- Credits
- 44,665
Since I've gone and ranked all of the drops, I might as well complete the full package and rank all of the major updates as well.
I did talk about some of these updates some time ago, but I'm not fully satisfied with those posts anymore, and honestly, with the change in version numbers next year, it feels appropriate to rank these now.
Without further ado…here is my ranking of all 22 major updates in Minecraft.
22. 1.10
The Frostburn Update is a really pathetic update to be honest. While I do like magma blocks and husks, I can't pretend like this wasn't a small update that barely added in anything. It's honestly worse than most of the drops, at least the drops have some sort of impact.
21. 1.1
1.1 lacks anything of note really. It's the smallest update by far and only really added in spawn eggs, superflat worlds, and bow enchantments. While superflats and spawn eggs are rather iconic to the game, they're also not really something I'd rank an entire update over.
20. 1.2
1.2 added in jungles, which is pretty cool, but honestly, I can't ever really call this an exciting update. It's not horrible, just really unremarkable compared to what came after it.
19. 1.20
To be honest, 1.20 is the update I've experienced the least. It's also just…very unimpressive. There's archeology, cherry wood, sniffers, and camels. All of these things just never really caught my attention. Although I will give credit, the cherry tree biome is pretty nice.
18. 1.15
1.15 is not a bad update. It's just a very small one that has bees and honey. It's mostly a bug fix update, which is perfectly fine but I can't really rank this very high just due to the lack of features.
17. 1.12
World Of Color is cute, but I can't pretend like it added a ton of interesting features. Colored beds, parrots, and glazed terracotta are neat, but this honestly just doesn't really do anything major for me.
16. 1.19
The Wild Update was very okay. I won't pretend like the deep dark and wardens aren't cool, but this is honestly just a mix of two different updates combined. You've got the swamp biome update mixed into the deep dark update and it never really felt like it had an identity due to this.
15. 1.11
1.11 is a perfectly alright update that added in wooden mansions and totems of undying, which was pretty sweet at the time and still kind of is during the current day.
14. 1.6
The Horse Update is charming. While horses aren't as necessary as they once were I also can't pretend like they weren't the major mode of transportation for years until 1.9, and also, horses are still really useful until the end game so there's that.
13. 1.3
1.3 is very small but meaningful. Trading, temples, and emeralds are very well known features of the game. However, I do think that it still felt a bit small.
12. 1.9
Ah the most controversial update. And my biggest hot take on this list. 1.9 is actually pretty alright. The combat changes didn't really ruin the game and honestly, elytras are such fun additions to the game that it automatically bumps this update quite a bit.
Besides that however, we finally had something else in The End outside of the dragon. Granted, it was only like three things but at the time that was a miracle.
11. 1.5
Ah the redstone update, such a foundational update for the redstone community. I'm placing it up here just for how important this was for redstone as a whole.
I just don't really use much of these however.
10. 1.17
The first cave and cliffs update. While it does lack any world generation, it also added in every single block and mob that was a part of cave and cliffs. For that alone, I'll give it 11th place on this list.
9. 1.21
The Tricky Trials update is a solid update that will age well in time. Trial chambers are honestly some of the best structures in the game and I can't pretend like this wasn't a solid update for the game.
8. 1.8
1.8 was perfectly solid. Plenty of features that were good then and are good now. Rabbits, banners, ocean monuments, and guardians are pretty neat to have. And honestly, this kind of a special update because this was the last update of the golden age of Minecraft, so maybe I'm being a bit biased.
7. 1.4
The pretty scary update was just really eventful at the time. The Wither, wither skeletons, witches, carrots and potatoes are just really well known aspects of the game. Plus, The Wither is pretty cool.
6. 1.7
1.7 was an incredibly large update, honestly it's a bit overwhelming at times. It added mesas, savannahs, birch forests, dark oaks forests, and deep oceans were some of the biomes added in this update. Altogether, this was just a genuinely large update for the game.
