The best Minecraft custom maps

Are you looking for some of the best Minecraft custom maps to delve into for a blocky adventure? There's no shortage of creativity in the Minecraft community, and now that we're a decade into the game's popularity we're beginning to see the payoff on projects that have been in the works by extremely savvy builders for years. Alongside modding and texture packs, Minecraft custom mapmaking is a huge, popular scene for creative Minecraft players.

There are years and years of good builds to sort through, some of which have fallen out of fashion or been remixed or taken over by new creators. We've gone through the old and the new in the Minecraft custom maps scene to find some of the best custom maps for you to play around with yourself. Some are classics, custom maps that have stood the test of time and are still amazing today. Others are new designs that might be fads, but that doesn't make them any less fun.

These days there are entire games built inside Minecraft, some of which you can find in our Minecraft adventure maps and Minecraft escape rooms sections below. And as ever, Minecraft at its core is all about survival. We're rounded up some of the classic survival maps for you to test your mettle and Minecraft knowledge against. 

How to install Minecraft maps

Luckily installing custom maps for Minecraft has only gotten easier over time thanks to the dedicated Minecraft Launcher for the Java edition of the game. Navigate to the "Installations" tab and hover over any of the available game builds. Click the folder icon to open your Minecraft game directory and find the "saves" folder. 

You should have downloaded a .zip folder for the map you're planning to play. Unzip that folder and add it to your Minecraft "saves" folder. You should now see the custom map in your singleplayer world options when you launch the game. 

Pay attention to which version of Minecraft each map is meant to be used on as some may not function properly on newer or older versions of the game than they were built in. We've listed recommended versions for each of the custom maps in our list below. 

Minecraft adventure maps

The best Minecraft custom adventure maps

Minecraft adventure maps come in all sizes, from giant standalone adventures to smaller quests. We've selected some of the newest and coolest here, along with some classics. Some will take you on quests based on other games, while others are entirely new adventures plotted out by their creators.

Witchcraft and Wizardry

Version: 1.16 | Download

Witchcraft and Wizardry is a whole Hogwarts-themed RPG inside Minecraft complete with quests, minigames, and some familiar faces all inside an enormous and intricate recreation of the boarding school castle. We played through a bit of it and found it to be a fun, nostalgic adventure. You start off your Hogwarts adventure by buying school supplies at Diagon Alley and then rushing off to get sorted into a house before you begin attending classes. It works in multiplayer too, in case you'd like to co-op it with friends.

Drehmal: PrimΩrdial

Version: 1.16.4 | Download

Drehmal is a huge survival adventure map with a ton of its own biomes and buildings, cities, and dungeons. The creators recommend playing on a small multiplayer server as many of the goals are designed with a small group in mind. It's an impressive undertaking full of little surprises to find as you progress through the game.

Blockarina Of Time

Version: 1.10.2 | Download

There have been plenty of attempts over the years to recreate classic Zelda adventures as Minecraft adventure maps and Blockarina Of Time is one of the most recently-finished of the bunch. It recreates all sorts of bits from Ocarina Of Time like the various dungeons, gold skulltula collecting, and racing horses throughout its main quest adventure.

Project Zelda

Version: 1.14.4 | Download

Project Zelda is yet another recent project and, for a change of pace, this one actually doesn't recreate an existing Zelda game. Instead, Project Zelda has familiar weapons, puzzles, and sounds, but has created its own Zelda-inspired dungeons and story. 

Metroid Bounty Hunter

Version: 1.12.2 | Download

Metroid is a series that has been seriously lacking in recent years, and it doesn’t look like that’s about to change any time soon. Well, at least we have Minecraft, and this impressive custom map based on the classic series. You have to fight your way through hordes of enemies using your trusty Arm Cannon to get credits you can use to upgrade your suit, your energy tanks, and even your weapons. It’s tough being a bounty hunter.

