The most popular version by far for servers is the latest version, according to minecraft-statistics.net; the perception that older versions are much more popular is probably due to certain big servers still running on them but in reality only about 13% of active servers are running on 1.12.2 while over 40% are on 1.16 or 1.16.1; the same likely applies to the player base in general (for all I know I am the only one still playing on 1.6.4; there are only 4 servers listed for it out of a total of 13237 at the moment):
Otherwise, the majority of people who play on older versions do it for the mods, and even then there are frequent requests to update them or backport features from newer versions (of which there are many such mods, even my own), so I have no doubt that many of those players would update if their mods did (in my case it is more for other reasons). In particular, the other big version for mods, 1.7.10, is slowly but surely dying, falling below the popularity of 1.8.8 (speaking of which, I'm curious as to why 1.8.8 is so popular when 1.8.9 is the last and supposedly most stable version of 1.8.x, and other versions generally have the last update as the most popular).
SalC1 made it seem a lot worse than what it actually is. People just believed him without testing it out themselves. There is a server called Purity Vanilla that runs on 1.16. At peak hours it has 75 people on and it has a queue. The server is always at 20 tps. It rarely gets lower.
I personally saw difference with 1.12 server and 1.13 server on VPS with same stats and 1.12 had no problem with 50+ people, 1.12 had problem with 25 people... One thing I didn't exepcted was turtles - they are absolutly not optimalised (Also thing like kelp, but that was something I expected.) - Later sever upgraded and was able to take a lot more people, but it is just way too worse
So I have seen 1.12 has a huge database for Modifications, I was wondering if a lot of people still play it?
Nothing can go here but time itself.
1.12 is best for servers, It's newest still optimalized version of the game. newer versions are bad for bigger servers.
The most popular version by far for servers is the latest version, according to minecraft-statistics.net; the perception that older versions are much more popular is probably due to certain big servers still running on them but in reality only about 13% of active servers are running on 1.12.2 while over 40% are on 1.16 or 1.16.1; the same likely applies to the player base in general (for all I know I am the only one still playing on 1.6.4; there are only 4 servers listed for it out of a total of 13237 at the moment):
https://minecraft-statistic.net/en/global_statistic.html
Otherwise, the majority of people who play on older versions do it for the mods, and even then there are frequent requests to update them or backport features from newer versions (of which there are many such mods, even my own), so I have no doubt that many of those players would update if their mods did (in my case it is more for other reasons). In particular, the other big version for mods, 1.7.10, is slowly but surely dying, falling below the popularity of 1.8.8 (speaking of which, I'm curious as to why 1.8.8 is so popular when 1.8.9 is the last and supposedly most stable version of 1.8.x, and other versions generally have the last update as the most popular).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
I personally saw difference with 1.12 server and 1.13 server on VPS with same stats and 1.12 had no problem with 50+ people, 1.12 had problem with 25 people... One thing I didn't exepcted was turtles - they are absolutly not optimalised (Also thing like kelp, but that was something I expected.) - Later sever upgraded and was able to take a lot more people, but it is just way too worse