Minecon

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Minecon
Status	Active
Genre	Video games
Frequency	Annual
Venue	Various
Inaugurated	18 November 2011; 13 years ago (2011-11-18)
Most recent	28 September 2024; 55 days ago (2024-09-28)
Next event	TBD 1/2 2025
Organized by	Mojang Studios
Website	minecraft.net/en-us/live

Minecon (alternatively capitalised as MineCon, or MINECON), also known as Minecraft Live, is an annual interactive livestream and fan convention about the video game Minecraft, hosted by Mojang.^[1] The first gathering in 2010 was known as MinecraftCon. The event then went by the Minecon name from 2011 to 2019. The Minecon 2011 convention was held in Las Vegas and celebrated the launch of the game with Minecraft-related discussion panels and gaming areas. The last in-person convention, Minecon 2016, held in Anaheim, had 12,000 attendees. An attempt at returning to in-person events was prevented due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since 2017, Minecon has taken the form of an interactive livestream. The livestream was called Minecon Earth in 2017 and 2018, and was later renamed to Minecon Live in 2019 and Minecraft Live starting in 2020, where the audience was permanently removed.

As of 9 September 2024, the structure of Minecraft Live has changed. Minecraft Live will now broadcast twice a year, and the mob vote has been retired.^[2]

MinecraftCon 2010 was a gathering of more than 30 people at Bellevue, Washington, on 31 August. The event was organized following a post on Markus Persson's blog^[3] in which he made people aware he was going to be in the area. He was aware multiple people had expressed an interest in meeting him, and called for people to suggest places where a small meeting could be held. The event would eventually take place in a park and had a small group of people asking Persson questions about the state of Minecraft's development.^[4]

5,000 people attended the first official MineCon convention held in Las Vegas on 18 November.^[5] The convention focused on celebrating the game's release and hosted Minecraft-related discussion panels, and invited people to play the game with others while at the convention.^[5] There were keynote speeches from members of the community, building contests, costume contests and exhibits. One of the many events at MINECON was the "Nether Party", an event for those aged 21 and over, featuring Canadian DJ deadmau5. This event also marked the release of Minecraft 1.0 to the public, officially taking the game out of beta as Notch pulled a giant lever. It was also the first time that Minecraft on the Xbox 360 console was first shown and played outside of the development.

On 2 August 2012, Mojang announced that the 2012 MineCon convention would take place at Disneyland Paris on the 24 and 25 November.^[6][7] The announcement was made over the social networking platform Twitter when the game's creator, Markus Persson, posted a short trailer revealing the new convention location.^[6] The video shows Mojang team members wearing Disney paraphernalia, and Persson comments to lead developer Jens Bergensten, "I think they are trying to tell us something".^[8][9] Joystiq's JC Fletcher said that the site was a "step up" from the first MINECON's location in Las Vegas.^[7] The second annual convention was the first held outside of the United States, making it available to European fans who might not have been able to attend the first.^[10] It was held in the wake of Minecraft's growing popularity as the Xbox 360 version of the game sold 3 million copies.^[10] 2012 was also the start of several in-game unofficial MINECONs, notably a Virtual MINECON,^[11] which although an unofficial event, was attended by a member of the Mojang Team.^[12] Many in-game MINECONs have announced an intent to return with the start of the next MINECON.^[13]

The convention in 2012 was attended by 4,500 fans.^[1] Mojang made several announcements at the 2012 convention. Details about the 1.5 "Redstone" update were revealed as well as information on the game's modding API.^[14]

On 7 April 2013, Lydia Winters revealed that MINECON 2013 would be held in the United States.^[15] Jens Bergensten later said that it would be on the east coast.^[16] On 27 June, it was announced on Mojang's YouTube Channel that MINECON 2013 will be held in Orlando, Florida.^[17] The website for the Orange County Convention Center had listed MineCon as an upcoming event in November, with an attendance of 7,500,^[18] but then removed the event from the web page.^[18] Tickets went on sale in three batches each of 2,500 tickets on 31 July, and the 2 and 3 August. The first batch of 2,500 tickets was sold out in three seconds, according to Mojang COO Vu Bui.^[19] The event took place on 2 and 3 November.

On 30 March 2014, Lydia Winters revealed in a tweet that MINECON 2014 would be held in Europe.^[20] However, on 1 August 2014, Vu Bui created a blog post, stating that there would be no MineCon 2014, but instead the next MineCon would be in Spring 2015 in London.^[21]

External videos
MineCon 2015 Opening Ceremony Animation

On 2 February 2015, Vu Bui announced MINECON 2015 would be held in London, at the ExCeL London Exhibition and Conference Centre on the 4 and 5 July 2015.^[22] Ticket prices were announced on 18 March 2015 and were set at £129. During the opening ceremony on the 4th of July 2015, animated by Element Animation Studios,^[23] it was announced by Guinness World Records that MineCon had won the world record for the most attendance for a convention that is solely for one game, selling 10,000 tickets.^[24][25]

Popular Minecraft content creators participate and interact with fans and other creators at Minecon. Pictured: Jordan Maron (CaptainSparklez) on a panel in 2016.

