---
title: "Player Telemetry Setup Guide - Hylist"
description: "Set up player telemetry to track connections, countries, client versions, and join trends by pointing a hostname at Hylist. No plugins required."
canonical_url: "https://hylist.io/id/help/telemetry"
last_updated: 2026-03-04
---

> Index of every page on this site: [llms.txt](https://hylist.io/llms.txt)

# Player Telemetry Setup Guide
Track player connections, see where your players come from, and monitor join trends — all by pointing a hostname at Hylist. No plugins required.

## What is Telemetry?
Hylist's telemetry feature lets you route players through a custom hostname like play.yourserver.com. When a player connects through your hostname, Hylist logs connection metadata then transparently redirects them to your game server. This gives you insight into:

- Where your players connect from (countries)
- Which client versions they use
- What languages and locales they play in
- Player entitlements (game edition info)
- Join trends over time

No server-side plugin is needed — telemetry works entirely at the DNS layer.

## What You'll See in the Dashboard
Once set up, the Telemetry Dashboard gives you:

### Joins & Players
Total joins and unique players over any time range (24h, 7d, 30d, 90d, 1y).

### Trend Chart
A joins-over-time chart showing daily connection trends for each hostname.

### Per-Hostname Breakdown
Compare traffic across hostnames to see which entry points get the most players.

### Demographics
Country distribution, client versions, locales, and player entitlements.

## Step 1: Add a Hostname
1. Go to the Telemetry Dashboard from your server list
2. Select the server you want to track
3. Enter your hostname (e.g. play.yourserver.com) in the "Add hostname" field
4. Click Add

You can add multiple hostnames per server to track different entry points separately.

## Step 2: Create a CNAME Record
In your DNS provider, create a CNAME record pointing your hostname to director.hylist.io:

| **Type** | **Name** | **Target** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `CNAME` | `play` | `director.hylist.io` |

**Cloudflare Users **

Make sure the proxy is disabled for this record. You need the gray cloud (DNS only), not the orange cloud (Proxied). Cloudflare's proxy will intercept the connection and prevent Hylist from routing players to your server.

## Step 3: Wait for DNS Propagation
DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours to propagate, depending on your provider and existing TTL settings. Once Hylist detects the CNAME, your hostname status will switch to Active (green) in the dashboard.

Most providers propagate within 5-15 minutes. If you've been waiting longer than an hour, double-check the CNAME target is exactly director.hylist.io.

## Step 4: Share Your Hostname
Give players your custom address to connect with. Every join through the hostname is tracked and appears in your dashboard in real time.

You can also set your telemetry hostname as the public display address on your Hylist listing, so visitors see play.yourserver.com instead of a raw IP. Look for the "Public Address" section in the Telemetry Dashboard.

## Advanced: Clusters
Clusters are available on every plan. Starter includes one cluster with up to 2 nodes.

If you run multiple backend servers (e.g. regional nodes), you can create clusters to group hostnames together for automatic load-balanced routing:

### Lowest Players
Routes new connections to the node with the fewest players, keeping load balanced automatically.

### Round Robin
Distributes connections evenly across nodes in a rotating order.

Clusters are managed from the Telemetry Dashboard under the "Clusters" section for each server.

## Advanced: Geo Routing
Geo routing is available on the Growth plan and above.

Geo routing lets you direct players to the nearest server based on where they connect from. You create rules per hostname that match by continent or country and route to a specific cluster.

### How It Works
1. A player connects through your hostname (e.g. play.yourserver.com)
2. Hylist looks up the player's country from their IP address
3. The geo rules are evaluated in priority order to find a matching rule
4. The player is routed to the cluster assigned to that rule
5. If no rule matches, the hostname's default cluster is used as a fallback

### Match Types
#### Continent
Match by continent code (e.g. EU, NA, AS). Best for broad regional routing when you have a few nodes spread across the world.

#### Country
Match by ISO country codes (e.g. US, DE, FR). Use for fine-grained routing when you need specific countries to hit specific nodes.

### Example Setup
A server network with clusters in Europe and North America:

| **Priority** | **Match** | **Cluster** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `0` | EU | EU Cluster |
| `1` | NA, SA | US Cluster |

European players get routed to the EU cluster. North and South American players go to the US cluster. Everyone else falls back to the hostname's default cluster.

