A new statistic this year is the key exchange algorithm used by #IRC servers with TLS. This shows X25519MLKEM768 available on 10%. It's the only quantum-safe algorithm at the moment that protects against "Harvest now, decrypt later". See https://www.ircstats.org/server-features/tls#kex

Support for X25519MLKEM768 is limited because it was added in OpenSSL 3.5, released in Apr 2025. Most Linux distros don't ship with this yet. Debian 13 and Fedora 43 have it. Ubuntu 26.04 will have it in 2026. Next year should be better.

NEW: Dec 2025 statistics published on #IRC Server deployment on the internet. See https://ircstats.org.
Both IPv4 and IPv6 were scanned on port 6667 and 6697. In total, 6660 IRC servers were found, of which 4991 were publicly accessible.

NEW: Dec 2024 statistics published on #IRC Server deployment on the internet. See https://ircstats.org.
Both IPv4 and IPv6 were scanned. Almost 6700 IRC servers were found, of which around 5250 were publicly accessible.

The final gathering of IRC Stats for Dec'24 starts in 5 minutes. Sorry to all IRC networks for the noise!
IRCStats gathers statistics on #IRC usage on the Internet, see https://ircstats.org.
We DO NOT publish any server/network/nick/channel names. IRCStats is NOT an indexer.

This goes in 4 sweeps, like every year: first port 6667, then 6697 (TLS). After that from a different IP the other way around: the remaining 6697 that did not get fully connected yet on IRC, and then the same for 6667.

NEW STATS: #IRC Server software in use on the Internet (based on 5500+ publicly accessible servers):
#UnrealIRCd 38%, #InspIRCd 21%, ngircd 9%, Hybrid 8%. Ergo grows to 3.5%. See details at https://ircstats.org

NEW: Dec 2023 statistics published on #IRC server deployment on the internet! See https://ircstats.org.
Both IPv4 and IPv6 were scanned. Almost 7000 IRC servers were found, of which around 5500 were publicly accessible.

The final gathering of IRC Stats for Dec'23 starts in 15m. Sorry to all IRC networks for the noise!
IRCStats gathers statistics on #IRC usage on the Internet, see https://ircstats.org.
We DO NOT publish any server/network/nick/channel names. IRCStats is NOT an indexer.

This goes in 4 sweeps, like every year: first port 6667, then 6697 (TLS). After that from a different IP address the other way around: the remaining 6697 that did not get fully connected yet on IRC, and then the same for 6667.