Rust players around update days
How do the number of Rust players and online servers in the week after each monthly update day compare with the week before, and with ordinary Thursdays?
In the week after a monthly update day, Rust player numbers changed by 40.4% against the week before (median across the update days measured; a minus sign means fewer). Online servers changed by -2.9%.
Monthly update days
The median change across the monthly update days measured: the average of the seven daily readings after the update day against the seven up to and including it. Ordinary Thursdays are measured the same way for comparison.
- change in players, week after against week before an update day (median)
- 40.4%
- change in online servers, week after against week before an update day (median)
- -2.9%
- change in players around ordinary Thursdays (median)
- -3.5%
- change in online servers around ordinary Thursdays (median)
- 0%
Players day by day around an update day
Each day's player reading as a percentage of the same update day's week-before average (100%), averaged over the monthly update days measured. Day 0 is the update day; its reading is taken just after midnight UTC, before the update ships in the evening.
- Day -6: 113.7% of the week before
- Day -5: 124.5% of the week before
- Day -4: 122% of the week before
- Day -3: 96.2% of the week before
- Day -2: 95.3% of the week before
- Day -1: 80.5% of the week before
- Day 0: 67.8% of the week before
- Day 1: 173.2% of the week before
- Day 2: 166.6% of the week before
- Day 3: 166% of the week before
- Day 4: 130.5% of the week before
- Day 5: 130.5% of the week before
- Day 6: 113.3% of the week before
- Day 7: 104.7% of the week before
Bottom axis: days from the update day (UTC). Height: players as a percentage of the week-before average.
Each update day
Average daily players and online servers over the readings before and after each update day, and the change. The last row is the median of ordinary Thursdays at least two weeks from any update day, for comparison. Servers in sample is the lowest online-server count among the readings used.
| Update day | Servers in sample | Players, week before | Players, week after | Players change | Online servers, week before | Online servers, week after | Online servers change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly update, 2026-08-06 | 11,803 | 62,770.7 | 88,114.1 | 40.4% | 12,544.7 | 12,357.9 | -1.5% |
| Monthly update, 2026-09-03 | 11,715 | 49,854.6 | 66,801.6 | 34% | 12,484.7 | 11,893.4 | -4.7% |
| Monthly update, 2026-10-01 | 11,270 | 45,803.4 | 67,654.4 | 47.7% | 11,891.6 | 11,552.6 | -2.9% |
| Ordinary Thursdays (median of 2) | 11,757 | 59,548.4 | 57,135.6 | -3.5% | 12,201.6 | 12,196.9 | 0% |
Method notes
- Question
- How do the number of Rust players and online servers in the week after each monthly update day compare with the week before, and with ordinary Thursdays?
- Data window
- to (UTC)
- Sample
- 12,152 servers
- Definitions
- A monthly update day is the first Thursday of the month (UTC date); the update ships that evening at 19:00 London time. A reading is GameSentry's daily count, taken just after midnight UTC, of the players on public servers online at that moment and of those servers. The week before is the readings from 6 days before the update day up to the update day itself, all taken before the update ships; the week after is the 7 readings that follow. The change is the week-after average against the week-before average. Summary figures are medians across the monthly update days of the last 12 months that could be measured. Ordinary Thursdays are Thursdays at least 14 days from any update day and from each other, measured the same way. Only totals across all servers are published; no server is named.
- Exclusions
- Readings with fewer than 25 online servers; update days and Thursdays with fewer than 5 readings on either side; servers that are not public, were removed or are hidden from the server list by their owner. Nothing is published until at least 3 monthly update days can be measured.
- Minimum sample
- Rows backed by fewer than 25 servers are withheld, along with any row whose figures would let one be worked out (0 withheld in this edition). A study whose whole sample is below that is not published.
- Known limits
- The monthly update ships together with the force wipe, when nearly every server wipes, so the study cannot separate the effect of the update from the effect of the wipe. Seasons, sales, holidays and other events in the same weeks also move player numbers. The figures describe what happened around update days, not what caused it: a change that lines up with an update is not proof the update caused it. There is one reading a day at the same time, so changes during the day are not seen. Player counts are what servers report to the server list. Only monthly update days are listed for now; individual major updates and devblogs will be added once their dates are confirmed.
Use this data
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a citation.
Cite this report
GameSentry, Rust players around update days: October 2026 study, https://gamesentry.gg/reports/rust/studies/update-impact/2026-10Want the numbers right now?
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