5. 1.18
The world generation changes are the only things added in this update. And saying that this changed the game is an understatement. 1.18 is impactful in ways that become very hard to describe. Caves are larger, mountains are taller, the world is more varied, cave biomes are added in. The scope and scale of this update was worth the wait. It's up here for a pretty solid reason.
4. 1.14
Village And Pillage was a fantastic update that reworked villages into a significantly better game mechanic. It also gave us raids, foxes, pandas, bamboo, campfires, pillagers, and ravenagers which is a pretty hefty amount of content. All in all, it's a very large step towards what Minecraft is today.
3. 1.0
1.0 is officially the launch of Minecraft, and while it isn't as large as the other updates in the top ten, it's simply too eventful to really ignore.
The End, potions, enchanting, music discs, blazes, nether fortress, and mushroom islands are more or less the most major features in this update, but almost everything I just listed are some of the biggest features in the game.
More or less, you can attribute this update as the most important, as it's the starting point of this entire game.
2. 1.13
This is probably my most biased opinion here. 1.13 was right when I really started to get into the game, and I contribute this update significantly with my childhood.
1.13 is an update for the oceans. And it truly did just that. Underwater ruins, shipwrecks, turtles, drowned, coral, tropical fish, salmon, dolphins, and tridents are just some of the content added in this game.
This greatly changed oceans from being barebones and empty to interesting and fleshed out biomes to explore. Overall, this is where modern Minecraft truly began.
1. 1.16
1.16 is just too perfect of an update. The Nether before this update was more or less just the place to go in order to get quartz and blaze rods. There really wasn't any real reason to stay in that place.
1.16 changed all of that. Now there's Netherite, four new biomes, bastions, two new wood types, and respawn anchors, which means that the Nether is significantly more interesting and impactful than it was before.
The scale of this update can't really be ignored when doing a ranking of these updates. After all, The Nether Update changed The Nether into being far better than it was before. What else is there to say?
Well there's my ranking. If you have a different opinion, please post below about it.
I did talk about some of these updates some time ago, but I'm not fully satisfied with those posts anymore, and honestly, with the change in version numbers next year, it feels appropriate to rank these now.
Without further ado…here is my ranking of all 22 major updates in Minecraft.
22. 1.10
The Frostburn Update is a really pathetic update to be honest. While I do like magma blocks and husks, I can't pretend like this wasn't a small update that barely added in anything. It's honestly worse than most of the drops, at least the drops have some sort of impact.
21. 1.1
1.1 lacks anything of note really. It's the smallest update by far and only really added in spawn eggs, superflat worlds, and bow enchantments. While superflats and spawn eggs are rather iconic to the game, they're also not really something I'd rank an entire update over.
20. 1.2
1.2 added in jungles, which is pretty cool, but honestly, I can't ever really call this an exciting update. It's not horrible, just really unremarkable compared to what came after it.
19. 1.20
To be honest, 1.20 is the update I've experienced the least. It's also just…very unimpressive. There's archeology, cherry wood, sniffers, and camels. All of these things just never really caught my attention. Although I will give credit, the cherry tree biome is pretty nice.
18. 1.15
1.15 is not a bad update. It's just a very small one that has bees and honey. It's mostly a bug fix update, which is perfectly fine but I can't really rank this very high just due to the lack of features.
17. 1.12
World Of Color is cute, but I can't pretend like it added a ton of interesting features. Colored beds, parrots, and glazed terracotta are neat, but this honestly just doesn't really do anything major for me.
16. 1.19
The Wild Update was very okay. I won't pretend like the deep dark and wardens aren't cool, but this is honestly just a mix of two different updates combined. You've got the swamp biome update mixed into the deep dark update and it never really felt like it had an identity due to this.
15. 1.11
1.11 is a perfectly alright update that added in wooden mansions and totems of undying, which was pretty sweet at the time and still kind of is during the current day.
