Minecraft will soon drop 32-bit Windows support

If you play Minecraft on a 32-bit Windows 10 machine, Mojang has some bad news for you: the game will soon require a 64-bit operating system to run the latest version. The studio mentioned the upcoming end of 32-bit OS support in the release notes for the latest Minecraft Snapshot, 24w14a.

Minecraft Snapshot 24w14a is a preview version of the upcoming 1.21 update. If things do not change, those playing Minecraft on 32-bit Windows installations will be forced to upgrade their systems to a 64-bit Windows installation. The change will not affect Windows 11 users since the operating system is 64-bit only.

As for macOS, Apple dropped 32-bit app support with the release of macOS Catalina in 2019. However, its predecessor, macOS Mojave, is still listed as supported on the Minecraft website. If you play Minecraft on a 32-bit macOS Mojave, get ready to upgrade as well. There is no information on whether Mojang plans to drop 32-bit support on Android and iOS.

Besides bumping the system requirements to 64-bit operating systems, Minecraft Snapshot 24w14a now requires Java 21 or newer. Here is the full list of technical changes in the latest snapshot:

TECHNICAL CHANGES

• The Data Pack version is now 38
• The game now requires Java 21
• The game now requires a 64-bit Operating System
• The included Java distribution is now the Microsoft build of OpenJDK 21.0.2

You can find the rest of the changelog in Minecraft Snapshot 24w14a in a post on the official website.

As of right now, Minecraft Java Edition requires the following hardware and software:

• OS: macOS 10.14.5 Mojave or newer and Windows 7 or newer.
• CPU: Intel Core i3-3210 or better and AMD A8-7600 and better.
• RAM: 2GB or more.
• iGPU: Intel HD Graphics 4000 or AMD Radeon R5 or better.

You can learn more about Minecraft hardware and software requirements on the official website.