Summary
- Minecraft's regular updates, including the Trails & Tales update, continue to draw in new players and bring older players back to the game, maintaining its popularity and selling the base game and merchandise on its own.
- The World of Color update added vibrant colored blocks and furniture designs, making starting a new build in Minecraft even more exciting and allowing players to get the exact hue they desired.
- The Combat Update overhauled the combat mechanics of Minecraft, adding offhand items, shields, and new enchantments for weapons, improving enemy AI and adding a tactical aspect to combat. This update also introduced expansive alien islands in the End for players to explore after defeating the Ender Dragon.
In the minds of gamers the world over, Minecraft is one of the most influential and enduring games ever seen. Despite its age, it continues to hold fans in awe of its open-ended sandbox approach. From before its official release, fans watched as the game grew like magic. Since then, the magic has continued in the form of regular updates.
What's astounding about Mojang annually (and sometimes bi-annually) adding to the game is that these releases would normally come in the form of paid DLC (or micro-transactions by today's standards). However, the fact that the game gets renewed regularly continues to draw new players, draw older players back into the fold, and sell the base game (and, of course, merchandise) on its own.
10 Trails & Tales
Released June 2023
- Introduced the beautiful cherry grove biome
- Pottery, hanging signs, and bamboo blocks
Trails & Tales isn't one of the more fundamental updates to Minecraft, but it certainly beautified the game. Cherry blossom biomes, bamboo-woven blocks, and fascinating fossils add an extra glistening layer of charm to Minecraft's iconic aesthetic.
Players now get the chance to partake in a spot of archeology to unearth ancient artifacts and pretty relics. Not only that, but bookworm players had a way to store their precious books on a bookshelf thanks to the chiseled bookshelf.
9 The World Of Color Update
Released June 2017
- Expanded the color pallet with colored concrete and gorgeous terracotta designs
- Multicolored furniture updates and perching parrot friends!
Although this update is often overlooked, it added a fresh coat of paint (or building blocks) to every Minecraft player's easel, making the prospect of starting a new build ever more tantalizing. Previous to this update, players were forced to use wool blocks to get the exact hue they were looking for.
Just adding new colors would have been great, but funky terracotta designs were bundled in as well. Fitting with the theme of colors, the pretty parrot mob was added, which can sit on a player's shoulder after being befriended.
8 The Combat Update
Released February 2016
It's hard to believe that it took Mojang so long to overhaul to "click 'em till they die" combat of Minecraft, but it happened in the Combat Update. This update marked the sad departure of the "sword block salute," but it did add offhand items, shields, the elytra, and of course those expansive alien islands in the End which can be reached after defeating the Ender Dragon.
Items, tools, and armor got a much-needed rebalance. Weapons came with recharges and enemy AI was improved, adding a tactical aspect to combat. Some of the best enchantments for swords and other tools were added, including the still-overpowered "mending" enchantment.
7 The Unnamed "Trading And Adventure" Update (1.3.1)
Released August 2012
- Trading and emeralds!
- Ender chests and writable books!
Before this unnamed update, villagers weren't up to much, besides having a "TESTIFICATE" nameplate hovering above their heads. With the ability to trade items for emeralds, Steve now had a reason to visit those odd, grumbling village folk. Additionally, temples (and treasure!) Were added with this patch.
Aspiring writers now had books with quills to write in, which meant that messages, secret or otherwise, didn't have to be writ large on signposts and cover walls like hieroglyphs. Adventure mode was fleshed out and super-helpful ender chests were added.
6 The Redstone Update
Released March 2013
- Added new redstone items, opening the way to expanded redstone designs
- Nether bricks, quartz
It's hard to understate how important redstone is to Minecraft and its longevity in gaming culture. If an infinite world with infinite static building potential wasn't enough, redstone added a primitive form of circuitry (or coding) to the game. As well as combat, exploratory, and artistic-minded players, Minecraft made a space for logic-minded gamers as well.
The Redstone Update greatly expanded redstone's capabilities, adding daylight sensors, hoppers, droppers, weighted pressure plates, trapped chests, and comparators. Thanks to this update, there are now thousands of incredibly creative designs using redstone, pistons, and other Minecraft contraptions to impress onlookers or automate away some of the most tedious barriers to building greatness.
5 Caves & Cliffs: Part 2
Released November 2021
- Massive, rugged mountain ranges
- Sprawling caves and tunnels
Copper, Axolotl, and glow squids from Part 1 were great and all, but Caves & Cliffs Part 2 shook Minecraft's world generation up like never before. Mountains got snowtopped tips, looked grander and bolder, and caves became deeper, darker, and generally far more expansive.
Rivers and lakes were also reworked, and new bodies of water now spawn underground with the new C&C sprawling tunnels, large and small. Fans agree that Caves and Cliffs puts the "wow factor" back into scouting the overworld and the thrill of discovery back into deep delving.
4 The Update That Changed The World
Released October 2013
- Reworked the game's central terrain generation
- Added brand-new lands and iconic core blocks
Easily forgotten, this early update's namesake does what it says on the can. Before, worlds would simply be an ever-sprawling mass of land with patches of ocean. After the update, islands and continents proper emerged, clearing the way for some of Minecraft's most interesting environments, especially for survival players.
New trees and sand were added along with 11 biomes, as well as an overhaul to fishing. Besides some highly important terrain generation improvements, this update didn't bring a big shiny feature, but it did change the world in a massively important way.
3 Update Aquatic
Released July 2018
- Sunkern treasure!
- Vibrant new sea life
With this update, Minecraft's oceans were reinvigorated: Dolphins, turtles, shipwrecks, kelp, and coral reefs beautified the deep. The update came after Microsoft's eyebrow-raising purchase of Mojang, the studio behind the game, and made quite a splash. Although many fans worried that the multi-billion-dollar purchase would turn the game into cynical, micro-transaction sludge.
However, the Aquatic Update proved that wrong and set the precedent for great updates in the future. The bigger budget allowed the team to massively expand on the seas, which were badly in need of an update, given how lifeless all pre-Aquatic Update worlds look.
2 The Nether Update
Released June 2020
- Introduced the most powerful crafting material, Netherite
- Overhauled the Nether, giving it a variety of new biomes and resources
While the Nether had its uses before, many fans felt that it got stale after the first few visits. There was little reason to go there besides collecting quartz or netherrack or perhaps wandering the fortresses there. After the update, players had a few very compelling reasons to go there: more powerful tools, weapons, and armor.
Netherite added a much-needed prestigious resource that gave players a new goal. The beautiful new biomes added a dash of color to the otherwise smoky red hellscape and bartering with gold with zombie pigs and traversing lava pools was a nice touch. The ability to reset the spawn point without using a bed and to create custom compasses was a game changer.
1 Village & Pillage
Released April 2019
- Overhauled villagers, giving them useful professions
- Added the menacing pillagers as well as raids
Villagers might not be everyone's favorite mob, but it's pretty undeniable how important this update was. A huge list of all-new functional furniture items turned villagers into highly useful allies in their professions. The overworld was improved with the addition of new stones, slabs, and stairs.
As well as immersive and useful new items (including the campfire and scaffolding), Pillagers burst into the scene, bringing with them one of Minecraft's best ranged weapons, and giving players a reason to feel protective about the simple but kind emerald-loving folk.
Minecraft
- Released
- November 18, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Mojang
- Platform(s)
- 3DS, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii U, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PS Vita, Xbox One, Xbox 360
- Genre(s)
- Sandbox, Survival
