Multiplayer is the style of playing Minecraft that involves multiple players interacting on a single world hosted by a player or an external server, allowing them to work together to mine ores, build structures, and fight mobs (or each other), or to simply play together.

The gameplay of a multiplayer game still retains the same structure as the singleplayer counterpart. Take for example, in a Survival multiplayer game, players advance by gathering resources, fighting monsters, exploring the world, and reaching the End. However, multiplayer puts more emphasis on collaboration between players. Tasks such as resource gathering, farming, and building structures can be divided among players, making progression much faster compared to a singleplayer game.

Multiplayer allows for player-driven activities beyond the main game objectives. Players often establish in-game economy by building shops to trade valuable resources like diamonds and enchanted items. They can also engage in elaborate building for their homes and structures, such as houses, bridges, castles, pixel arts, statues, and more – usually forming into towns or cities.

Multiplayer games can also deviate from the base game experience; competitive games like player versus player (PvP) and many minigames are heavily community-based. In addition, most custom adventure maps are also playable in multiplayer. These activities often rely on the chat system for communication between players, which can be managed on the Social interactions screen.‌^{[Java Edition only]} There are various communication tools within the multiplayer chat using commands such as /msg for private messaging, and the host of the world can change multiplayer settings.

The game runs an internal server for singleplayer mode, allowing for better parity between the multiplayer and singleplayer experience. However, there are still some differences between a multiplayer and singleplayer game, one being that the game cannot be paused by a player.

Opening the game menu in multiplayer does not pause the game. For example, if the player has items being smelted in a furnace, pressing the pause button (Esc by default) does not stop the smelting process. Mobs and entities don't pause and continue to work regardless, and even attacking the player. Although, in Java Edition, server operators can simulate pausing by using /tick freeze command. In this state, non-player characters and interactions such as physics, daylight and weather cycle, mob AI and movements, item smelting, certain animations, and other actions are frozen. Players and player-ridden entities are still able to continue play, regardless if they are operator status or not.

In multiplayer mode, the locator bar is enabled and keeps track of other players' waypoints. This is absent in singleplayer, though in Java Edition, it can be enabled manually for tracking entities using /waypoint command and waypoint_transmit_range attribute.

In Java Edition, singleplayer worlds can be hosted as multiplayer games on the local area network (LAN), usually connected by Wi-Fi or router, or online via a P2P connection.​^{[upcoming: JE 26.2]} LAN is not enabled by default, and must be activated on "Open to LAN" menu under the pause menu. Upon activation, the multiplayer game provides additional settings:

• "Game Mode", which sets the game mode of other players once they join the world for the first time. Once a player rejoins, they retain their previous game mode even if the game mode on join was changed.
• "Allow Commands", which allows or denies other players access to execute commands depending on the selected option. Once a player rejoins, they do not retain their cheats permissions unless enabled again.
• "Port Number", which specifies the port number for the LAN-based server. If not specified, the game randomizes the server port. The port is automatically shown on the chat when the LAN game is activated.

Players can also open their game to LAN by using /publish command, which provide arguments to configure the same settings.

Once published, the host's game sends a UDP multicast to the multicast address 224.0.2.60:4445 every 1.5 seconds, notifying other players of the host's presence, and making their LAN world pop up automatically in the server list.

This section describes content that is currently in development for Java Edition.

 

This content has appeared in development versions for Java Edition 26.2, but the full update adding it has not been released yet.

Multiplayer Options allows users to customize how a world is handled in multiplayer.

The multiplayer scope can be set to one of the following:

• Off: (default) Nobody can join the world.
• LAN: Only players in the local network can join the world.
• Online: Friends can be invited to join the world from anywhere.

In Bedrock Edition, the game features multiplayer connections using local area network (LAN) and Minecraft's social system within the Xbox network. When signed in with a Microsoft account and connected to the internet, the host can let players join their game by invites or their friend status in the Xbox network. Multiplayer game is enabled by default upon a world creation, which can be changed in the edit world screen.

The multiplayer game visibility in the Xbox network can be changed in "Edit World" → "Multiplayer" → "Player access", which provides following options:

• "Invited players", which allows some Xbox friends that the host invites to join.
• "Friends", which allows any Xbox friends of the host to join them. This is the default option.
• "Friends of friends", which allows the host's Xbox friends and their friends to join them.

A friend's multiplayer game in the Xbox network appears on the "Worlds" tab of the Play screen, showing the world name and amount of active players. Individual players can also be joined through the social drawer or the player's profile screen. Friends can be invited to a world with the "Invite to play" button in the social drawer in the pause menu, who will get a notification (even when not in-game), and the option to join the world.

The host can set specific permissions for each player in the game. By default, a player upon joining gets "Member" role, which enables mining, building, and interacting with the world and entities. This can be set in the multiplayer settings, which provides "Visitor" and "Operator" roles, and further more on the player permissions screen in the pause menu, which provides more granular and custom permissions. The host can also kick active players from the multiplayer world, or ban them to hide the world for them.

