Minecraft

Minecraft is a 3D originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson. It is maintained by Mojang Studios, a part of Xbox Game Studios, which in turn is part of.

From its creation, Minecraft was developed almost exclusively by Notch until Jens "Jeb" Bergensten started working with him and has since become head of its development. It features music by Daniel "C418" Rosenfeld and by Lena Raine and paintings by Kristoffer Zetterstrand. Initially released as what is now known as Minecraft Classic on May 17, 2009, the game was fully released on November 18, 2011. Since its release, Minecraft has expanded to mobile devices and consoles. On November 6, 2014, Minecraft and all of Mojang Studios' assets were acquired by for US$2.5 billion. Notch has since left Mojang and is no longer working on Minecraft.

Minecraft focuses on allowing the player to explore, interact with and modify a dynamically-generated map made of blocks. In addition to blocks, the environment features plants, mobs and items. Some activities in the game include building, mining for ore, fighting hostile mobs and crafting new blocks and tools by gathering various resources found in the game. The game's open-ended model allows players to create structures, creations and artwork on various competitive or collaborative multiplayer servers or their single-player maps. Other features include redstone circuits for logic computations and remote actions, minecarts and tracks, and a mysterious underworld called the Nether. A designated but completely optional goal of the game is to travel to a dimension called the End and defeat the Ender dragon.

Purchase and availability
can be purchased from the Minecraft Official Site. Gift codes can be bought for others, for the same price as buying the game for oneself. The demo version can be played for free. is not officially supported on Windows RT or Chrome OS.

can be purchased on Google Play, the App Store (iOS & iPadOS), the Amazon Appstore, the Microsoft Store/Xbox app (Windows & Xbox One), the Nintendo eShop (Nintendo Switch), and the PlayStation Store (PlayStation 4).

Alternatively, Xbox Game Pass also give access Bedrock Edition on Xbox consoles, PC Game Pass give access to Java and Bedrock editions on Windows 10/11 PCs, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate give access to Java and Bedrock editions on Windows 10/11 PCs and Bedrock Edition on Xbox consoles.

can be purchased on physical media (excluding ) or on the respective platform's store, including the Xbox Games Store for and the Nintendo eShop for. The can not be purchased through a web browser. The Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 editions are no longer available for direct digital purchase as these versions are discontinued and have been replaced with.

can be purchased on physical media (North America only) or on the Nintendo eShop. This version is discontinued.

Player
The player is the person that the user controls in the world. When the user starts a game, the player is put in a world, generated by a random or specified seed, with an empty inventory. If the bonus chest option is enabled, a chest filled with basic items generates near the player. The player has a health bar with 10 hearts and can be damaged by falls, suffocation, drowning, fire, lava, lightning, cacti, sweet berry bushes, magma blocks, falling into the Void, hitting another entity with thorns armor, splash potions, falling anvils and being hit by mobs and other players. Damage to health can be mitigated by armor or Resistance potion and health can be restored by eating food and drinking specific potions or if difficulty is set to Peaceful, health regenerates on its own. Hunger is also a factor if the difficulty is not set to Peaceful, depleting over time and even faster while sprinting, jumping or swimming. Food replenishes the hunger level; however, eating rotten flesh and raw chicken has a chance of giving the player a hunger effect. Depending on the difficulty level, starvation depletes a player's health and may even kill the player.

A player can change their skin on the profile page of Minecraft.net or in the Minecraft Launcher in Java Edition and in the pause or main menus on Bedrock Edition.

Blocks
The world of Minecraft takes place within a, with each cube being occupied by a certain type of block, not all of which are necessarily cubic. There are different types of blocks; natural blocks such as grass, stone and ores that generate randomly within the world. There are also blocks that players can craft, such as a crafting table and a furnace. Resources can be extracted from blocks by hand or by using tools. Some of these resources are simply blocks in the player's inventory that can be placed elsewhere, while others are used as material to create other blocks or tools. Others yield no practical use whatsoever. Some blocks cannot be broken through normal survival means, e.g. bedrock, end portal frames, command blocks, nether and end portals, barriers and air.

