How to increase playercount limit on a Minecraft server?

Minecraft servers are extremely popular and considered by many players to be the best way to enjoy the game online with friends. Customizability on servers is near-infinite thanks to server-side plugins and mods, and even wildly unique gamemodes such as Minecraft pixelmon servers are possible.

However, one of the most important decisions to make when first opening any Minecraft server is deciding how many players to accept. This is set by the slot limit, and fortunately for server admins, it's relatively easy to change. For those new to operating servers, this guide will explain how to change the playercount slot limit in the easiest way possible.

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Best ways to change the playercount slots in a Minecraft server

It should be noted that there are multiple different approaches server admins can take to adjust the playercount limit on their Minecraft servers. Depending on the circumstances and setup of the server, some methods may work better than others.

Method 1: Change servers.properties file

The servers.properties file is a central configuration file in which every Minecraft server has and will generate on the first startup. Inside this file, there are a variety of key settings that can be adjusted, one of which is a setting called "max-players".

In order to change the playercount limit on the server, the "max-players" number can be changed to whatever players want it at. After adjusting, players must ensure to save the file and then reboot or startup the Minecraft server.

This method should work in the majority of cases, but if for some reason it does not, players can move on to try some of the other ways listed below.

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Method 2: Install a plugin to override slots

Sometimes, for whatever reason, changing the servers.properties does not change the playercount slots limit. This is most commonly due to a hard-limit set by the server hosting company.

To get around this, server admins can install a simple server plugin that overrides and changes the max slot limit. A good one can be found here.

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Method 3: Change slots in the server panel

The playercount limit can easily be changed with most server hosting platforms (Image via Multicraft)

Another method that might work is to change the playercount slots limit directly through the server panel. For those using Pterodactyl or Multicraft, this should be relatively easy and will be found on the front page of the central server administration panel.

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Method 4: Ask host to change it

If all of the above methods prove unsuccessful in changing the playercount limit, then there is likely a limit set in place by the server hosting company. Henceforth, the only way to change it would be to move to a different host or to ask the current hosting company to change it themselves.