Payday 2: Endgame

Version: 1.7.2 | Download

People are so damn clever, aren't they? Just look at this custom map that features seven playable heists, over half of which are based on levels in Payday 2. It feels a little weird to be committing crimes while playing Minecraft, but hey, Steve has fallen on hard times. This is a great choice for those who love a bit of co-op play, so make sure to check it out if that sounds like you.

The Lost Potato

Version: 1.6.4 | Download

The Lost Potato is yet another classic Minecraft adventure map. You wake up in a prison cell, a classic game opener, but you're joined by a piglet who you need to save from execution. Along your way to find that missing potato of yours you'll do a bit of puzzling, some parkour, and other challenges.

Gloria

Version: 1.6.4 | Download

Gloria is a brilliant bit of adventure map creation with some really innovative use of redstone circuits to support its questing system. The map is inspired by Lost, starting after a shipwreck and sending you to help out the survivors and work towards a mysterious facility.

There are plenty of puzzles to tackle and fights to be fought. The whole thing is presented beautifully with a great custom texture pack and a new soundtrack in the form of songs to play in the background (Minecraft adventure mapping is still delightfully crude).

Herobrine's Mansion

Version: 1.4 | Download

Over the years, Hypixel has developed a number of maps. Herobrine's Mansion is a classic, which uses the legend of Minecraft's hard-to-delete spectre as the basis for a sprawling adventure through a haunted mansion. Inside you'll find tough mobs, custom weapons and a series of cleverly tuned bosses. Naturally, this makes it hard as all heck, and while it can be played in single-player, you're better off bringing a friend. If you need more, there's also the sequel Herobrine's Return.

Adventure Time Adventure Map!

Version: 1.4.7 | Download

Had this just been a recreation of the Land of Ooo, that would have been enough. Adventure Time: Adventure Map goes even further, with a mathematical challenge through Pendleton Ward's weird cartoon world. Across its many missions, you'll be given heroic quests pulled from episodes of the show, including They Went to the Nightosphere and Trouble In Lumpy Space. To really highlight the look of the show, the download also includes a texture pack. With it, Minecraft is transformed into an explorable cartoon full of colour, fun and giant candy structures.

The Sunken Island

Version: 1.2.5 | Download

You start The Sunken Island in the middle of the sea, surrounded by flotsam. So far, so Minecraft. Head away from that spawn, though, and you'll find a beautiful island full of mystery, oceanic waterfalls, and a really big mountain. Your job, aside from the usual task of survival, is to find the portals that tell the story of the island. Beyond that, your only other task is to marvel at this wonderful creation.

Minecraft survival maps

The best Minecraft survival custom maps

In Minecraft's original days, survival was the number one goal. After mastering the elements and your enemies though, survival becomes a given. Survival maps, on the other hand, give you entirely new challenges by putting you in weird and restrictive scenarios to see if you can stay alive. Prove your Minecraft mastery by surviving these challenging maps.

SkyBlock

Version: 1.2 | Download

SkyBlock is a map that tests how well you know Minecraft. Like, really know it. Past the surface stuff down to its deepest quirks and idiosyncrasies. You're placed on an small, three block deep island in the sky. On that island is a tree and a chest. In that chest is a bucket of lava and a block of ice.

Not much, right? So build a Nether Portal. Or craft 10 Snow Golems, cook 10 fish, and any of the other challenges listed on the map's download page. It's all possible, but requires being extra careful that you never waste a block.

Falling Falling 

Version: 1.14.4 | Download

World generation is an intriguing part of any game like Minecraft, but what if you were there as everything started to happen? That's basically what this map does, though rather than it generating around you, blocks fall from the sky. That means you've got to keep an eye to the sky as you try to build your first piece of shelter. It's a fun twist on the traditional survival maps, and one that is sure to keep you coming back time and time again.

