Minecraft has evolved greatly since its start, but one thing has remained constant: creating worlds with friends and family is just enjoyable. Players may construct their own permanent worlds with room for others to gather and develop with only a few mouse or controller button presses.

There are various choices for running a Minecraft server, whether you’re hosting a server for a few pals or starting a big endeavor to replicate the world of your favorite TV show. Here are some ideas for making your own little Minecraft multiplayer paradise. And if you haven’t already, here’s how to acquire Minecraft for free.

Minecraft Realms

Realms Plus is your best choice for affordable and simple hosting for mobile, console, and Windows 10 gamers. It’s a quick and simple method to construct and administer a persistent Minecraft environment without any prior hosting experience. Realms Plus users are effectively renting a spot on a Microsoft Azure cloud server, thus you will have less freedom if you pick Mojang’s hosting arrangement.

With over 50 Marketplace products and fresh content introduced each month, there is always something to discover outside of your Realm. Your world and add-ons are safely kept in the cloud, so your friends may enter the world even if you aren’t present.

To make a Minecraft Realms Plus world, follow these steps:

Step 1: Press the Play button.

Step 2: Click the Create New button.

Step 3: Click the Create New World button.

Step 4: Set up the world.

Step 5: Click the Create on Realms button.

Step 6: Choose between a 10-player and a two-player Realm.

Step 7: Configure your Realms Plus membership.

To make changes to the Realm, perform the following:

Step 1: Press the Play button.

Step 2: Click the Pencil symbol to the right of the Realm.

Step 3: Choose a Game to rename the world, modify the difficulty, mode, and enable cheats.

Step 4: Go to the Members tab to add friends, make a join request, and alter the user status. Users can be visitors, members, or Operators in the latter case.

Step 5: To activate and disable add-ons, choose Resource Packs and/or Behavior Packs.

Make yourself the host!

If you don’t want to pay for a membership, the next best thing is to set up a PC to act as a host.

Windows 10, mobile, and console

Because this version of Minecraft makes use of Xbox Live, you can play with anybody who has a Microsoft Account. You may also alter the multiplayer options to Invite Only, Only Friends, or Friends of Friends.

Minecraft: Java Edition — Local Area Network (LAN) play

Playing multiplayer on this version isn’t quite as simple. Using the integrated multiplayer component, you may host a world on a local network. However, for online multiplayer, you’ll need Mojang’s standalone server software.

Here’s how to turn on multiplayer in Minecraft: Java Edition:

Step 1: Choose Singleplayer.

Step 2: Make a new planet or expand an existing one.

Step 3: Press the Esc key to exit.

Step 4: From the menu, select Open to LAN.

Step 5: Choose a game mode, enable or deactivate cheats, and then press the Start LAN World button.

Other users on the network can now join your world by selecting Multiplayer. Keep in mind, though, that hosting a multiplayer Minecraft environment requires a competent PC. The game not only renders the world on your screen but also sends the environment to all other players and synchronizes all player input. This might be strenuous for PCs with modest hardware specifications.

Minecraft: Java Edition – play online

If you’d rather construct a dedicated server, Mojang offers three options:

• Java Edition Minecraft Server
• Microsoft Windows Server Software (alpha)
• Ubuntu Server Software (Ubuntu Server)

On Windows, we’ll utilize the Java Edition edition. Before you begin, ensure that you have the most recent version of Java installed on your computer.

Step 1: Download the Server.jar file from Mojang to a separate folder since you will need to extract files.

Step 2: To extract a few files, right-click on the Server.jar file and select Open.

Step 3: Open the EULA file, replace the eula=false line with eula=true, and save it. The server will not function unless you agree to the conditions.

Step 4: Right-click the Server.jar file and choose Open from the context menu. As the Minecraft Server window shows on the screen, further files will be extracted to your location.

Step 5: To change the characteristics of the world, right-click on the server.properties file and choose Open With from the pop-up menu, followed by Notepad.

You may alter the maximum number of players, the game mode, activate player-versus-player, select the maximum globe size, and more while this file is open. If you made any modifications while the server was running, restart it.

After you’ve configured the server component, you’ll need to construct a direct link.

Allow remote play in Minecraft: Java Edition.

Remember that for remote players to connect to your server, you’ll need to know two things: your modem’s public-facing IP address and the IP address of the local PC operating your server. For the latter, we recommend going into the router and providing a static IP address to the PC so that its address never changes.

You’ll also need to utilize port forwarding to tell Minecraft packets where to go. Again, the ideal case is to provide the server PC with a static IP address. Minecraft requires port 25565.