Mining
Mining is one of the main aspects of Minecraft and is done to extract ore and other materials mainly from below the surface of the map. These ores include coal, iron, gold, redstone, diamond, lapis lazuli, copper and emerald. Mining can involve digging a hole from the surface or going down through a cave. Mineshafts and ravines create extra areas that may contain resources, since they are usually rich in ores.

Crafting and smelting
Crafting allows players to create new tools and blocks using items from their inventory. Subsequent versions often contain crafting recipes for new blocks and items. A player can use the 2×2 grid in the inventory or the 3×3 grid provided by a crafting table to craft. Smelting requires a furnace in addition to fuel and processes blocks into a more useful form such as raw irons into iron ingots.

Brewing and enchanting
Brewing creates potions from various ingredients and water using a brewing stand. They are stored in a glass bottle and then consumed by the player or thrown at other mobs to generate a certain effect based on the magical ingredients used to create the potion. Enchanting is also used to upgrade armor, tools or weapons with an enchanting table or anvil. More powerful enchantments can be accessed by gaining experience and placing bookshelves around the enchanting table.

Mobs
Mobs (short for "mobiles") are the animals and other creatures that inhabit the map. Hostile mobs attack the player while passive mobs do not. Neutral mobs attack when provoked (not all neutral mobs are provoked the same way).

The Overworld contains many passive mobs that may be killed for food or bred with one another; these include:
 * Pigs: drop porkchops upon death and can be ridden using a saddle.
 * Cows: drop beef upon death and can be milked using a bucket.
 * Sheep: drop mutton and 1 wool upon death and can be shorn to produce 1–3 wools.
 * Chickens: drop chicken meat and feathers upon death and lay eggs.
 * Horses: drop leather upon death and can be ridden using a saddle, traveling much faster than pigs.
 * Rabbits: drop rabbit meat, hide and its foot, a brewing item.
 * Bats: ambient mobs that fly around caves.

Common hostile mobs found throughout the Overworld include:
 * Zombies: attack by melee damage.
 * Skeletons: have a bow and infinitely many arrows.
 * Spiders: leap large distances and climb walls.
 * Witches: use potions.
 * Creepers: explode when near the player.
 * Endermen: are tall and black creatures with purple eyes which turn aggressive when the player looks at them.

The Overworld also contains some rarer mobs that spawn only on occasion or in specific biomes, places or times:
 * Spider jockeys: a skeleton riding a spider.
 * Chicken jockeys: a baby zombie riding a chicken.
 * Slimes: spawn deep within the map and in swamplands.
 * Villagers: inhabit villages and can trade with the player.
 * Cats: can be tamed and inhabit villages or swamp huts.
 * Parrots: can imitate the sounds of nearby mobs.
 * Wolves: can be tamed by the player and attack enemy mobs if the player engages or is attacked by them.
 * Llamas: can store items and form caravans.
 * Mooshrooms: mushroom-covered cows that spawn in mushroom fields biomes.
 * Vindicators: spawn in woodland mansions.
 * Pillagers: spawn in pillager outposts.
 * Evokers: spawn in Woodland Mansions.
 * Phantoms: spawn when the player hasn't slept for three in-game days.

Some are found exclusively in the Nether, including:
 * Ghasts: flying ghosts that shoot exploding fireballs at the player.
 * Zombified piglins: wield golden swords and attack in hordes if provoked.
 * Piglins: can barter to provide ingredients or blocks.
 * Wither skeletons: tall skeletons that wield stone swords and drop coal or, occasionally, wither skeleton skull s that can be used to summon an optional boss: the wither.
 * Blazes: shoot fireballs at players and hover above the ground.
 * Magma cubes: similar to Overworld slimes, but they are fire resistant and do more damage.
 * Striders: are the only passive mobs naturally spawning in the Nether, which can walk on lava and be ridden with a warped fungus on a stick.

