THE ORB STUDIO

ESX vs QBCore: what servers actually run

ESX is still the most used FiveM framework: 19,829 servers tag themselves with it against 8,784 for QBCore, roughly 56% of all framework-tagged servers. Qbox, the newer QBCore fork, is on 3,911. Counted from the public server list, not from a survey.

The ESX-versus-QBCore argument is usually settled by whoever is loudest. These counts come from the servers themselves — the framework each one declares in its own tags, across the entire public list.

Counted from the full public server list · updated 2026-08-15

35,016
Servers listed
192,773
Players online
8,457
Servers with players

Framework adoption

What each server declares in its own tags. A server that tags nothing is not counted here, which is why these add up to less than the total above.

ESX19,829 56%
QBCore8,784 25%
Qbox3,911 11%
vRP2,761 8%
Standalone58 0%

Where the players are

Players online, grouped by the region each server sets. It is the clearest picture of where a new server has an audience — and where it has competition.

Brazil41,684 players100%
United States26,894 players65%
France18,041 players43%
Arabic15,651 players38%
Germany11,045 players26%
Turkey7,859 players19%
Thailand5,844 players14%
Poland5,489 players13%
Spain5,401 players13%
root-AQ5,355 players13%
pt-PT3,769 players9%
Romania3,027 players7%

How big servers are

Slot count, not players. Most servers are far smaller than the ones people picture when they talk about FiveM.

12,871
Up to 16 slots
37% of servers
2,497
17–32 slots
7% of servers
14,463
33–64 slots
41% of servers
2,751
65–128 slots
8% of servers
671
129–256 slots
2% of servers
1,763
257+ slots
5% of servers

Common questions

Is ESX or QBCore more popular?

ESX, by a wide margin: 19,829 servers versus 8,784 for QBCore. QBCore is newer and grew fast, but ESX has the larger installed base and far more scripts written against it.

What is Qbox?

Qbox is a maintained fork of QBCore, currently on 3,911 servers. It stays close enough to QBCore that most QBCore scripts run on it with small changes, which is why servers migrate between the two.

Can I convert a script from ESX to QBCore?

Usually yes. The framework calls differ but map onto each other closely — player objects, money, inventory and job checks all have equivalents. Our Script Converter does the mapping and reports what it could not translate safely.

Which framework should a new server pick?

Pick by what you plan to buy. ESX has the biggest script catalogue and the most servers (19,829); QBCore has a more modern codebase and a large modern catalogue. Both are safe choices — the wrong move is mixing them.

Keep reading

Figures collected by THE ORB Studio from the public Cfx.re server list. Free to cite with a link back.