14. 1.6
The Horse Update is charming. While horses aren't as necessary as they once were I also can't pretend like they weren't the major mode of transportation for years until 1.9, and also, horses are still really useful until the end game so there's that.
13. 1.3
1.3 is very small but meaningful. Trading, temples, and emeralds are very well known features of the game. However, I do think that it still felt a bit small.
12. 1.9
Ah the most controversial update. And my biggest hot take on this list. 1.9 is actually pretty alright. The combat changes didn't really ruin the game and honestly, elytras are such fun additions to the game that it automatically bumps this update quite a bit.
Besides that however, we finally had something else in The End outside of the dragon. Granted, it was only like three things but at the time that was a miracle.
11. 1.5
Ah the redstone update, such a foundational update for the redstone community. I'm placing it up here just for how important this was for redstone as a whole.
I just don't really use much of these however.
10. 1.17
The first cave and cliffs update. While it does lack any world generation, it also added in every single block and mob that was a part of cave and cliffs. For that alone, I'll give it 11th place on this list.
9. 1.21
The Tricky Trials update is a solid update that will age well in time. Trial chambers are honestly some of the best structures in the game and I can't pretend like this wasn't a solid update for the game.
8. 1.8
1.8 was perfectly solid. Plenty of features that were good then and are good now. Rabbits, banners, ocean monuments, and guardians are pretty neat to have. And honestly, this kind of a special update because this was the last update of the golden age of Minecraft, so maybe I'm being a bit biased.
7. 1.4
The pretty scary update was just really eventful at the time. The Wither, wither skeletons, witches, carrots and potatoes are just really well known aspects of the game. Plus, The Wither is pretty cool.
6. 1.7
1.7 was an incredibly large update, honestly it's a bit overwhelming at times. It added mesas, savannahs, birch forests, dark oaks forests, and deep oceans were some of the biomes added in this update. Altogether, this was just a genuinely large update for the game.
5. 1.18
The world generation changes are the only things added in this update. And saying that this changed the game is an understatement. 1.18 is impactful in ways that become very hard to describe. Caves are larger, mountains are taller, the world is more varied, cave biomes are added in. The scope and scale of this update was worth the wait. It's up here for a pretty solid reason.
4. 1.14
Village And Pillage was a fantastic update that reworked villages into a significantly better game mechanic. It also gave us raids, foxes, pandas, bamboo, campfires, pillagers, and ravenagers which is a pretty hefty amount of content. All in all, it's a very large step towards what Minecraft is today.
3. 1.0
1.0 is officially the launch of Minecraft, and while it isn't as large as the other updates in the top ten, it's simply too eventful to really ignore.
The End, potions, enchanting, music discs, blazes, nether fortress, and mushroom islands are more or less the most major features in this update, but almost everything I just listed are some of the biggest features in the game.
More or less, you can attribute this update as the most important, as it's the starting point of this entire game.
2. 1.13
This is probably my most biased opinion here. 1.13 was right when I really started to get into the game, and I contribute this update significantly with my childhood.
1.13 is an update for the oceans. And it truly did just that. Underwater ruins, shipwrecks, turtles, drowned, coral, tropical fish, salmon, dolphins, and tridents are just some of the content added in this game.
This greatly changed oceans from being barebones and empty to interesting and fleshed out biomes to explore. Overall, this is where modern Minecraft truly began.
1. 1.16
1.16 is just too perfect of an update. The Nether before this update was more or less just the place to go in order to get quartz and blaze rods. There really wasn't any real reason to stay in that place.
1.16 changed all of that. Now there's Netherite, four new biomes, bastions, two new wood types, and respawn anchors, which means that the Nether is significantly more interesting and impactful than it was before.
The scale of this update can't really be ignored when doing a ranking of these updates. After all, The Nether Update changed The Nether into being far better than it was before. What else is there to say?
Well there's my ranking. If you have a different opinion, please post below about it.