The End contains the ender dragon, which is the main boss mob in Minecraft and allows the player to exit back to the Overworld when it dies.

Withers are the second boss mob in Minecraft and are created by the player by placing wither skeleton skulls on top of soul sand in a specific pattern. When spawned, they shoot wither skulls at nearby non-undead mobs.

The Nether
The Nether is a dimension in Minecraft accessible from the Overworld by a nether portal. It consists of five unique biomes, which are the nether wastes, the basalt deltas, the crimson and warped forests and the soul sand valleys. Each biome has unique generation and terrain. It is populated by zombified piglins, blazes, ghasts, wither skeletons, magma cubes, piglins and hoglins. Ores in the nether include nether quartz, nether gold and ancient debris. The Nether also has large oceans of lava that have striders walking on them.

The End
The End is another dimension of the game where the player battles the ender dragon. The End is accessed by entering an end portal found in a stronghold. The End is composed of end stone and is inhabited by endermen. It also contains tall obsidian pillars on top of which are end crystals that heal the ender dragon. Once the ender dragon is slain, the exit portal is created in the center of the map and an end gateway portal is created near an edge of the map, which transports the player to the expansive outer end islands which are full of chorus fruit forests and end cities filled of chest loot and shulkers. The end gateway portal is only accessed by throwing an enderpearl in the portal. There are no ores in the end.

Multiplayer (Java)
Minecraft multiplayer servers have developed to include their own rules and customs, guided by their administrators and moderators. The term griefer, meaning a player who causes grief, is a typical term on the internet but has taken up its definition on Minecraft servers: a person who destroys or defiles other users' creations on servers.

Griefers are the reason many server administrators make rules, but this has been taken a step further with modifications to the Minecraft server and even plugin-based replacement servers such as Bukkit. Because of these plugin-based servers, new user-created features have shown up in Minecraft. This includes features like money, vehicles, protection, RPG elements and more. These features normally do not require modification to a user's client and can be accessed by using chat commands. With the default controls, the chat screen is brought up by pressing.

One popular game on multiplayer servers is Spleef (a play on the word "grief"), a game where the player aims to make another player drop through the floor by destroying blocks beneath the opponent's feet. This is typically played in a designated area and is usually run automatically using server plugins.

Many popular multiplayer servers exist that may contain, PvP arenas, custom minigames or large Survival or Creative worlds.

Multiplayer (Bedrock)
Multiplayer $$ differs from multiplayer on the Java edition in that it is centered around a friend system. A player can add friends through the Friends tab in the menu or in the pause screen of a world. A player may invite friends to a world instead of having to pay for a server or realm. Minecraft has featured servers on Bedrock, which means that they are available when opening the game. There are seven featured servers: The Hive, CubeCraft, Mineplex, Lifeboat, Mineville, Galaxite, and Pixel Paradise.

Minecraft Realms
Minecraft Realms is an official subscription-based server hosting service that allows players to create and manage their own private Minecraft multiplayer worlds. Hosted by Mojang Studios, Realms provides an easy and fast way to create servers and allows the owner to manage them from inside the game, without prior knowledge of the concepts for hosting on the internet. However, Realms are not intended for large public servers, but for groups of friends or as a family server. Private Realms servers are easy to set up and available 24/7 as long as the owner pays for it.

Java Edition
The original platform for Minecraft, running on Windows, macOS, and Linux and started through the launcher. The game was initially released for an "early private singleplayer alpha" on May 17, 2009, followed by several development stages (notably Classic, Indev, Infdev, Alpha, Beta) with the game finally being released on November 18, 2011. The Java Edition has seen many significant updates since its official release.

