Project Zomboid and BattleMetrics: the Settings That Decide Whether Anyone Finds You
BattleMetrics is a third-party server tracker, and there is nothing to install on your server for it. Whatever a tracker does on its own side, it can only list a server it is able to reach and read. That part is decided entirely inside your own server settings, and when a running server is missing from any list, it is usually one of a handful of them.
This page covers the part you control and can verify. It does not explain how any tracker discovers or ranks servers, because that is their system, not something readable from the game, and a confident guess about it would be worth nothing to you.
Read from the shipped build. Every setting name and every quoted description below was taken on September 17, 2026 from the Project Zomboid dedicated server on the default branch, Steam buildid 24909836. The wording is the game's own.
The settings that decide whether you are visible
| Setting | The game's own description | What it means for being found |
|---|---|---|
Public | "Shows the server on the in-game browser. (Note: Steam-enabled servers are always visible in the Steam server browser)" | The main switch, and the one people miss. Read the note carefully: a Steam-enabled server is visible in the Steam browser regardless, so Public is narrower than it looks. |
PublicName | "Name of the server displayed in the in-game browser and, if applicable, the Steam browser" | This is the string people search a list for. A server left on its default name is findable only by someone who already knows the address. |
PublicDescription | "Description displayed in the in-game public server browser. Typing \n will create a new line in your description" | The line-break syntax is the game's own and is the detail most people never find. Use it rather than shipping one unreadable paragraph. |
Password | "Clients must know this password to join the server. (Ignored when hosting a server via the Host button)" | A password does not hide you from a list, it stops people joining once they find you. Two different problems. |
Open | "Clients may join without already having an account in the whitelist. If set to false, administrators must manually create username/password combos." | With this off, your server still appears and still shows as online, and people still cannot get in. See the whitelist guide. |
MaxPlayers | "Maximum number of players that can be on the server at one time. This excludes admins. WARNING: Server player counts above 32 will potentially result in poor map streaming and desync. Please advance with caution." | The warning is the developers' own. A large advertised slot count that desyncs under load costs you more players than a smaller one that holds. |
UPnP | "Attempt to configure a UPnP-enabled internet gateway to automatically setup port forwarding rules. The server will fall back to default ports if this fails" | Read the second half. It fails quietly and carries on, which is a common reason a server looks fine locally and is invisible from outside. |
SteamVAC | "Enable the Steam VAC system" | Affects who can play, not whether you are listed. Included because it is often changed by accident while hunting a visibility problem. |
RCON: two settings, and one of them is a liability
Remote console is how external tools send commands to your server. Project Zomboid exposes exactly two settings for it:
RCONPort, described simply as "The port for the RCON (Remote Console)".RCONPassword, where the game itself adds the instruction: "RCON password (Pick a strong password)".
That parenthesis is in the shipped game text, and it is there for a reason. RCON is a plain command channel into your server. Anyone who reaches the port with the password can run anything an admin can. Three rules follow:
- Never reuse your admin or account password. It is a separate secret with a separate blast radius.
- Do not forward the RCON port unless you actually need remote access. It has nothing to do with players joining, and the port forwarding guide covers which ports do.
- Treat handing the password to any third-party dashboard as granting full server control. That is a real trade, sometimes worth making, but make it knowingly.
If you only want to run commands yourself, you do not need RCON at all. The command list covers the in-game console, which needs no open port and no shared secret.
Your server is running and still not listed
Work down this order. It is arranged so the cheap checks come before the ones that involve your router.
- Is it actually finished starting? A server still generating the map answers nothing. Read the console before you change any setting.
- Is
Publicset, and did the server restart after you set it? Editing a config while the server runs changes nothing until it reads the file again. - Is
PublicNamesomething you can search for? If you are scrolling a list looking for a default name, you will not find it. - Are you reachable from outside your own network? This is the big one and it has its own page: the port closed warning explains why forwarding one port is usually not enough. A tracker that cannot query you cannot list you.
- Did UPnP silently fail? The game's own description says it falls back rather than stopping. Check the ports you are actually listening on rather than the ones you meant to use.
- Give it time before you change anything else. If every check above passes, stop. Changing three settings at once is how you lose track of which one mattered, and a server that has only just come up may simply not have been picked up yet.
Listed and online is not the same as joinable. A whitelisted server with Open set to false shows as online to every tracker while refusing everyone who has no account. If people tell you the list says you are up but they cannot get in, that setting is the first place to look, not your firewall.
What this page will not tell you
How a tracker orders its server list is its own business logic, and any specific claim about weightings is a guess dressed as fact. What is safe to say is the obvious part: a server that is reachable, correctly named, honestly described, and actually up when people click it will do better on any list than one that is not. All four of those are settings on your side, which is the whole point of this page. The tracker itself lives at battlemetrics.com.
Related: all server settings for the complete list, multiplayer settings for the ones worth tuning, and RCON for the remote console in more depth.
Reach people without fighting your router. Host your Project Zomboid server with Supercraft and it arrives publicly reachable, with the ports already open.