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This feature is exclusive to Java Edition. 

This page serves to list all of the April Fools jokes and give a summary of their features and changes.

List of April Fools’ jokes[]

2010[]

In 2010, Notch wrote that he had planned to make a video announcing “Minecraft 4D” for April Fools', but ran out of time due to moving into a new home.[1][2]

2011[]

Main article: Minecraft Store

In 2011, a fake "Minecraft store" website was created. This was linked to by the locked chest, a block which was implemented for this purpose, as it was implied that keys had to be bought from said store to unlock these chests.

2013[]

Main article: Java Edition 2.0

During 2013, Mojang released a pre-release for a fake future version containing numerous joke features to various YouTubers.[3]

2014[]

A post was added to Mojang Studios' blog[4] for the joke.

The long-nosed villagers introduced in Minecraft beta 1.9 have become sentient. They have taken over our skin servers and content delivery networks (CDN), so unfortunately you will not be able to change your skins until we fix the problem. We are desperately trying our best to pull the plugs, but we should prepare ourselves to serve under our new villager overlords. Singularity may be upon us.

The Minecraft Team

This caused all players' current skin to be replaced with the various villager skins, and caused users to be unable to change their skins unless they modified the launcher .json file. Different career villager skins were used, including the then-unused green robe of a nitwit villager.

In-game, villagers still acted the same, but they made different sounds. All noises were replaced with the sound effects of Element Animation's "T.E.A.V.S.R.P" (The Element Animation Villager Sounds Resource Pack). Mojang Studios also added in-game villager music. The title screen music contains a parody of the Game of Thrones theme, due to the new series starting in early April and also because of its being included in the original trailer for "T.E.A.V.S.R.P." Jeb also claimed the villager got his Twitter account.[5]

Grumm released the villager skins on Reddit on April 1, 2014. There were seven variants, including a base skin.

An updated version of T.E.A.V.S.R.P., complete with the new music, was released by Element Animation on April 2, 2014.

Soon afterward, Element Animation released this video, and the skins and the sounds were reverted to the way they were before on April 2, 2014.

Pocket Edition Development April Fools 2014

The image that Johan posted on April Fools' 2014.

One of the Pocket Edition developers, Johan Bernhardsson, also shared an image of the player bouncing a basketball in-game.[6]

2015[]

Main article: Java Edition 15w14a

15w14a was released as an April Fools' joke for version 1.10, when the next update was supposed to be 1.9. This "update" is called the Love and Hugs Update.[7] There was also a QR code written in the snow that generated in a superflat world that, when scanned, reads "Minecraft 1.9: The Combat Update". Swords were replaced with "hearts". The only world name available was "There can only be one". Survival was called "Existence". Players were also unable to take damage from The Void.

2016[]

Trendy update

1.RV-Pre1 shows the tech items and the USB charger block.

1.RV-Pre1 was released as an April Fools' joke for the update 1.RV. This "update" was called the "Trendy Update".[8]

2017[]

Mine & Craft Digital Leisure Device

The Mine & Craft Digital Leisure Device from April Fools 2017.

The Mine & Craft Digital Leisure Device, a "game console" resembling a Game & Watch, was announced on the Minecraft website.[9]

2018[]

New joke textures compared to original textures

A comparison of some textures.

See also: Texture Update

A version of Minecraft's textures was released for Java Edition. The new textures are available in versions of Java Edition 1.12.x and versions from Java Edition 17w43a to Java Edition 18w11a. It was announced that all editions of Minecraft would get the new version of textures.

The new textures are the original textures using 8-bit color, leading to a drastic reduction in detail.[10] The splash text for this day also shows any of the following:

  • Cleaner!
  • Simplified!
  • Perfected!amazing
  • Art directed! (by robots)
  • Machine learned textures!
  • Not blurry!
  • Not bubbly!
  • Not cartoony!
  • Photorealistic!
  • Hand-painted!

The textures and the splashes were reverted to the way they were before on April 2, 2018.[11] However, this update cannot be reactivated by setting the computer's date to April 1, 2018.

For block and item renders of these textures, see Category:April Fools 2018. Archive as a resource pack.