Rules are evaluated from lowest priority number first. Assign a default cluster to the hostname to handle players that don't match any geo rule.

[Read the full geo routing and clusters guide](https://hylist.io/id/help/geo-routing)

## Troubleshooting
### No joins showing up?
- Make sure DNS has propagated (can take up to 48 hours)
- Verify the CNAME target is exactly director.hylist.io
- Check that the hostname is marked as Active in the dashboard
- If using Cloudflare, ensure the proxy is disabled (gray cloud)

### Hostname shows as inactive?
- Hylist hasn't detected the CNAME yet — wait a few minutes and refresh
- Double-check the DNS record type is CNAME, not A or AAAA
- Ensure there are no conflicting records for the same hostname

### Players can't connect through the hostname?
- Verify your game server is running and accepting connections
- Check that the server address configured in Hylist matches your actual server
- If using Cloudflare, make sure the proxy is disabled (gray cloud, not orange cloud)

## Why Use Player Telemetry
Player telemetry gives you deep insights into your server's player base without requiring any plugins or modifications to your game server. Here's how telemetry data can help you grow and manage your Hytale server more effectively.

### Understand Peak Hours
Telemetry tracks player joins over time, allowing you to identify when your server is most active. Use this data to schedule events, maintenance windows, and staff availability during peak hours for the best player experience.

### Geographic Insights
See where your players are connecting from around the world. This helps you make informed decisions about server hosting locations, language support, and time-zone-aware event scheduling.

### Track Growth Trends
Monitor player join trends over days, weeks, and months. Correlate growth spikes with marketing efforts, content updates, or community events to understand what drives players to your server.

### Per-Hostname Breakdown
If you share your server across multiple communities using different hostnames, telemetry shows you exactly how many players each hostname is driving. This helps you measure the effectiveness of different promotional channels.

## Frequently Asked Questions
### Does telemetry add any latency for players?
Only the join is routed through Hylist, which can add a small one-time delay while connecting. After that the player is connected directly to your game server and Hylist does not keep the connection open, so there is no extra latency during gameplay.

### What player data is collected?
Telemetry collects connection metadata only: timestamp of connection, approximate geographic region (country-level, derived from IP), and which hostname was used. We do not store player IP addresses, usernames, or any in-game activity. All data is aggregated and anonymized in your dashboard.

### Can I use telemetry with Cloudflare-proxied domains?
The CNAME record you create must NOT be proxied through Cloudflare (the cloud icon should be gray, not orange). Cloudflare's HTTP proxy doesn't support game server protocols. Set the CNAME record to DNS-only mode. If your main domain uses Cloudflare, you can create a subdomain specifically for telemetry with proxy disabled.

### What's the difference between telemetry and server query?
Server query (One Query/Hyvote plugin) polls your server periodically for real-time stats like current player count and server version. Telemetry tracks individual player connections through DNS routing. They complement each other: query gives you a snapshot of "right now," while telemetry gives you historical trends and geographic data. We recommend using both for the most complete picture.

[Back to My Servers](https://hylist.io/id/dashboard/servers)

## Structured data

```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "Player Telemetry Setup Guide",
  "description": "Set up player telemetry to track connections, countries, client versions, and join trends by pointing a hostname at Hylist. No plugins required.",
  "url": "https://hylist.io/id/help/telemetry",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Hylist",
    "url": "https://hylist.io"
  },
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Hylist",
    "url": "https://hylist.io",
    "logo": {
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "url": "https://hylist.io/og-image.png",
      "width": 1200,
      "height": 630
    }
  },
  "inLanguage": "id",
  "datePublished": "2026-02-27",
  "dateModified": "2026-03-04"
}
```

```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
  "itemListElement": [
    {
      "@type": "ListItem",
      "position": 1,
      "name": "Beranda",
      "item": "https://hylist.io/id/"
    },
    {
      "@type": "ListItem",
      "position": 2,
      "name": "Help",
      "item": "https://hylist.io/id/help"
    },
    {
      "@type": "ListItem",
      "position": 3,
      "name": "Player Telemetry Setup Guide",
      "item": "https://hylist.io/id/help/telemetry"
    }
  ]
}
```

## Sitemap

[All pages on Hylist](https://hylist.io/sitemap.md)