Minecraft Updates: Past, Present, and Future

Minecraft Update Snapshot released

Minecraft+Updates%3A+Past%2C+Present%2C+and+Future

Scott A. Barrows, Writer

At Minecraft Live 2022, Minecraft update 1.20 was announced as an unnamed update. This update had many new features like Camels, hanging signs, bamboo wood, chiseled bookshelves, and more to be announced. The Minecraft Live 2022 mob vote winner was announced, with the winner being the Sniffer.

The Minecraft 2022 mob vote winner was the Sniffer. According to Minecraft Mob announcements, “The Sniffer was an ancient mob… They loved plants, and found seeds by sniffing the ground in the most adorable way.”(October 14). This mob was voted for by over half of the people who voted, according to the Minecraft YouTube video released on October 16.

Minecraft has gone through a fair share of updates throughout the years. It was first released for Java back in 2009 and then was updated until early 2011, when the “full version” was released. In 2012, spawn eggs, Iron golems and Jungles, Trading and Temples, and Withers, Anvils, and Command blocks were added, with the final version of that year being 1.4. In 2013 updates 1.5 to 1.7 were released, with Redstone, Horses, and Biomes being added/updated. In 2014 update 1.8 came, which added ocean monsters, banners, bunnies, spectator mode, slime blocks, villager updates, etc. There is a reason they called this the Bountiful Update. In 2014, the Game and Team was bought by Microsoft for 2.5 billion dollars. Nothing happened in 2015, and then in 2016, the Combat/End update was released, along with the Frostburn update, and Exploration update. 2017, 2018, and 2019 had the World of Color update (1.12), the Aquatic Update (1.13), the Village and Pillage update (1.14), and the Buzzy Bees update (1.15). 2020, 2021, and 2022 had the Nether Update (1.16), Caves and Cliffs update (1.17, 2-part release), Wild update (1.18) Deep Dark update (1.19), and that brings us to the present.


Where Minecraft is going in the future is unknown. Mojang is being more careful about sharing updates because they can’t always keep their promises. That’s why the Caves and Cliffs update was released in 2 parts. Mojang bit off more than they could chew, but played it strategically. With Minecraft gaining more and more support (1 trillion YouTube views, and 238 million copies sold all time), and the top YouTubers and Streamers having played at least some Minecraft, it is likely to gain more and more popularity. The fact that so many people have some nostalgic experience with Minecraft means that they will most likely pass it down.