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September 2026 · so far

The State of Quake III Arena

Every number here comes from QuakeHub polling every public Quake III Arena server on Earth every 90 seconds, real players only, bots filtered out, since August 2026. This month is still being written.

MonthQuarterYear
September 2026August 2026
All Games–Quake Live–Quake III Arena–Quake II–QuakeWorld–CPMA–NetQuake–Quake (Enhanced)–Quake 4–Bloodrun–Quake Wars–QC: Doom Edition–Quake Champions–
Quake III Arena
All Games–Quake Live–Quake III Arena–Quake II–QuakeWorld–CPMA–NetQuake–Quake (Enhanced)–Quake 4–Bloodrun–Quake Wars–QC: Doom Edition–Quake Champions–
3,940,505
frags scoredby real players, counted between polls
34,868
hours of Quake III Arena played
70.8▲ 5%
players online on average
227▲ 13%
peak players at once
189
servers hosting real matches2+ real humans and a real frag
1,529
bots detectedon a typical poll

Players by day

Average online each day. Shaded columns are weekends; hover or click a day for its number.
50100150 avg 68 120peak · Sep 2 today, so far Sep 181522 50100150 avg 68 120peak · Sep 2 today, so far Sep 181522

Servers on the map

! ^-UnFreeZe.fpsclasico.de (Sep 23, 16:08) - 4,227 hours***2026 FREE - 2,562 hoursQ3MSK FREEZE - 2,398 hours! ^&FreeFUn.fpsclasico.eu (Sep 23, 15:59) - 1,760 hours! 2x RAIL FFA - 1,489 hoursRETRO|FFA - 1,302 hoursQ3RETRO.COM|CTF - 1,224 hours*A51* FFA - 1,222 hours! 1x RAIL FFA - 1,165 hours! ALT-Retro FFA - 948 hoursQ3MSK CA(PL) - 930 hoursQ3MSK CTF(DE) - 753 hours
189 servers hosted a real match this month (2+ real humans and a real frag) - dot size is hours of play. Watch it live on the world map.

By hour and weekday

Average players in each hour of the week, UTC. Brighter is busier; hover a cell for its number.
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
12am6am12pm6pm11pm
quieterbusiernot sampled yet
Busiest slot: Mon 18:00 UTC, avg 137 players. Prime time: 15:00-22:00, busy every day.
By hour · UTC
12am6am12pm6pm11pm
By weekday
68
Mon
51
Tue
74
Wed
66
Thu
71
Fri
72
Sat
76
Sun

Records

Top row: the best September 2026 has seen. Bottom row: the best ever recorded, since August 2026.
September 2026227players online at once on Quake III Arena
Sep 2
September 202632in the fullest single match
! DESPERADO FFA · pro-q3dm13
Sep 5, 17:00 UTC
September 20264,227hours of real players on the busiest server
! ^-UnFreeZe.fpsclasico.de (Sep 23, 16:08)
September 2026120average players on the busiest day
Sep 2
all-time227players online at once on Quake III Arena
Sep 2, 12:00 UTC
all-time35in the fullest single match
! DESPERADO FFA · pro-q3dm13
Aug 14, 10:00 UTC

Maps and countries

400
different maps played
36
countries reached
36,885
matches played

Modes and hosting

Modes
Deathmatch52%
TDM29%
CTF10%
Duel5%
53%
81%
90%
70%
Where servers are hosted
🇩🇪 Germany47%
🇷🇺 Russia20%
🇺🇸 United States17%
🇵🇱 Poland3%
🇨🇿 Czechia3%

Top maps

Share of play-time across 400 maps played. Click a map for its page, or browse every map.
q3dm179.4%
pro-q3dm65.9%
q3dm75%
q3dm143.3%
ztn3tourney13.2%
aedm172.6%
q3dm82.6%
q3dm112.4%
q3dm152.4%
q3dm162.3%

Busiest servers this month

By total hours of real-player time. Click a server to find it in the live browser.
1- ! ^-UnFreeZe.fpsclasico.de (Sep 23, 16:08)Quake III Arena 4,227hours 22peak 15now 2▲1 ***2026 FREEQuake III Arena 2,562hours 21peak 5now 3▼1 Q3MSK FREEZEQuake III Arena 2,398hours 25peak 8now 4- ! ^&FreeFUn.fpsclasico.eu (Sep 23, 15:59)Quake III Arena 1,760hours 22peak 0now 5▲7 ! DM17Quake III Arena 1,727hours 8peak 2now 6▲15 ! 2x RAIL FFAQuake III Arena 1,489hours 7peak 3now 7▼1 RETRO|FFAQuake III Arena 1,302hours 20peak 3now 8▼3 Q3RETRO.COM|CTFQuake III Arena 1,224hours 31peak 1now 9NEW *A51* FFAQuake III Arena 1,222hours 14peak 1now 10▲16 ! 1x RAIL FFAQuake III Arena 1,165hours 6peak 3now

Duels

The Duel ZoneBusiest duel servers, top duel maps, the best time to duel, and the tournament calendar for Quake III Arena.→

Twitch

TwitchPeak streams and viewers, the top streamers, and who streamed the most days for Quake III Arena.→

Play Quake III Arena right now

Everything above is real people on real servers - see who's on right now.
How to Play Quake III Arena
  1. Get the game data: Quake III Arena on Steam or GOG, or the original CD.
  2. Install a free modern engine, either ioquake3 or the faster Quake3e, and point it at your baseq3 files. Stock Quake III asks master.quake3arena.com, which lists around 945 servers, so your Steam copy already finds plenty of games. The ports are worth it for being actively maintained, widescreen, and free of the old frame-rate ceiling - and they also query directory.ioquake3.org (about 890 more, heavily overlapping) so you see the union of both.
  3. Staying on the stock game? Open the console with ~ and enter sv_master1 "directory.ioquake3.org", then refresh the Internet list.
  4. Playing CPMA / Promode? That scene uses its own engine, CNQ3.

Joining a server Copy the connect string, open the console with ~, and type /connect ip:port.

ioquake3 ↗Quake3e ↗CNQ3 (CPMA) ↗Quake III on Steam ↗Quake III on GOG ↗

Want this data raw? View September 2026 as JSON · API docs

Real players only - bots filtered on every poll. Recording since August 2026.
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