On 7 March 2016, Mojang announced in a blog post that MINECON 2016 would be held in Anaheim, California, at the Anaheim Convention Center on the 24 and 25 September 2016.^[26] They announced new features during that time, such as the Minecraft novel, Minecraft: The Island, and an update coming to the console versions of the game.^[27] Promoted in the opening and closing ceremonies was a two-part short film from Element Animation, entitled A Minecraft Adventure.^[28][29]

Following three years of livestreams, a return to the in-person convention format was announced at Minecon Live 2019, named Minecraft Festival, which would happen in September 2020.^[30] Minecraft Festival's venue, the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, would have been the same venue for Minecon 2013. More details were revealed at the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic,^[31] but was swiftly postponed a week later to the same dates the next year,^[32] then to an undetermined date in 2022,^[33][34] and then cancelled for 2022^[35] as the pandemic continued. As of 2024, no further updates to the status of this event have been announced and it is presumed to be permanently cancelled.^{[citation needed]}

On 8 August 2017, Mojang announced that MINECON would be taking the form of an interactive livestream on 18 November 2017, dubbed "MINECON Earth".^[36] The host of MINECON Earth is Will Arnett, a Canadian actor. After this announcement came the introduction of 'Official Community Events', which allow events such as Minefaire, Minevention and Multiplay's BlockFest to be considered 'Official Minecraft Conventions'. During the show, the developers announced the next major update, the "Update Aquatic", released in July 2018. A new feature of Mincon was the "Mob Vote", a community poll where users are invited to vote on Twitter (X) for one of few mobs to be implemented into the game. Hosted by Vu Bui, COO of Mojang Studios, it was announced at the end of the livestream that the winning mob was "The Monster of The Night Skies", later named the "Phantom".^[37]

On 10 April 2018, Mojang announced that MINECON Earth would be taking place on 29 September 2018 for 90 minutes on stream.^[38][39] During the event, Mojang announced Minecraft Dungeons, a dungeon-crawler spin-off of Minecraft, and features of the upcoming "Village & Pillage" update, which was released in April 2019. Viewers voted for one of three in-game biomes to be updated in the next update in a "Biome Vote";^[40] the Taiga biome won the vote. Prior to the event, players in China participated in a promotional poll by Netease in which they guessed which national Chinese animal would join Minecraft. The options were the giant panda, Chinese alligator, golden snub-nosed monkey, Thorold's deer, and baiji. The former was announced to be implemented in the "Village & Pillage" update, and it coincidently placed first in this poll and was added as well.^[41]

On 17 May 2019, MINECON Live 2019 was announced to be held on 28 September that same year, changing the name of the event from "MINECON Earth" to "MINECON Live" to avoid confusion with their new game Minecraft Earth.^[42][43] Like the previous year, viewers were able to vote for new features to be added to one of three in-game biomes in a following update;^[44] the Mountains biome won the vote. During the livestream, developers of the game announced the "Nether Update", released in June 2020. An early access release date of Minecraft Earth was also announced to be for October 2019.^[45]

The first to use the "Minecraft Live" branding, Minecraft Live 2020 was held on 3 October 2020. It marked the return of the Mob Vote, where users could vote about which Minecraft creature should be added into the next update.^[46] The three options were Iceologer (featured in Minecraft Dungeons), Moobloom (featured in the now cancelled mobile game Minecraft Earth) and Glow Squid, with the latter winning.^[47][48] The livestream also provided details on Minecraft's next big update, "Caves & Cliffs",^[49] and a musical "Nether Update Encore" from Element Animation Studios featuring additions from the previous update..^[50]

Minecraft Live 2021 was held on 16 October 2021.^[34] It featured a live Mob Vote, like previous years, with the options consisting of the Copper Golem, the Glare, and the Allay, the last of which won the vote. It also featured another Element Animation musical short film, a recap of the features of the previous "Caves & Cliffs: Part 1".^[51] The show also announced the theme of the next major update, called "The Wild Update", which added a new biome, the mangrove forest, and an underground biome called the Deep Dark, which was originally planned for the "Caves & Cliffs".^[52]

Minecraft Live 2022 was held on 15 October 2022. It featured a Mob Vote, this time in-game, with the options consisting of the Sniffer, the Rascal, and the Tuff Golem, the first of which won the vote.^[53] Unlike previous years, the developers revealed a few basic features for the next update, including camels, bamboo wood, and hanging signs. The update was later dubbed the "Trails & Tales" update. It also announced the basic gameplay for the upcoming game Minecraft Legends and the Season 3 update for Minecraft Dungeons.^[54]

Minecraft Live 2023 was held on 15 October 2023, which featured another Mob vote, featuring the crab, armadillo, and penguin, the second of which won the vote.^[55][56] The event also announced portions of the next major updates of Minecraft, Minecraft Legends and Minecraft Education. Like previous years, there was an announcement relating to the next major update. This year, the update that was announced was the 1.21 Tricky Trials Update. The update was said to focus on "combat adventures and tinkering". It includes several copper block variants, and trial chambers. It also included the new crafter, tuff brick types, and more unique enemies that spawn in the trial chambers. The update also introduced the breeze as a new mob. Yet another short film from Element Animation was shown during the livestream, staring mobs from the last update.

Minecraft Live 2024 was held on 28 September 2024.^[57][58][59] Starting with this year, the mob vote was retired.^[2] However, a new mob and biome were discussed, the "Creaking" and "Pale Gardens" biomes, respectively. After, the show went on to discuss and show a new trailer of A Minecraft Movie, and announced new features for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition. The show discussed The Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue, a real-life Minecraft-themed interactive experience,^[60] and featured another short from Element Animation, promoting the upcoming drop.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to MineCon.

• Official website