Minecraft server discovery & analytics system.
MineScan is a personal project that grew into a continuously running system for discovering and indexing publicly reachable Minecraft servers. It started as something built during winter break and has evolved over time into a larger data collection and analysis pipeline.
It is built around two main components:
- A discovery scanner that finds new servers
- A live system that continuously updates and maintains server data
- Website: https://minescan.xyz
- API Documentation: https://minescan.xyz/docs
- API: https://data.minescan.xyz
- Discord: https://discord.gg/AYbDNEWgHE
MineScan collects publicly available Minecraft server data and organizes it into a structured database.
This includes:
- Server version and software
- MOTD (server description)
- Player counts and sample data
- Basic server behavior classification (online-mode, offline-mode, whitelist)
A separate live system continuously updates existing entries and tracks changes over time.
New servers are discovered through a scanning pipeline that:
- Detects reachable Minecraft servers
- Reads publicly exposed server status data
- Performs a lightweight protocol handshake, including a minimal login probe (using
popiiumaa), to classify authentication mode for unknown servers (online-mode, offline-mode, or whitelist)
Unknown servers are always processed through this initial scanning pipeline before being moved into the live tracking system.
Once a server is known, it is tracked by a separate live system that periodically re-pings servers to keep data up to date (e.g. version changes, player activity, and status updates).
The identifier popiiumaa appears in server logs because it is used as the username during a minimal Minecraft login handshake.
This handshake is part of a lightweight probe used to determine how a server responds (for example: online-mode, offline-mode, or whitelist behavior).
No gameplay session is established, no chat is sent, and the connection is closed immediately after the response is received.
MineScan only collects information that Minecraft servers already expose publicly.
- No authentication is performed
- No exploitation or vulnerability scanning is used
- No persistent connections are maintained
- No gameplay interaction occurs
- 830,000+ Minecraft servers indexed
- 3,000,000+ unique players observed through server activity
These values are continuously updated and reflect the current state of the dataset.
MineScan is a research and tooling project for:
- Server discovery
- Network-level Minecraft ecosystem analysis
- Data aggregation for publicly reachable servers
It was built as a personal project and expanded over time into a larger system.
To remove your player or server data from MineScan, visit:
If you experience any issues with the automated verification process, you can get help by joining our Discord server: