Rust Servers Not Showing
If you're experiencing issues with Rust servers not showing up, you're not alone. This is a common problem caused by several factors related to how Steam queries servers.
Steam servers have a maximum query timeout of 10,000 servers, meaning they can only query 10,000 servers at once. This limitation makes it physically impossible to see all Rust servers that exist. Additionally, Steam tries to "best match" servers for players, but this process doesn't work well in practice and it's somewhat of a potluck if your server shows up or not.
Facepunch Studios (Facepunch Studios) has made efforts to improve this by hiding all empty servers by default in the browser. This helps in listing actual servers with players but also means new empty servers have zero chance of appearing. If you tick the "Show Empty" button, it will revert back to the older, broken version of the browser.
How Do We Beat The System And Get Your Rust Server Listing
A major point to consider is our "Anycast A2S Network." We cheat the system via caching the query data across over 50 global Points of Presence in Europe, America, and Asia. This means that rather than getting the query data directly from the server, it comes from our edge network, resulting in lower latency. This setup fakes the ping, showing any player in the world a really low ping, which increases the odds of Steam listing it in the first place and improves listing time compared to other servers.
All of our VPS, VDS, and dedicated servers, alongside our shared game hosting, include this system. It can be applied in the firewall manager and is automatically applied to all shared game hosting. You can order shared game hosting for £7.50 in the UK or Germany here which does this automatically.