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Social and VoIP platform Discord was launched in 2015 as a gamers-friendly communication platform, but it also acquired popularity among non-gaming audiences in recent years. The platform allows users to create or join thematic communities called servers, and as of February 2026, the Midjourney server was the most popular community on Discord, with over million members. Midjourney is an AI-powered text-to-image tool, which is accessible via a Discord bot on the official Discord server of the program. The second most popular Discord server was Steal a Brainrot, with *** million members.

Not just a gamers’ space: Discord for communities

While gaming servers are still among the most popular online spaces on the platform – with communities such as Marvel Rivals and the official Genshin Impact server amassing more than **** and *** million users respectively – Discord is also a space for several different communities to come together. Educational servers, which have been growing on the platform since the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic, range from language learning to hacking and programming, with the server “MikaParadise” counting over *** million Discord users and the server for Sui counting over ** users, respectively. Cross-platform communities include online spaces in which users share content from other social media, such as affiliated Reddit servers and TikTok-based communities. Lofi Girl and Dadscord were two of the most popular music servers on Discord, with ***registered resharing content from the popular social video platform.

Discord servers: the challenge of providing self-managed online spaces

As Discord is composed by both public and private groups, moderating servers and enforcing the company’s Terms of Service represents a challenge. According to Discord, ** percent of the company’s employees are assigned to safety and moderation. However, servers on the platform are also moderated in their day-to-day activity by volunteer moderators. While Discord has repeatedly reported they do not have access to the four billion messages users exchange daily on the platform, in 2017 the company attracted global attention when it was revealed that it was used by alt-right groups in the United States to plan and organize the “Unite the Right 2.0” rally in Virginia, which culminated with a terroristic attack that left one dead and several wounded. Since then, Discord has engaged in several campaigns to remove servers classified as promulgating violent extremism: during the fourth quarter of 2023, *** servers were proactively removed from the platform due to violent extremism by the company’s safety and moderation team, while ** servers were reactively removed after users’ report.