2019[]

Main article: 3D Shareware v1.34

An April Fools' version officially called "Minecraft 3D" was released,[12] containing many references to gaming in the 1990s, primarily Doom.

2020[]

Main article: Java Edition 20w14∞

Snapshot 20w14∞ was released, adding 2,147,483,647 dimensions that can be accessed by throwing a book and quill that was not specially customized or written book into a nether portal.[13]

2021[]

Main article: Minecraft Plus!

Minecraft Plus! for Windows, a screensaver collection that references screensavers from old versions of Windows, was announced on the Minecraft website.[14]

2022[]

The update was released on April 1, 2022. It removes the inventory, and players can right click a mob or block to pick it up and throw it.

2023[]

For April Fool's Day 2023, fire randomly appears on the Minecraft launcher. Passing the mouse cursor over the flames extinguishes them.

Mojang Studios also published snapshot 23w13a_or_b, titled "The Vote Update", a few hours later. The gameplay of this update revolves around a voting system, where the player chooses from many possible scenarios that will change the state of the world.

Additionally, on the Minecraft website, two chickens will appear on the bottom left and right of the page. Clicking on both of them will cause them to breed and spawn numerous chickens, covering the entire page.

2024[]

Spawner in Sponge Dimension (April Fools 2024)

A Mob Spawner in the new Poisonous Potato Dimension

Village sponge dimension minecraft april fools 2024

A Village in the new Poisonous Potato Dimension

For April Fool's Day 2024, the loading icon on the Minecraft launcher was a poisonous potato, instead of the usual two allays spinning in a circle. All the text also changed from the 'Noto Sans' font to a handwritten-like font, and on every click inside the Minecraft launcher, a poisinous potato would fly from the cursor. If multiple clicks were in quick succession, a group of them would spawn.

Also for April Fool's Day 2024, Mojang Studios published the snapshot 24w14potato, titled "The Poisonous Potato Update". This snapshot added over 100 new items, including new mobs, new wood type, new structures and a new dimension.

Some Java Edition users were stating that "A random brown bunny" is always teleporting to the player every time they go far away from it, Currently, There's not much information about it.

Potato title screen

The Poisonous Potato Title Screen.

Minecraft Launcher on April Fools 2024

The Launcher on April Fools

References[]

  1. "Stupid move cutting into my April fools’ time. I was going to announce minecraft in 4D. Just prentend like i did or something."@notch (Markus Persson) on X, March 31, 2010
  2. "Announcing the next step for minecraft." (archived) by Notch – Tumblr, April 1, 2010.
  3. "It’s finally coming – Minecraft 2.0!" (archived) by Dinnerbone – Mojang.com, April 1, 2013.
  4. "Minecraft is Experiencing Some Problems" (archived) by Jens Bergensten – Mojang.com, April 1, 2014.
  5. "They got to my twitter account too :S"@jeb_ (Jens Bergensten) on X, April 1, 2014
  6. "The new controls work a lot better than the old one. Fun to play with one hand and in portrait. :)"@jbernhardsson (Johan Bernhardsson) on X, April 1, 2014
  7. "Minecraft snapshot 15w14a – The Love and Hugs Update" (archived) by Dinnerbone – Mojang.com, April 1, 2015.
  8. "Minecraft 1.RV - The Trendy Update Pre-Release 1" (archived) by Jens Bergensten – Mojang.com, March 31, 2016.
  9. "Introducing: The Mine & Craft Digital Leisure Device" – Minecraft.net, April 1, 2017
  10. "Java Edition Textures Finally Perfected" – Minecraft.net, April 1, 2018
  11. "April fools! The new Minecraft textures have a few more colours than this ;) If you restart Minecraft: Java Edition then it should all go back to normal now!"@Dinnerbone (Nathan Adams) on X, April 2, 2018
  12. "Minecraft 3D Rediscovered" – Minecraft.net, April 1, 2019
  13. "Every update imaginable coming to Minecraft" – Minecraft.net, April 1, 2020
  14. "Introducing Minecraft Plus" – Minecraft.net, April 1, 2021
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