One of the most fascinating aspects of Minecraft is the vast size of its worlds. You spawn into what seems like a never-ending landscape of mountains, oceans, and villages with no boundaries in sight. But that raises the common question: are Minecraft worlds actually infinite?
As someone who’s clocked in thousands of hours digging, building, and flying through the game, I can tell you this: Minecraft worlds feel infinite, but they are not technically infinite. Let’s break it down to see how big a Minecraft world is.
Key “Take Aways”:
– Minecraft worlds are NOT Infinite: they have a border at ± 30 million blocks in each direction from the center (60 million blocks wide x 60 million blocks long)
– The real Minecraft world size is 3.6 billion sq km (1.39 billion sq miles). That is 7 times the surface size of the Earth!
– A Minecraft world has 13,824 quadrillion blocks!
Are Minecraft Worlds Infinite?
No, Minecraft worlds are not infinite. In the Java Edition, the default world border is set at ± 30 million blocks from the center of the map. This means that in all four directions, a border can be found 30.000.000 blocks away from where you spawn. That makes a total of 60 million blocks wide and 60 million blocks long.
In practical gameplay terms – especially in Survival and Creative modes – they sure feel infinite. You can walk or fly in any direction for what seems like forever, and new terrain will keep generating. But technically, Minecraft worlds are finite: if you keep walking, you will reach the world boundary.
Learn more about the World boundaries in Minecraft Java and Bedrock Editions in this Minecraft Wiki article.
How Big Is a Minecraft Map In Real-World Size?
A Minecraft map is 60,000 km long and 60,000 km wide, resulting in a total area of 3.6 billion square kilometers (1.39 billion square miles). That makes a single Minecraft world 7 times the surface size of the planet Earth!
Now, let’s consider for a moment the length of the Minecraft World, which is approximately 60,000 km long (37,282 miles). This equals 1.5 times the circumference of the Earth! So if you started walking from one edge of the Minecraft world, it would be like walking around the planet and then halfway around again!
Here is a comparison table so you get an idea of the enormous size of a Minecraft World:
| Entity | Area (km²) |
| Minecraft world | 3.6 billion km² |
| Russia (largest country) | ~17 million km² |
| United States | ~9.8 million km² |
| China | ~9.6 million km² |
| Entire Earth (surface) | ~510 million km² |
So next time someone says Minecraft is big… they mean cosmically huge!
How did we calculate the real size of the Minecraft world? In Minecraft, one block is 1 meter by 1 meter in size. That means each block is 1 square meter in area, and therefore, 1,000 blocks will make up 1 square kilometer. You simply need to divide the total number of blocks by 1000 to obtain the square kilometers.
How Many Blocks Are in a Minecraft World?
The total number of blocks in a Minecraft World is 13,824 quadrillion blocks (13,824,000,000,000,000 blocks)
Let’s break this number down to understand it: if a world is 60 million blocks wide and each layer is 384 blocks high (from -64 to 320, according to this Minecraft article), then we can calculate the total number of blocks:
- Width (X): 60,000,000 blocks
- Depth (Z): 60,000,000 blocks
- Height (Y): 384 blocks
Multiplying the blocks of each axis, you get the total number of blocks: 60,000,000 × 60,000,000 × 384. That makes a Minecraft world size of 13,824 quadrillion blocks. Truly mind-blowing, huh?
Of course, not every single one of those is filled with material – some are air, some are caves – but that’s the theoretical number of block spaces available in a whole world. It’s an astronomical number that no one, not even the most dedicated speedrunners or survival players, could ever explore thoroughly.
Can You Reach the End of a Minecraft World?
Technically, yes, but it’s not practical. Walking or flying to the edge would take weeks or months of real-time gameplay, and the terrain may become more glitchy the farther you go. In other words, you’d need a jetpack, a teleportation system, and probably a couple of lifetimes to see everything.
Learn how to reload chunks in Minecraft in case you find rendering problems when getting to the border.
What most people do is use teleport commands like /tp or /teleport command in “Creative Mode” to skip across vast distances. But even then, you’ll notice lag and performance issues as you approach the extreme edges of the map.
Nevertheless, there is always someone capable of the impossible. Check out this video of a guy who reached the boundaries in just 1 hour by taking advantage of a “glitch” in Minecraft!
Minecraft Worlds: Big Enough to Feel Infinite
Minecraft’s world size is one of the game’s most awe-inspiring features. It’s vast enough that you’ll never run out of places to explore, mountains to climb, or oceans to sail. Even if you play for thousands of hours like I have, you’ll still find new biomes, cave systems, and secrets.
So, while Minecraft worlds aren’t truly infinite, they are so big that, for all practical purposes, they might as well be. If your goal is to build a city, create a massive redstone contraption, or just wander forever, you’ve got all the space you could ever need.
