Team Fortress 2 servers with SourceMod, MetaMod and custom map rotations.
The rankings are warming up.
Team Fortress 2 is still active after 18 years thanks to custom modes (Trade, Surf, Jailbreak, MGE). Source engine so single-threaded CPU, modest RAM (2-4 GB for 24 players). SourceMod + MetaMod are essential. FastDL CDN for custom maps. L4 anti-DDoS is useful, the game is still targeted. Many hosts still offer ready-made configs for TF2 communities.
Multiplayer games are mostly single-thread - favour a high CPU clock (4 GHz+) over a high core count. RAM depends on the game: 2-4 GB for 10 Minecraft players, 8-16 GB for 50 Rust players.
A game host bundles panels (Pterodactyl, TCAdmin), mod management, calibrated anti-DDoS and backups - hours of setup saved. A VPS costs less but expects sysadmin skills.
L4/L7 DDoS protection is mandatory - check the absorption capacity in Gbps the host advertises, and favour those who filter upstream without rerouting.