Every Major Minecraft Update, Ranked - TheGamer

Minecraft launched officially in late 2011, and has been a consistently dominant force in the gaming world ever since. Part of its ongoing success is likely owed to the game's fundamental appeal - Minecraft is the ultimate sandbox; a digital landscape for players to explore, conquer, and shape. Another factor in the game's long-term popularity, however, is the frequent high-quality updates it's received.

Related: Minecraft: Things We Still Need In Future Updates (And Things We Don't)

Minecraft, as we know it today, is a very different game from the one that debuted a decade ago, owing to a steady stream of innovative and celebrated updates, each bringing a wealth of fantastic new content to the game. While most of Minecraft's updates have been stellar, some are better than others, so here they all are, ranked from worst to best.

Updated January 18, 2022: As Minecraft continues to receive major updates, we've added the newest releases to the list to keep it up-to-date. While you'll find all Minecraft updates here, one question remains — which is the best Minecraft update on the list?

19 1.10 - The Frostburn Update

The things the Frostburn Update brought to Minecraft weren't bad - red nether brick is a nice-looking block, and magma blocks are useful for a lot of farms. The issue is that the list of additions 1.10 made pretty much stops there. Polar Bears are interesting, if a bit useless, but most agree Strays and Husks are just annoyances.

Very few additions to Minecraft have been objectively bad, and those introduced with the Frostburn Update certainly aren't. Rather, the tiny scale of this update next to others just leaves it feeling lacking.

18 1.1 - A Nameless Update

Minecraft's first ever update never received an official name, perhaps due to how little content it brought in. The only items added were spawn eggs for Creative mode. It made some other changes focused on world generation, and added superflat worlds, but again, this update simply feels lackluster.

It gets more of a free pass than 1.10 though, being the first update, as unlike Frostburn, it has no precedent to suffer by comparison against. Players wouldn't become used to larger updates until later, so 1.1 was alright for its time.

17 1.2.1 - The Biomes Update

A bit more transformative than its predecessor, 1.2 added jungle biomes, Ocelots, Iron Golems, Redstone lamps, chiseled stone bricks, and Desert Wells. An eclectic mix, but certainly a more plentiful offering than what came before. It lacks the definitive theming that players would ultimately get used to, but its larger volume of content does sit it a tier above 1.1 and 1.10.

Related: Minecraft: Things To Know About The Iron Golem

That said, it's still on the small side, and the lack of coherence is underwhelming. Not to mention its misnomer - "biomes" plural seems optimistic when it adds just one.

16 1.4.2 - The Pretty Scary Update

Given a Halloween theming to match its launch window, 1.4.2 made various small additions - cobblestone walls, item frames, carrots and potatoes, flower pots, invisibility potions, and the ability to repair tools with anvils. What defined the update, though, was the Wither.

1.4.2 added Minecraft's second (and to this day, last) boss mob, as well as the skeletons you had to kill to spawn it, and the beacon you could craft after slaying it. A major change to the game - and a fittingly spooky one.

15 1.19 - The Wild Update

The features that were added with the Wild Update were quite good - mangrove swamps and the frogs that inhabit them were fun additions to the game, and the Deep Dark made for a spooky and atmospheric experience - even if it was a bit lacking in worthwhile rewards.

The problem with the Wild Update - dubbed the 'mild update' by fans - was how Mojang handled the leadup to its release. Several features that were originally promised, like fireflies and a birch forest overhaul, were cut for seemingly flimsy reasons, leaving a bitter taste in fans' mouths. To top it off, Mojang tried to sneak in one of the most controversial features in Minecraft history - a half-baked and easily-abusable chat reporting and ban system for Java Edition - in the 1.19.1 follow-up patch.

14 1.8 - The Bountiful Update

1.8 did add a lot of fun and excitement to the world of Minecraft - Ocean Monuments, Guardians, prismarine, sponge, granite, diorite, andesite, rabbits, slime blocks, and more. Its low ranking isn't a reflection of it being a bad update, rather that those placed above it are just better.

The Bountiful Update was by no means perfect, though - prismarine is almost impossible to get in large quantities without a complicated farm, and the ugly textures of the stone variants were maligned for years after release.

13 1.6 - The Horse Update

1.6 added horses, as the name suggests. That's about it. Horses are great, and provided a fast and adorable method of travel, but it's hard to place the Horse Update any higher due to how little it added. Especially considering it was coming off the back of one of the finest updates in Minecraft's history.

Related: Minecraft: A Guide To Horse Stats And Abilities

Horses were a well-executed implementation of a highly-requested feature, and are beloved to this day. 1.6 is an inarguable case of quality over quantity, however, so it simply pales in comparison to updates with both.

12 1.3.1 - The Other Update Without a Name

While 1.3.1 lacks a name, it certainly doesn't lack content. It introduced emeralds, Villager trading, ender chests, Desert and Jungle Temples, wooden slabs and stairs, and books and quills. Trading has remained a powerful staple of the game since its introduction, and Temples provided the first major incentive to go out exploring.

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A departure from the slightly lacking updates that came before it, 1.3.1 was the first big step towards Minecraft updates as we know them today, bringing in a cornucopia of exciting features. This trend will, for the most part, be the norm right through to the present day.

11 1.12 - The World of Colour Update

1.12 did one thing, and it did it very well. It set out to add bright and colorful block palettes to the game, and it succeeded. The update brought in the fantastically bright concrete in all 16 colors, along with the stunning patterns of glazed terracotta. The World of Colour Update also added flamboyant parrots that were as cute as they were colorful.

While not as transformative as a lot of the updates that followed it, 1.12's blocks were a breath of fresh air, and have proven to be incredibly useful to builders looking to add a splash of color to their constructions.

10 1.7 - The Update That Changed the World

The name might be a little ambitious, but 1.7 did change the world in the technical sense. World generation was updated, adding birch forests, flower forests, roofed forests, savannahs, mesas (now called badlands), and more. This of course also included the blocks that are found in all those biomes - most notably the two new wood types of acacia and dark oak.

It may not have actually changed the world, but Minecraft's landscape owes a lot of how it looks today to 1.7. The new biomes made exploration far more varied and exciting, providing copious new areas to call home, and countless new resources to utilize.