erkThe state of IRC, at a glance.
erkstats tracks live and historical statistics for 138 IRC networks and 20,105 active channels: how many people are online, which communities are largest, and how that is changing over time. Updated every few hours.
Right now the biggest networks are Libera.Chat, HybridIRC and Undernet, and the busiest channels include #kampung, #linux and #sohbet.
Climbing fast beyond the headline names: #Geveze on EfesNet is up 212% and Cuff-Link is up 19% in the last day.
People online
272,745
-4.2% vs yesterday
Active channels
103,203
+0.6% vs yesterday
Networks tracked
138
135 reporting · updated 1 min ago
102k
163k
223k
284k
Oct 25Jan 26Apr 26Jul 26now
No data in this period yet.
Largest networks
Browse all IRC networks →The biggest IRC networks by users online, with a 30-day trend for each. Click any network for its full history, server list and channels.
Libera.Chat
+2.0%
30,895 people
HybridIRC
+4.9%
21,263 people
Undernet
+2.7%
16,821 people
SkyChatz
+1.5%
16,329 people
OFTC
+8.0%
15,251 people
IRCnet
-8.6%
14,655 people
FreeUniBG
+21.9%
12,810 people
Global-Irc.Eu
+8.2%
12,381 people
Largest channels
See the busiest channels →The most active IRC channels across every tracked network, ranked by the number of people in them right now.
#kampung
+95.2%
2,461 people
#linux
-0.2%
2,320 people
#sohbet
-15.4%
1,813 people
#chat
+244.3%
1,732 people
#archlinux
+1.3%
1,593 people
#libera
+5.7%
1,549 people
#python
+1.1%
1,344 people
#kde
-0.6%
1,263 people
Frequently asked questions
Is IRC still used in 2026?
Yes. IRC is still active: erkstats counts 272,745 people online right now across 138 networks and 20,105 channels, refreshed every few hours.
What is the largest IRC network right now?
Libera.Chat is currently the largest IRC network erkstats tracks, with 30,895 users online. See the full ranking of IRC networks.
How many IRC networks are there?
erkstats tracks 138 public IRC networks that it has connected to and gathered statistics from. Browse them all on the networks page.
What are the most active IRC channels?
The busiest channels right now include #kampung, #linux and #sohbet. Explore the largest IRC channels across every network.
How often are the statistics updated?
Network and channel figures refresh every few hours. The most recent sweep was 1 min ago.