Mojang has a fresh Minecraft content update landing in just a few days, but ahead of it, it is making some changes to how it identifies each version of the game. Since the official launch of Minecraft 1.0 in 2011, the developer behind the sandbox sensation has been naming its major content updates as 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and so forth. Now, with the numbering system reaching 1.21, it is making some changes.
The studio says that it wants to make the version number be more descriptive and easier to understand, with the change happening across Bedrock and Java versions as well as preview snapshots.
With the change, the version number will begin with the year that the update landed, meaning 2026 updates will have version number 26 at the start of it. The numbers that follow will include the release number and the patch or hotfix number, which may change depending on the release cadence of Java and Bedrock builds.
Mojang provided a helpful example of what this system would have looked like if it went live with 2025 updates:
While the development team doesn’t think this change will affect players that much, it does hope the situation becomes clearer for creators and modders.
"This change in our version numbering won’t have a huge impact on our players," says Mojang. "We are, however, hoping it’ll make it easier for our creator partners and modders to understand which of our version numbers represent a game drop, and which of them represent patches or bug fixes to our drops."
As for preview builds, the same numbering scheme will apply, along with the snapshot"s version itself. For example, this would make the Mounts of Mayhem snapshot name change from "25w41a" to "25.4-snapshot-1" instead.
The version number change will go live with updates that land for Minecraft in 2026. Preview builds will adopt the change starting next week.