In the world of Minecraft, server infrastructure ranges from gaming among a small circle of friends to massive platforms like Hypixel that host tens of thousands of players. These servers, powered by various groups, individuals, or companies, constitute a diverse and dynamic ecosystem. To maintain their operations, servers typically depend on revenues from the sale of goods such as donations, ranks, cosmetics, and other purchasable items, often via dedicated online stores.
However, despite the importance of these financial transactions for server survival, the exact amount of revenue generated often remains shrouded in mystery. This is due to the private nature of transactions and the lack of transparency in many server stores. This article, based on an in-depth investigation conducted by TheMisterEpic, aims to lift the veil on these financial mysteries. From analyzing the revenues of small servers to platforms hosting up to 10,000 players, this investigation unveils insights that may well surprise many readers.
Table of Contents
How the Data Was Tracked
These insights were obtained thanks to an investigation conducted by TheMisterEpic and his team. They used a specialized program to track and document each purchase made in Minecraft server stores. This program ran for 30 days, capturing a precise snapshot of these servers’ revenues.
The program used by TheMisterEpic works by recording each purchase made in the “recent purchases” section of server stores. Although this section typically only shows 5 to 10 recent purchases (which may represent only an hour or two of transactions for some servers), the program captures each purchase, providing a complete view of revenues over a 30-day period.
For this investigation, TheMisterEpic selected 19 servers, with player counts ranging from 10 to 10,000. These servers were chosen to represent a wide variety of game modes and mini-games. He included extremely pay-to-win servers, cracked servers, servers from different countries, YouTuber servers, and even some non-paying servers.
Revenues of Different Types of Servers
Small Non-Pay-to-Win Servers
Let’s start with some of the smallest servers on TheMisterEpic’s list. These servers are generally non-pay-to-win, meaning they don’t sell in-game advantages for real money.
- PVP Gym: A Germany-based server with an average of 100 players, PVP Gym generated about $917.96 over the 30-day tracking period. Their most popular rank, “Muscle Man” at 50 euros, was the most common purchase.
- Massive Craft: The original creator of the Minecraft Factions plugin and game mode, Massive Craft has an impressive history and a rich RPG universe. With an average of 40 to 50 players, they earned about $1,170.54 per month.
- Archer MC: A prison server with a regular peak of over 1,000 players, ArcherMC is pay-to-win and offers many ranks, items, commands, boosts, and others for purchase. However, it only generated $1,256.96, with a large part of this amount coming from four to five players.
- Fire Vanilla: The first SMP (Survival Multiplayer) on this list, Fire Vanilla is a primarily non-pay-to-win server with an average of 75 to 125 players. They earned $1,693.48 over the last 30 days.
Small non-pay-to-win servers, despite their modest size, are capable of generating revenue through innovative means, such as unbans for cheating. Their balanced and accessible approach to gaming could be a reason why players are willing to spend money to support these communities.
Medium-Sized and Cracked Servers
Let’s now move on to medium-sized and cracked servers, which allow players who haven’t purchased Minecraft to play.
- Hylex MC: A “copy” of Hypixel for cracked Minecraft players, Hylex MC has an average of 350 to 400 players. Despite this, they only generated about $1,711.54 over the last 30 days.
- Mine Berry: Another pay-to-win cracked server, Mine Berry hosts over 1,500 players per day. Yet, they only earn $3,241 per month.
- Stray.gg: A growing non-pay-to-win server, Stray has an average of 100 to 225 players per day. Their “Stray” rank is the most popular, with 62 purchases, contributing to a total of $2,225 earned over the last 30 days.
- LifestealSMP.com: Another non-pay-to-win server with an average of about 125 players. They earned about $3,114, with two big spenders, “Reaperghost187” and “fatdimcfartson”, accounting for a third of the server’s revenue.
- Purity Vanilla: The first Anarchy server on this list, with an average of 75 players. They had a good month, earning about $3,161.
Medium-sized and cracked servers can host a large number of players, but their revenues don’t always reflect this popularity. It’s interesting to note that players are willing to support these servers despite playing cracked versions of Minecraft, which speaks to the community’s commitment to these platforms.
Semi P2W/P2W Servers
Let’s now move on to semi pay-to-win and pay-to-win servers, which sell in-game advantages for real money.
