite likely a major reason for Rust's more recent popularity in the last two years, March 2020 saw a very decent jump in player numbers on Steam which is about when countries started implementing COVID restrictions.

3. Patches, August patch was pretty interesting, adding subs and underwater content, but September's patch was pretty minor and not a lot of interest got changed. October's camper van is nice, but it's not really an attention grabber and I'd expect most of the patch will be QoL fixes/updates. Great for current players, but it doesn't really get people picking the game up again or buying it.

Taking all of that into account, it's not strange to see smaller servers (50 players or under) dropping numbers. As numbers drop due to people being able to go out and do stuff again or losing interest, players want to find more populated servers to play on, growing larger servers but starving smaller ones. 

But yeah, sure, 0-1 player servers run on kids computers are the real problem, right?

You don't understand unfortunately. when you make a wipe on the server the players come and the kids do the wipe every now and then on their home computers. In short, too many children run the Rust server without paying 1 cent on their shitty home computers.

jure12

You don't understand unfortunately. when you make a wipe on the server the players come and the kids do the wipe every now and then on their home computers. In short, too many children run the Rust server without paying 1 cent on their shitty home computers.

I understand plenty, no one wants to play on no name random servers with 1 or 2 people. How is this so hard for you to grasp?

ErikaSupreme

I understand plenty, no one wants to play on no name random servers with 1 or 2 people. How is this so hard for you to grasp?

Because he desperatly needs someone to agree with him/her , There are over 4000 servers of various types and if you dont want to play on small servers with small populations you dont go there , simple as that,

Btw children hosted servers as jure12 said updates after the update but sometimes a lot of owners cuz they are new or busy update later when they can. Anyways let's move to the main thing I want to say. Good servers despite the fact hosted by children or someone else have GREAT NAME. Children hosted servers like jure12 calls them are sometimes test servers also hosted not by children but still it's a group of servers with weird/default/test name made for friends/testing or just kid start a public server named FortniteRust or Fortnite Pro Server or My Cool server, so you can ignore this server. If kid host for example [EU] RustyAirdrops x10 Kits/Homes/Taxi/Events you can check the server and then freely stay or leave if you see admin abuse/dumb owner kid, broken plugins, or whatever... Also kids can pay for host and again run the same shit you explain above for free but paying money then what?

Console took a lot of players and will saps any new players to boot.
Going by server count at gamesrvers is now under 650 when before console it was over 950.
My low pop solo server never reached a ranking there better than 300 and now ranks 160ish.
Writing is on the wall and all fp did was open a gay bar and fubar'ed the maps.

Sadly, i must admit that there is a huge decrease indeed since the first lockdown. I had to shut down 6 Gameservers as they became inactive. ( 3x rust, 2x dayz and 1x deadside ) 
We lost 4 sponsors, 240+ members ish ( roughly counted ) and I even lost my own Company due to the lockdown. A massive setback, but we keep going. No matter what's coming to our path. Sometimes, we just gonna have to set a step back before we are able to take two steps forwards. 

if I would look at my job at " a gameserver company " then we also see a decrease in server rental in common.