The "Visible to LAN Players" option allows anyone (except Nintendo Switch players) on the same local network (either by Wi-Fi hotspot or router) as the host to join them, regardless if they are an Xbox friend of the host or not, and does not require any internet connection.

On console versions, playing a multiplayer game requires an online subscription of either Xbox Game Pass, Nintendo Switch Online, or PlayStation Plus.^[1] This includes joining or hosting a LAN multiplayer game.

There can be a maximum of 5 or 8 players at a time in a world, depending on the host's system, and can be set using /setmaxplayers up to 40 players.

A server is a standalone software that allows players to host a Minecraft world outside the normal game software. In order to join a Minecraft server, the game includes a menu where players can join a server, and save the ones they've visited. This feature is called the server list, and it's available inside the Multiplayer menu,‌^{[JE only]} or the Servers tab on the Play menu.‌^{[BE only]} From the list, players can check if a server is online, check their ping time to the server, and see how many players are in the game. In Bedrock Edition, the server list includes featured servers which are partnered with Mojang Studios. In the console versions, the featured servers are the only servers available to the players, and external servers cannot be added or accessed.

Worlds hosted on servers can also be joined through LAN play as described above. Servers cannot be joined through the Xbox network in Bedrock Edition.

The Official Minecraft Server List by GamerSafer and Mojang features a variety of servers for the player to choose, which are categorized into options such as minigames, SMPs, and creative builds. All servers listed on the website are required to comply with Minecraft Usage Guidelines (MUG) and End-user license agreement (EULA), and have been vetted by both GamerSafer and the Mojang Enforcement Team.

Players can pay a subscription service to create their own private Minecraft server which is always online. This service is called Realms, and it is provided by Mojang Studios on Java and Bedrock editions. Realms are not available in the server list, players can join Realms only if they're invited by the Realm owner. Realms provides several exclusive features included in the subscription.

Players can see a list of players in the server by holding down ↹ Tab key, which is bound to List Players by default. For each player, the face part of their skin is shown alongside their username, and on the right, a network bar indicator that shows how good the player's connection to the server; when more green bar is filled in the indicator, the lower ping time the player has. If a scoreboard objective is set to the list display slot, the player's score for that objective is shown to the left of the network indicator. Players in spectator mode have a grayed out and italicised username.

Meaning of ping icons^[2]

Icon	Player's ping time
	Below 0ms[note 1]
	Between 0 and 150ms
	Between 150 and 300ms
	Between 300 and 600ms
	Between 600 and 1000ms
	Above 1000ms

The ping time (or latency) is calculated by (previous latency × 3 + client round trip time) ÷ 4, which the client round trip time is calculated from subtracting the current system time by milliseconds with the client keep alive time.^[3] If no previous latency is set, then the initial latency is zero.

Online players in the server can be seen in social drawer in the game menu (opened with F4 or the bound key). Each player is shown with their player permission, and their Xbox profile picture, allowing to open the profile and change social settings.

This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition.

 

Players can join and create parties within the friends system, and connect with up to 15 people in the menus. When the leader joins a multiplayer world or Realm, all members automatically join the leader and can quickly hop from world to world. Parties also have a chat feature which allows members to communicate even if they are not in the same world, or in the menus.

This article is about general multiplayer server history. For Bedrock Edition server software history, see Bedrock Dedicated Server § History. For Java Edition server software history, see server.jar § History.

Issues relating to "Multiplayer" or "Server" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

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  A multiplayer group
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  Two players look towards a massive build they made.
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  Three players in a cave, stumbling on an Ancient city.
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  Two players in boats heading towards a shipwreck. A base can be seen above.
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  Three players building a house on a cliffside.
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  Two players mining.
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  Four players in multiplayer, with the chat open.
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  Two players fighting near a cliff.

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  The disclaimer that appears in Java Edition before going to the multiplayer menu screen.
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  The same disclaimer in Bedrock Edition
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  Banned from a Minecraft server.
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  Banned from online play and Realms.
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  Title screen with inaccessible multiplayer and Realms buttons when banned from online play.

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  A multiplayer group taken in Java Edition Beta.
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  A player-made creeper structure in multiplayer Java Edition Beta.
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  A player-made great pillars, assuming to be a massive castle.
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  Player statues, a common trait of creative multiplayer servers.
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  Numerous players on a Pocket Edition server in 2014.
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  An early multiplayer game on Java Edition Alpha.
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  An early Spleef minigame on Java Edition Classic.
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  An early Creative mode server on Java Edition Classic.

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  Notch testing multiplayer.
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  Early multiplayer.
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  Early multiplayer.
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  Early multiplayer.

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  A multiplayer game on a rainy night.
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  Players gaining achievements with add-ons enabled.