Java Edition version history/Development versions

This is not an official version history or changelog. For the official list, please visit Release Changelogs – Minecraft Feedback.
For the development versions, please visit Snapshot Information and Changelogs – Minecraft Feedback.
For versions 1.12.2 and prior, please visit the Minecraft Official Site.
For versions 1.11 and prior, please check an archived version of the Mojang website.
For versions prior to Beta 1.8, please check an archived version of Notch's blog, The Word of Notch.

Starting in the period between Beta 1.7.3 and Beta 1.8, Mojang began to publicly release testing versions of full updates in order to get major feedback, especially for bug reporting. This enabled the official updates to be considerably more stable.

Mojang generally releases snapshots on Wednesday. The day had been Thursday, until the release of 14w26a on June 25, 2014, in the middle of development for 1.8.^[1]

Snapshots and pre-releases

List of Java Edition snapshots — A list of snapshots per year.

Availability

These versions are publicly available, though they are not auto-installed by the launcher unless the Enable snapshots checkbox is ticked in the profile editor, and then it will only download the current version's development's set of snapshots and pre-releases. The player is able to change to other snapshots through the profile editor.

Naming

An early build of Alpha v1.2.0, unofficially dubbed Alpha v1.2.0-preview, was released for journalistic purposes. The day before Beta 1.6 was released, Mojang created a Test Build version that was never released, but was nonetheless a development version for Beta 1.6. Between Beta 1.7.3 and Beta 1.8, Mojang began to issue pre-release versions, specifically for Beta 1.8 and what then was known as Beta 1.9. As Beta 1.9 came to be re-designated as release version 1.0.0, candidates subject to release were designated with the prefix "RC#".

The weekly snapshots for release 1.1 and onward are named by using the format YYwWWn. "YY" is the two-digit year, "w" simply stands for "week", "WW" is the two-digit week number within the year, and "n" is a unique letter identifier – starting with "a", then "b", and so on – for when there is more than one release per week. Currently the highest letter reached is "e", a tie between 12w30e, 13w47e and 15w35e. The naming convention is, however, broken by 13w12~. The update that has the most snapshots is release 1.9, with a total of 56 snapshots. The update that has the most pre-releases is release 1.13, with 10 pre-releases.

Pre-releases were originally named as version number Pre-release x, where x was either blank or a revision number; this format was used during development of Beta 1.8 (e.g., Beta 1.8 Pre-release 2). Pre-releases for 1.0.0 removed the hyphen in the word "Pre-release" (e.g., Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3). Release versions until 1.7.4 were released as full versions and incremented the minor version number for each pre-release (for example, 1.4 and 1.4.1 were both pre-releases for 1.4.2, and the pre-release for 1.4.7 is identical to the full release of 1.4.7). From 1.7.6 to 1.13.2, pre-releases had the format version number-prex, where x was the revision number (e.g., 1.12-pre2). 1.14 started naming pre-releases as version number Pre-Release x, where x was the revision number (e.g., 1.14.1 Pre-Release 2). As of 1.15, pre-releases are named as version number Pre-release x, where x is the revision number (e.g., 1.15 Pre-release 1) (exceptions: 1.15 Pre-Release 2 and 1.15.2 Pre-Release 1).

Promotional screenshots

Erik Broes (Grum) appeared in promotional screenshots on the Mojang blog for a number of snapshots and pre-releases. He was often hiding, and occasionally simply his player head was present. These were:

1.6.1 snapshots 13w19a, 13w21a, 13w22a, 13w23a, 13w24a, 13w25a, 13w26a and the 1.6 pre-release
1.7.2 snapshots 13w36a, 13w37a, 13w38a, 13w39a, 13w41a, 13w42a and 13w43a, and 1.7.4 snapshot 13w47a
1.8 snapshots 14w02a, 14w03a, 14w04a, 14w05a, 14w06a, 14w08a, 14w10a, the 1.8 pre-release and the 1.8.2 pre-release
1.9 snapshot 16w04a
Release 1.10.
1.11 snapshots 16w40a, 16w41a, 16w43a, 16w44a and 1.11-pre1.
1.11.1 snapshot 16w50a.
1.12 snapshot 17w06a.
1.13 snapshot 17w50a.

