Minecraft:Java Edition version history/Development versions

Template:Italic title Version history/disclaimer Starting in the period between Beta 1.7.3 and Beta 1.8, Minecraft:Mojang Studios began to publicly release testing versions of full updates in order to get major feedback, especially for bug reporting. This enabled the official updates to be considerably more stable.

Mojang Studios generally releases Minecraft:snapshots on Tuesdays.<ref>Template:Snap</ref> Previously, before the release of snapshot Minecraft:14w26a on June 25, 2014, in the middle of development for 1.8, they were released on Thursdays.<ref>Template:Tweet</ref> During the period from snapshot 14w26a to release 1.21.5, they were released on Wednesdays.

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Development versions

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File:Version History - Java.png

All versions of Minecraft Java Edition as of early November 2025.

File:List of Java Edition snapshots.png

A list of snapshots per year.

Availability

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These versions are publicly available, though they are not auto-installed by the Minecraft:launcher unless the Enable snapshots checkbox is ticked in the profile editor, and then it will only download the current version's development's set of snapshots and pre-releases. The Minecraft:player is able to change to other snapshots through the profile editor.

Naming

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There are several development builds of Classic versions of the game which were never released to the public. Some of them are now available through the launcher. In-game, these versions were labeled the same as their public release counterparts (e.g. Minecraft:0.0.14a), but had distinct differences from the versions released to the public. Classic 0.24 is the only exception to this rule, as it was labeled simply "0.24" in-game, whereas the full release was labeled "Minecraft:0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST".

There are several builds of Indev 0.31 20091223-0040 which were never released to the public. Most were still labeled "0.30" in-game.

The day before Beta 1.6 was released, Mojang created a Test Build version that was never released, but was nonetheless a development version for Beta 1.6. Between Beta 1.7.3 and Beta 1.8, Mojang began to issue pre-release versions, specifically for Beta 1.8 and what then was known as Beta 1.9. As Beta 1.9 came to be re-designated as release version 1.0.0, candidates subject to release were now known as RCs.

The weekly snapshots for release 1.1 to 1.21.11 were named by using the format YYwWWn. "YY" is the two-digit year, "w" simply stands for "week", "WW" is the two-digit week number within the year, and "n" is a unique letter identifier – starting with "a", then "b", and so on – for when there is more than one release per week. The highest letter reached was "e", a tie between Minecraft:12w30e, Minecraft:13w47e and Minecraft:15w35e. The naming convention is, however, broken by Minecraft:13w12~. Beginning in 2026, snapshots will use the format YY.r-snapshot-n, with "YY" being the two-digit year, "r" being the release number, and "n" being a unique number identifier – starting with "1", then "2", and so on.<ref>Template:Mcnet</ref> The update that has the most snapshots is release 1.9, with a total of 56 snapshots. The update that has the most pre-releases is release 1.13, with 10 pre-releases.

Pre-release versions in Beta had the word "pre-release" spelt out in full (with inconsistent inclusion of the hyphen). After 1.0.0, pre-release versions until 1.7.4 were released as full versions and incremented the minor version number for each pre-release (for example, 1.4 and 1.4.1 were both pre-releases for 1.4.2, and the pre-release for 1.4.7 is identical to the full release of 1.4.7). From 1.7.6 to 1.13.2, pre-releases started including "-pre" following the major version, with a number incrementing each version (e.g., Minecraft:1.12-pre2). 1.14 started spelling the word "pre-release" in full again (e.g., Minecraft:1.14.1 Pre-Release 2), with somewhat inconsistent use of capitalization from then on.

Release candidates were re-introduced with Minecraft:1.16 Release Candidate 1. These are intended to be the last version before the full release, unless a major game-breaking bug is discovered.<ref>Template:Mcnet</ref> The update that has the most release candidates is release 1.18, with a total of four release candidates.

Experimental snapshots were introduced with 1.14.3 - Combat Test. This type of snapshot is released only on special occasions, when Mojang developers want to get testing and feedback on a particular set of features that are outside the scope of a Minecraft:data pack, but which they cannot currently include in a normal snapshot or in Bedrock development versions. They have fallen out of use since Minecraft:Experiments enable normal snapshots to include features that aren't yet due to be added.

Promotional screenshots

Minecraft:Erik Broes (Grum) appeared in promotional screenshots on the Mojang blog for a number of snapshots and pre-releases. He was often hiding, and occasionally simply his player head was present. These were:

Key
	Unavailable in the launcher, but on legacy download site
	Missing pre-reupload.

Update	Version
1.1 (Guide)	12w01a
	11w50a
	11w49a
	11w48a
	11w47a

Key
	Unavailable in the launcher, but archived elsewhere.
	Missing pre-reupload.
	Not archived. Video/image proof exists.

Development versions

Availability

Naming

Promotional screenshots

Other

1.18 experimental snapshots

1.19 experimental snapshots

Full release (new version numbering)

26.x

26.2 (Minecraft:Chaos Cubed)

26.1 (Minecraft:Tiny Takeover)

Full release (old version numbering)

1.21

1.21.11 (Minecraft:Mounts of Mayhem)

1.21.9 (Minecraft:The Copper Age)

1.21.6 (Minecraft:Chase the Skies)

1.21.5 (Minecraft:Spring to Life)

1.21.4 (Minecraft:The Garden Awakens)

1.21.2 (Minecraft:Bundles of Bravery)

1.20

1.20.5 (Minecraft:Armored Paws)

1.20.3 (Minecraft:Bats and Pots)

1.19

1.18

1.17

1.16

1.15

1.14

1.13

1.12

1.11

1.10

1.9

1.8

1.7

1.6

1.5

1.4.2

1.3.1

1.2.1

1.1 (View all)

1.0.0 (View all)

Beta

Beta 1.8 (View all)

Beta 1.7

Beta 1.6

Alpha

Alpha 1.2

References

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