Bedrock Edition
The Bedrock Edition (also known as the Bedrock Platform, Bedrock Codebase or Bedrock Engine) refers to the multi-platform family of editions of Minecraft developed by Mojang Studios and. Prior to this term, as the engine originated with Minecraft: Pocket Edition, this entire product family has been referred to using as "Pocket Edition", "MCPE" or "Pocket/Windows 10 Edition".

Minecraft, with no subtitle, is the title of all Bedrock editions of Minecraft. Before the Better Together Update, it had different subtitles on different platforms including (for all mobile platforms), Console Edition,, , and.

Minecraft: Pocket Edition was initially launched exclusively for the on Google Play for US$6.99 on August 16, 2011. It was later released for other devices on October 7, 2011, and  on November 17, 2011. On September 13, 2012, the Pocket Edition was made available for purchase on the Amazon Appstore. The version was released on the Windows Phone Store on December 10, 2014, for which the Pocket Edition 1.0.0 release and newer are available only for Windows 10 Phone and newer. Since then, four adaptations of Pocket Edition have been released; for Windows 10 on July 29, 2015, the Gear VR on April 27, 2016, the Apple TV on December 19, 2016, and the Fire TV on December 19, 2016. As of September 24, 2018, the has been discontinued.

Legacy Console Edition
Legacy Console Edition refers to the editions of Minecraft for consoles that are developed and updated by 4J Studios.

The Legacy Console Edition was initially announced for the on June 7, 2011, during. released digitally on May 9, 2012 followed by a physical release on June 4, 2013. The game was later released on additional platforms as on December 17, 2013,  on September 4, 2014,  on September 5, 2014,  on October 14, 2014,  on December 17, 2015, and  on May 11, 2017. As of December 10, 2019, no further feature updates have been released for these versions, and the newest available update depends on the platform. The most recent update on and  is the World of Color Update, while, , , and  have access to Update Aquatic. is the most up-to-date version with Village & Pillage.

Education Edition
Minecraft: Education Edition is an educational version of Minecraft specifically designed for classroom use. It is developed by Mojang AB and Xbox Game Studios and contains features that make Minecraft easy to use in a classroom setting. The full game was released on November 1, 2016.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition was released on September 13, 2017. It is a unique port developed by Other Ocean Interactive. It is available on the Nintendo eShop, but only for the New 3DS and New 2DS. Multiplayer is limited to local play. This edition was discontinued on January 15, 2019.

Other
There are a number of other versions of Minecraft. is a simple version of Minecraft in the style of other "4k" Java games (everything is packaged in 4 kilobytes) that Notch has entered in contests. The Pi Edition was a free ported version of the 0.5.0 version of for the, which was intended as an educational tool for novice programmers. It allowed users to manipulate the game code and supported multiple programming languages; however, it was discontinued in January 2016.

Add-ons
Add-ons are the first step toward bringing customization to all editions of Minecraft and are officially supported by Mojang Studios/Minecraft. They currently allow players to transform the look of their worlds, change the behavior of mobs, and add entities, items and blocks, structures, functions and biomes.

Behavior packs
Behavior packs change how vanilla mobs and fogs behave. They are still in development, and will soon also be able to modify how blocks and items work.

Resource packs
The game officially supports changing most of its various textures, sounds, and texts through resource packs. Resource packs must contain a certain structure of files and folders placed in the .minecraft/resourcepacks folder. Installed resource packs, as well as the folder in which resource packs are placed, can be accessed in the options menu. The extent to which the resources are changed is dependent on how many files are contained in the resource pack.

Data packs
Data packs provide a way for players to further customize vanilla worlds in a similar way to resource packs. Unlike resource packs, which modify the game's resources, data packs can be used to override or add new advancements, functions, loot tables, structures, recipes and tags without any code modification.