Jens Bergensten (Jeb) has appeared in several promotional screenshots as well:

Snapshot 12w23a for 1.3.1, snapshot 12w37a for 1.4.2, the 1.6 pre-release, the 1.8 pre-release, the 1.10, 1.11.1 and 1.11.2 releases, and snapshot 17w16a for 1.12.

Nathan Adams (Dinnerbone) has appeared in:

The 1.6 pre-release, snapshot 14w03a for 1.8 and the 1.8 pre-release.

Michael Stoyke (Searge) has appeared in:

The 1.8 pre-release and the 1.10 release.

Thomas Guimbretière (ProfMobius) has appeared in the 1.10 release.

Maria Lemón (Excited) has appeared in:

1.11 snapshots 16w40a and 16w42a.
1.11.1 snapshot 16w50a.
1.12 snapshots 17w13a and 17w15a.

Agnes Larsson (LadyAgnes) has appeared in 1.11 snapshot 16w43a.

1.16

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20w14a
20w13a • 20w13b
20w12a
20w11a
20w10a
20w09a
20w08a
20w07a
20w06a

1.15

1.15.2

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1.15.2-pre1 • 1.15.2-pre2

1.15.1

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1.15.1-pre1

1.15

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1.15-pre1 • 1.15-pre2 • 1.15-pre3 • 1.15-pre4 • 1.15-pre5 • 1.15-pre6 • 1.15-pre7
19w46a • 19w46b
19w45a • 19w45b
19w44a
19w42a
19w41a
19w40a
19w39a
19w38a • 19w38b
19w37a
19w36a
19w35a
19w34a

1.14

1.14.4

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1.14.4-pre1 • 1.14.4-pre2 • 1.14.4-pre3 • 1.14.4-pre4 • 1.14.4-pre5 • 1.14.4-pre6 • 1.14.4-pre7

1.14.3

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1.14.3-pre1 • 1.14.3-pre2 • 1.14.3-pre3 • 1.14.3-pre4

1.14.2

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1.14.2-pre1 • 1.14.2-pre2 • 1.14.2-pre3 • 1.14.2-pre4

1.14.1

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1.14.1-pre1 • 1.14.1-pre2

1.14

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1.14-pre1 • 1.14-pre2 • 1.14-pre3 • 1.14-pre4 • 1.14-pre5
19w14a • 19w14b
19w13a • 19w13b
19w12a • 19w12b
19w11a • 19w11b
19w09a
19w08a • 19w08b
19w07a
19w06a
19w05a
19w04a • 19w04b
19w03a • 19w03b • 19w03c
19w02a
18w50a
18w49a
18w48a • 18w48b
18w47a • 18w47b
18w46a
18w45a
18w44a
18w43a • 18w43b • 18w43c

1.13

1.13.2

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1.13.2-pre1 • 1.13.2-pre2

1.13.1

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1.13.1-pre1 • 1.13.1-pre2
18w33a
18w32a
18w31a
18w30a • 18w30b

1.13

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1.13-pre1 • 1.13-pre2 • 1.13-pre3 • 1.13-pre4 • 1.13-pre5 • 1.13-pre6 • 1.13-pre7 • 1.13-pre8 • 1.13-pre9 • 1.13-pre10
18w22a • 18w22b • 18w22c
18w21a • 18w21b
18w20a • 18w20b • 18w20c
18w19a • 18w19b
18w16a
18w15a
18w14a • 18w14b
18w11a
18w10a • 18w10b • 18w10c • 18w10d
18w09a
18w08a • 18w08b
18w07a • 18w07b • 18w07c
18w06a
18w05a
18w03a • 18w03b
18w02a
18w01a
17w50a
17w49a • 17w49b
17w48a
17w47a • 17w47b
17w46a
17w45a • 17w45b
17w43a • 17w43b

1.12

1.12.2

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1.12.2-pre1 • 1.12.2-pre2

1.12.1

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1.12.1-pre1
17w31a

1.12

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1.12-pre1 • 1.12-pre2 • 1.12-pre3 • 1.12-pre4 • 1.12-pre5 • 1.12-pre6 • 1.12-pre7
17w18a • 17w18b
17w17a • 17w17b
17w16a • 17w16b
17w15a
17w14a
17w13a • 17w13b
17w06a