How to Change Max Players on Your Minecraft Server

The default max-players value on a fresh Minecraft server is 20. You can raise or lower this based on your server plan and gameplay style.

max-players=20

Recommended RAM and View Distance by Player Count

Each player adds significant load — chunk loading, mob ticking, network sync. Match your view distance and RAM to your peak player count:

Tip: If your server is hitting performance limits, lower view-distance and simulation-distance before adding more RAM. View distance has the biggest performance impact of any single setting. See the Performance Guide for full tuning.

Bypass Player Limit for Admins

Admins can bypass the player limit by setting bypassesPlayerLimit: true in ops.json:

{
  "uuid": "...",
  "name": "AdminName",
  "level": 4,
  "bypassesPlayerLimit": true
}

This lets you join your own server even when it's at max capacity — useful for managing a full server during peak hours.

Set Maximum to Unlimited

Setting max-players=-1 removes the player cap entirely. Not recommended — without a cap, the server can be DDoS'd by automated connection floods.

Related Guides

• Server Properties
• Performance Guide
• How Much RAM
• Render Distance
• AFK Timeout