What are Minecraft realms and how to create one

Minecraft realms are the personal version of Minecraft servers, limited to just you and your friends. Well, just the people you invite, anyway. Hopefully, that means your friends. 

You can have up to ten people in your realm, and they are essentially private, safer servers. They come with a paid subscription and offer a safer online world for younger players to mine and craft in. Cross-play is enabled in Minecraft realms, although not across the regular edition and the Java Edition.

Realms cannot have mods, but they are online 24/7, regardless of whether the creator is there. It's probably best to think of them as a different take on servers, with different pros and cons to them.

How much does the Minecraft realm cost? 

There are two versions of Minecraft Realms, which are essentially a basic version and a deluxe package. As you might expect, the more expensive one comes with more benefits.

First off, the basic version costs $3.99 / £3.29 per month, and that enables you to create a realm for a maximum of two players plus you, which will remain constantly online. The more costly version, Realms Plus, costs $7.99 / £6.69 and allows up to 10 players plus you. This version also gives you free access to over 50 marketplace packs, which includes mini-games, maps, and skins. You get a 30-day free trial of Realms Plus too, so it basically comes with a free month.

As a rolling month-long subscription, you can stop at any time if you aren’t really getting the use out of it you need.

How to set up Minecraft realms

Once you have decided which realm subscription you want, it’s time to start setting it up. You do this by opening the game (obviously), then clicking Play, Create New, and finally New Realm. From here, you create the realm as you would create anything else in Minecraft, taking as long as you want to perfect your little world.

Once it’s ready, you will then need to name the realm and choose your realm size. You will then be prompted to invite players to join with an invite link. If you want to invite more players later, you can find the invite link in the Player Settings menu.

How to replace your world in Minecraft realms

Replacing a world in Minecraft realms is literally as easy as pushing a button. Which button? The ‘Replace World’ button in the Realms Menu, of course. This then lets you upload a previously downloaded world. You can also push the Realms Backup button instead, which will pull up each of your previous backups and give you the option to restore them. This list comes with timestamps too, so it’s pretty convenient and easy to navigate.

There’s also a Reset Realm button, which allows you to create a new realm from scratch to replace your current one.

What’s the difference between a realm and a server?

As with most things in life, the big difference is cash. Like we said above, a Minecraft realm costs money. Servers don’t. Another difference is that realms will always be online, whether the creator is or not, but realms do have stricter limits on how many people can participate.

And that’s all you need to know about Minecraft realms. Now, whenever you’re talking Minecraft, you can be in your realm-ement.