Skins
Skin refers to the texture that is placed onto a player model or mob. The skin is divided into areas that act as the surface area of the character (for example, the front head area, left leg area, etc.). A skin allows only solid color; transparency is not allowed on the skin file except on the second layer, which is transparent by default; playing offline, pixels can be left free resulting in "holes" in the skin. The second layer can be used to give the character glasses, hats, or other accessories. Players can also change the arm size to be slim or normal. The slim variant is 3 pixels wide while the normal variant is 4 pixels wide.

Java Edition
$$, there are no special features in the skins. This version has only the features listed in the first part of this section.

Bedrock Edition
$$, there are many more types of skin customization. Players can add 3D custom hair, eyes, mouths, arms, legs and more. Players can also change the size of a character. Players can also get many different accessories for the skin. However, the player cannot do this with a custom skin, only with an in-game skin. Players can also buy accessories and skins. Having a skin that is smaller than normal or larger does not affect the hitbox size, but can still give an advantage in multiplayer servers because it can be harder to see them. Some of the skins also do not show their armor or hand-held items.

Capes
Capes are an uncommon vanity item that can be equipped on a player's back. $$, players start with a cape that is not equipped by default and some skins come with capes.

Capes also flail around when the player runs. When the player equips elytra, the texture of the elytra changes to an equipped cape.

Unofficial mods
Minecraft can be modified by replacing or adding Java class files to minecraft.jar $$. This method of making custom modifications is not supported by Mojang as it can break the game if the mod is outdated, defective, or in conflict with another mod. Some such modifications impressed Notch or Jeb sufficiently that they were added to the game and the authors were credited under Additional Programming. Some examples of mods being implemented into the main game include Hippoplatimus' Piston Mod and horses from Dr. Zhark's Mo' Creatures mod were added in Beta 1.7 and 1.6.1 respectively.

Third-party programs
There are many programs designed for Minecraft. These include 3D map editors and viewers, game modifiers, various informational programs (such as crafting recipes) and server wrappers, and other specialty programs. As with mods, these too are not supported by Mojang.

Reception
Metacritic ranked Minecraft as one of the best video games of the 2010s, and Video Game Canon ranks Minecraft as one of the best games of all time.

Awards
Since release Minecraft has won numerous awards including:
 * PC Gamer's "Game of the Year"
 * Independent Games Festival's Grand Prize and "Audience Award"
 * Good Game's "Best Downloadable Game of 2010"
 * Rock Paper Shotgun's "Game of the Year"
 * Indie DB's "Indie of the Year", "Most Innovative and Best Singleplayer Indie"
 * Game Developers Choice Awards's "Best Debut Game", "Best Downloadable Game" and "Most Innovative Game Award"

References in popular culture
Many references have been made in culture in response to the popularity of Minecraft, this includes many memes and also references in these video games, TV shows, and movies.