- Vanilla Europa: A semi-vanilla server with an average of 50 to 60 players. Despite their small size, they generated about $3,612, three times more than Massive Craft, a similarly sized non-pay-to-win server.
- MelonSMP: A typical, generic server with an average of 40 to 50 players. Yet, they managed to earn about $3,918 per month.
- MineVille: Another small pay-to-win server that claims to have 180 people online, when in reality, they average about 75 to 80 players. Despite this, they managed to earn about $4,646 per month.
- Speed MC: A server that sells a lot of things and has an average of 60 to 70 players. They managed to earn almost $5,000 over the last 30 days.
- MineMalia: A cracked server that regularly peaks at over 1,000 players per day, with an average of about 700. Despite this, they managed to earn just over $6,000 over the last 30 days.
Semi P2W/P2W servers manage to generate substantial revenues despite a smaller player base, thanks to the sale of in-game advantages. This highlights the attractiveness of Pay-to-Win game mechanics for some players, who are willing to pay to gain an advantage in the game.
Large Servers
We now enter the league of very large servers. The next servers we’ll mention all earn well over five figures per month.
- UniversoCraft: The second-largest Minecraft server behind Hypixel and the largest Spanish Minecraft server, with a regular peak of 10,000 unique players. They earned $20,205 in total over the last 30 days.
- CraftMC.pl: The second-largest server in Poland, with a daily peak of over 2,500 players. Despite a population a quarter of UniversoCraft’s, they managed to earn $27,751 over the last 30 days.
- LoverFellaCraft: A server owned by famous Minecraft YouTuber, LoverFella, with an average of about 300 players. Despite this small size, they managed to earn a huge amount of $29,612.76 over the last 30 days.
- Purple Prison: A server infamously known for its aggressive monetization and deception methods. With an average of 75 to 100 players, they managed to earn $32,115.73 over the last 30 days.
- Manacube: A well-established server, nearly 10 years old, with an average of 750 players. They managed to earn about $36,227.95 over the last 30 days.
Massive servers, with their huge player populations, are capable of generating significant revenues. This speaks to the effectiveness of their monetization strategies and the commitment of their player base. However, managing such a scale requires competent management and constant attention to the balance between monetization and gaming experience.
How Much Money Does Hypixel Make?
To estimate Hypixel’s revenues, TheMisterEpic extrapolated from the information gathered on other servers. Assuming the average revenue of a Minecraft server is $10,000 per month for an average of 158 players, and that Hypixel has an average of 41,000 players, he calculated that Hypixel earns about $2.5 million per month. This equates to about $31 million per year.
However, recognizing that some servers could skew this average due to their particularly high revenues relative to their player base, TheMisterEpic then redid the calculations excluding certain servers such as Loverfellacraft and Purple Prison. This gave a more moderate estimate of $1.65 million per month.
Pushing this logic further, he also eliminated ManaCube, resulting in a very conservative estimate of $1.46 million per month. Moreover, assuming that Hypixel generates similar revenues to ManaCube relative to their player base, and taking into account that Hypixel Skyblock is pay-to-win, this would give Hypixel revenues of about $1.86 million per month.
Finally, applying the same reasoning to Purple Prison, which has a particularly high player/donation ratio, the estimate of Hypixel’s revenues rises to an incredible $14.6 million per month.
However, it’s important to note that these figures are very approximate and can vary greatly from one month to another. Hypixel is an exceptional server with no real comparison, and the most accurate estimate would probably be $1.65 million per month.
Conclusion
One of the most striking results of this investigation conducted by TheMisterEpic is the disparity in revenues between pay-to-win and non-pay-to-win servers. Non-pay-to-win servers often earn much less money than their pay-to-win counterparts, even if they have a similar player population.
It’s also important to remember that these revenues are not net profit. Servers have significant operating costs, such as maintenance costs, server costs, plugin costs, staff costs, advertising costs, and time investments. These costs can reduce a server’s profits by 50% or more.
Despite these challenges, it’s clear that Minecraft servers can be a lucrative source of revenue, especially if they’re willing to adopt pay-to-win monetization models. However, it’s also clear that non-pay-to-win servers can still survive and thrive, even if they earn less money.
