MCP in 2026: The numbers behind the ecosystem explosion

In May 2026, there were over 13,000 MCP servers available on npm and GitHub platforms. This number represents a threefold increase in downloads compared to six months prior, with monthly SDK downloads reaching 97 million. Additionally, there has been a significant surge in new server registrations, growing four times over the previous year.

The ecosystem's expansion is further highlighted by the official servers provided by Anthropic, which garnered 48,500 downloads per month alone for file system access. This indicates that MCP is evolving beyond being merely a protocol and has now become the go-to standard for granting AI models access to various tools, including databases, APIs, and file systems.

However, despite this growth, a notable challenge persists: the difficulty in discovering the appropriate MCP server for specific use cases. Users often resort to guesswork by searching npm or browsing through GitHub repositories. To address this issue, a tool called mcp-hub has been developed.

By executing the command "npm install -g mcp-hub" followed by "mcp-hub search database" and then "mcp-hub install @modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres," users can discover and install the desired MCP server with just six commands. Currently, five official servers are available in the registry, all of which are real packages that have been verified on npm.

Looking ahead, plans include the establishment of private registries for enterprise teams, as well as the inclusion of community submissions by opening issues to have their servers added. Furthermore, CI/CD integration will be implemented to automate the publishing of MCP servers.

For those interested in exploring the MCP ecosystem further, the GitHub repository for the mcp-platform can be found at GrahamduesCN/mcp-platform. This update on MCP ecosystem growth was last updated on August 29, 2026.