Video games

 * In Super Meat Boy, Steve? is an unlockable character. He is known as Mr. Minecraft in this game.
 * In Battlefield Heroes, players could get a Royal Minecraft T-Shirt or a National Minecraft T-Shirt from the 29th to the 31st of July, 2011.
 * In Team Fortress 2, there is a hat called Top Notch that resembles Notch's avatar in a cubic form. Notch is the only person to have this hat.
 * In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Binding of Isaac, an item called the "Notched Pickaxe" can be found and used, referencing the game's creator Notch and the pickaxes that feature prominently in Minecraft.
 * In ChopLifter HD, there is a hidden island with Steve and chickens in the "Operation Charlie Takedown" mission. When he is saved, players unlock an in-game achievement. It should be noted that Steve is called "Blockhead" in this game.
 * In the PlayStation 3 game, PixelJunk Shooter 2, there's a small Creeper in the title screen hidden among other enemies native to Shooter 2.
 * In Borderlands 2, there is a hidden section of the game with blocks in the style of Minecraft's stone and breakable ore blocks. There are also enemy Creepers in this same area.
 * In Torchlight 2, there is an area called "Notch's Mine." In it are Creepers, that can be killed for loot. There are also hidden swords in the game with the same graphics as swords in Minecraft.
 * In Patch 1.13 of Awesomenauts, one of the new skins for the character Clunk was added known as Creeper Clunk. It is unlocked by killing a player using the Creeper Clunk skin.
 * A vehicle card in Dusk of D.A.W.N. is called "Mine Craft". The description at the bottom says "The Mine Craft is truly top-notch". Notch's Twitter picture is hidden on the card.
 * One of the many paths in The Stanley Parable eventually takes the player to a Minecraft world.
 * In Plague Inc, a popular multiplatform game, there is a chance for a message in the news to appear with the headline: "Top notch mine opens in Sweden" and the caption "Miners and crafters look forward to the opening of a new, top notch diamond mine which is expected to revitalize the Swedish economy". This is a reference to the value of diamonds, Notch, Mojang's headquarters in Sweden, and the game itself.
 * In ''Terraria, there is a wearable creeper costume.
 * In Cookie Clicker, the name of achievement "Never dig down" is a reference a well-known Minecraft tip.
 * In The Henry Stickmin Collection, there are multiple references to Minecraft throughout the chapters. In the prologue, Breaking the Bank, if the player chooses the "shovel" option, Henry tries to get inside the bank by digging under the walls, but hits and ignites a gas main; the failure message is "Never dig straight down.", a well-known Minecraft tip. In chapter 2, Stealing the Diamond, if the player selects the "sneak in" option and then the "pickaxe", Henry begins to mine the wall of the museum the diamond is in, only for a creeper to come up behind him and explode. Henry survives, however, and the explosion gave the entrance that Henry needed. In chapter 5, Completing the Mission, if the player launches with the "Government Supported Private Investigator" and "Convict Allies" ending, and then selects the "jetpack" option, the player can select the "build" option, in which Henry begins building a bridge out of dirt blocks from the building he is standing on to the Toppat rocket. However, Henry runs out of dirt blocks and accidently walks off the edge, and falls to his death, dropping a stick, steak and leather boots, with the fail message saying "You died!", similar to the Minecraft death screen. Additionally, if the player launches with the "Government Supported Private Investigator" and "Ghost Inmate" ending, and then selects the "Magic Hat" and "Free Transform" options, the player can select the "Leafmöde" option, and a diamond block can be seen near the painting.
 * In There Is No Game : Wrong Dimension, there is a RPG Dimension called Legend of the Secret and its Free2Play variant Legend of the Secret Ultimate Clicker VIP Deluxe 4.2 Free with lootboxes that contain parody ads. One of those ads is Ninecraft with C418-like BGM, and player can break the title, get nine puzzle pieces and combine them in a 3x3 grid to make a pickaxe useful in gameplay. Game (a narrator-like character) comments on Ninecraft as "another one of those 'indie games' that's doomed to fail".
 * In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Steve, Alex, a zombie, and an enderman are featured fighters included in its DLC, as well as themed stages and remixed music.
 * In Genshin Impact, the blacksmith in Mondstadt, named 'Wagner', gives the player a quest called "Mine Craft".

TV shows and movies

 * In season 17 of South Park, the 2nd episode depicted a kid teaching Minecraft to adults.
 * In the The Walking Deceased movie trailer, the Minecraft zombie sound can be heard at 0:30.
 * In season 25 of The Simpsons, the 17th episode had a couch gag known as SimCraft, complete with Bartender Moe as a creeper blowing up the house.
 * In Season 3 Episode 10 of Rick and Morty, the title characters mention or are seen playing Minecraft throughout parts of the episode.
 * In Season 4 Episode 3, Rick returns to the game by opening a laptop and saying "Ok now I'm going to play some more Minecraft".
 * In (Steven Spielberg), the opening scene in the Oasis shows a Minecraft planet.
 * In season 10 of Adventure Time, an episode named Diamonds and Lemons shows the characters in a Minecraft-like universe.