Realms

Minecraft Realms is an official subscription-based server hosting service that allows players to create and manage their own private Minecraft servers. Hosted by Mojang, Realms provides a simple way to create servers and allows the owner to manage them from inside the game, without knowledge of hosting on the internet. Realms also allows players to choose from a list of minigames to play temporarily, as well as several pre-made world templates, adventure maps, experience maps, and inspiration maps, all made by Realms community map makers. Maps are updated by Mojang every last friday of the month. Realms are not intended for large public servers, but for groups of friends or as a family server.

Requirements
Realms is a service that can be used only by players who meet these requirements:
 * The player must have purchased the full version of Java Edition
 * The player must have a stable internet connection
 * The player must be age 13 years or older to join the Minecraft Realms community

Subscriptions

 * Manage the Realms subscriptions here.

Realms is a subscription-based service. The link above goes to the player's Minecraft account page, which offers options to extend a current subscription or buy a new one ($7.99 per month).

There are two types of subscriptions: a reoccurring monthly charge that automatically renews the subscription every 30 days (this can be cancelled at any time), or a one time charge that comes in 30-day, 90-day, and 180-day packages and needs to be renewed manually.

All players are able to have a 30-day free Realms trial, providing they have not already had a free trial on their account before.

Maps
Users can choose to temporarily replace their world with a Minigame or permanently replace their world with maps from the following categories: World templates, Adventures, Experiences, or Inspiration. Most commands or options cannot be used while the realm is running a minigame. These maps are selected from community submissions by the Minecraft Content Team. Certain maps may not be available on Realms due to being phased out or incompatible with the current update. Users cannot delete a map, but they can reset it.

Minigames
Some of the maps listed above are classified as minigames. Each Realm has a separate minigame slot in addition to the regular world slots, allowing minigames to be temporarily activated at any time with minimal disruption.

Unlike regular worlds, minigames do not save players' progress, and they reset whenever all players log out.

The list of available minigames can be viewed in-game, along with the number of supported players. However the information about each minigame is limited and the list is not sortable.

Limitations
Although Realms is hosted by Mojang, and therefore safe and secure, it has some limitations. These limitations can be avoided by using standalone server software or a third-party hosting website.


 * Only whitelisted servers with up to ten players at once are allowed.
 * Players cannot be invited/uninvited or opped/deopped (given/removed operator status) in-game - they must quit to the menu to do this.
 * All players are de-opped - even the host - while in a mini-game.
 * The host can not be de-opped outside of mini-games.
 * Minecraft must be running to configure the player's Realm.
 * Realms cannot be used in old versions of the game or snapshots.
 * Players get kicked for inactivity
 * Servers reset at midnight.
 * Users under the age of 16 need parental consent to play on Realms.
 * This is due to GDPR.
 * To set up parental consent on an account, visit minecraft.net/update-account.

Java Edition
Since Java Edition 1.7.10, Realms has had its own versioning system. Below is a changelog of these updates:

Minecraft version history
Originally, Realms updates were tied into regular Minecraft updates, until the release of 1.7.10. Below is a changelog of all those updates.

Availability
The following chart shows when Realms was introduced in the respective countries.

Trivia

 * The Mojang blog closing signature was signed // The Minecraft and Minecraft Realms teams instead of the usual // The Minecraft team starting with the blog Minecraft Snapshot 13w09a.