How Big Is A Chunk In Minecraft - Minecraft Wiki Guide - IGN

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New ChecklistAll ListsMy ChecklistsAllAll ListsMy ChecklistsHow creative can you get with your first free checklist?Create a free accountHow Big is a Chunk in MinecraftBy Luis Joshua Gutierrez, Samuel Heaney, Dan Hammill, +39.9k moreupdatedOct 6, 2021

The world of Minecraft is made up of mobs, villagers, and an unending supply of blocks and resources. These blocks are all managed by a game engine that breaks them down into units called "chunks." Understanding how chunks work isn't vital to your survival in Minecraft, but there's some interesting info hiding behind the unique system. Here's what you should know about chunks in Minecraft.

How Big is a Chunk?

A chunk in Minecraft is a procedurally generated 16 x 16 segment of the world that extends all the way down to the bedrock up to a height of 256 blocks. In other words, a chunk is simply a small portion of your game world that consists of a maximum of 65,536 blocks. Chopping your endless map into these chunks allows for Minecraft to easily manage your game – loading and unloading them as needed, so your computer or console doesn’t need to have the processing power to run thousands of chunks at once.

Why Chunks Matter

While chunks typically won't have a large impact on your play session, anyone with a map they've been working on for years might want to keep track of their current chunk location in relation to the rest of their world. Certain mobs will only spawn if you're within a few chunks of their location and some plants will only grow if they're within the local render distance – run too far away, and their chunk will unload to free up processing power.

There's also Spawn Chunks – a unique type of chunk that surrounds the area where you first spawned in the world. While these appear in-game as a standard chunk, they will never unload from your game and are a great location to build any mob grinders or farms.

Beyond those exceptions, chunks are primarily technical jargon that you don't need to worry about. Understanding how they work might help you learn a bit more about your Minecraft world, but most players won't have to worry about keeping track of their 16 x 16 chunks.

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