Are Minecraft Worlds Really Infinite?
You may have heard that worlds in Minecraft are infinite, but the size of a world in Minecraft depends on your device’s hardware. The game sets a limit based on what your computer can handle. It allows Minecraft worlds to be as big as possible without slowing down or crashing the game.
What Is the Size of a Minecraft World?
Theoretically, Minecraft worlds can extend 30 million blocks in each direction from the spawn point, but most computers can’t render worlds that large. One block in Minecraft is equivalent to one real-world meter, which means Minecraft worlds can potentially stretch for 60 million meters or about five times the diameter of Earth. The height limit for all Minecraft worlds is 320 blocks. If you dig down as far as you can go, you’ll eventually reach impassible lava. People have found ways to exceed these limits by altering the game’s code, but the size is still ultimately limited by hardware. In some console versions of the game, you can choose a world size (small, medium, or large) when you generate a new map. Worlds can be made larger in the settings options, but they can’t be made smaller.
Do Minecraft Worlds Have an End?
In older versions of the game, the edges of the map were indicated by the Far Lands, an area with distorted blocks you couldn’t go beyond. You can still see the Far Lands, but only by using Minecraft mods. Now, you can go as far as your hardware will allow, up to 30 million blocks from the spawn point. Once you reach the border, you will hit a translucent wall you can see beyond but can’t pass. When you install a custom Minecraft map, the size of the world depends on your current hardware (rather than the hardware it was created on). The Nether, which you can only reach by building a Nether Portal, is the same size as the overworld, but it only extends 127 blocks high. Once you reach the boundaries of the Nether, you’ll hit Bedrock.