Ant Farm Survival

Version: 1.7.10 | Download

Ant Farm Survival is a map set in an ant colony looking out over a giant Minecraft house. Inside this slice of terrain it's up to you to do the usual survival map things: scavenge, craft, explore, build, and complete a series of entirely unconnected challenges just to prove that you can. Here you have the bonus objective of destroying the mob spawners that are pumping out enemies and visiting the menacing Nether ant farm.

Cube Survival

Version: 1.7.2 | Download

Cube Survival challenges you to work your way through seven different cube biomes to hunt down obsidian blocks. Once you've completed all the challenges and collected the obsidian, you can build a portal to the Nether for your final challenge.

Birthday Cake Survival

Version: 1.6.4 | Download

This is a sugary twist on the traditional survival island. You're stuck on a giant birthday cake and it's made almost entirely of wool. You'll have to dig inside your giant cake in order to unearth other supplies. Should be a piece of cake!

Minecraft escape maps

The best Minecraft escape maps

Maybe you're less of a fighter and more of a thinker. Minecraft escape maps revolve around using your head to survive instead of your trusty diamond sword. Escape room maps are often built on puzzles but are usually shorter experiences than some of the giant adventure maps above. Get ready to scratch your chin on these.

the Code

Version: 1.6.4 | Download

Try to ignore the way the map's creator has decided not to capitalise the opening T of "the Code". That's a matter best left to the punctuation police. And the questionable name is attached to a fiendishly clever puzzle game that's well worth your time. In the code, you must work through a series of challenge rooms, each of which hides a specific number sequence. Find it, and—by renaming a scrap of paper with the Anvil—you can unlock the next room. This initial map has spawned two sequels, both of which continue with increasingly clever challenges built out of Minecraft's systems.

Escape The Library

Version: 1.16.2 | Download

Escape The Library is a puzzle escape map where you, a lucky treasure hunter, are stuck in a library called Apocrypha and need to escape with as many gold blocks as you can find. There are eight different puzzles to work your way through to uncover as much treasure as you can find.

Rainbow Escape

Version: 1.16.1 | Download

Need another puzzle gauntlet to keep your noggin sharp? Here's Rainbow Escape, a set of seven puzzles in different dimensions that you'll need to escape from. After you've beaten it once, you can go back to try and find all the clues that unlock the secret real ending too. Mysterious!

Escape Prison

Version: 1.12 | Download

Well if you've escaped from every other place on this list, you might as well try to escape a Minecraft prison too. If that's not even challenge enough, the same creator has made a second escape the prison map called Escape Prison 2 that they say is an even more challenging escape map.

Minecraft parkour maps

The best Minecraft parkour maps

Forget puzzles and grand quests and survival. Minecraft parkour maps are all about showing off one skill and one skill only: Jumping. Figure out how to sprint and leap your way through these challenging courses to become a real parkour master.

Parkour Paradise

Version: 1.16.4 | Download

Parkour Paradise is a giant map fully of jumping challenges to complete. It truly is a jumper's paradise. The 100 small levels get increasingly difficult as you go along so it may take you a bit of time to complete them all. The same author has lots of other parkour maps for you to try once you've completed this one.

Parkour School

Version: 1.7.10 | Download

If you're not quite ready to speedrun your way through oodles of parkour challenges, why not take a step back and study up at parkour school? This jump challenge map starts off easy so you can learn the basics of Minecraft jumping before you head out to some more challenging maps.

Assassin's Creep

Version: 1.2.5 | Download

Parkour maps are comprised of huge strings of jumping puzzles. They're either great or desk-thumpingly frustrating depending on your tolerance for losing huge chunks of progress after mistiming a ladder jump. Where most offer a long string of linear platforming, Assassin's Creep is an open town full of rooftops to clear and spires to clamber up.

Your job is to track down nine blocks of wool from the top of towers. But, as in the game it's not-so-subtly inspired by, there's also plenty of hidden feathers in chests about the map. Assassin's Creep comes with a custom texture pack to give everything that Altair feel.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Version: 1.4.4 | Download

Gotta go fast! As it is for Sonic games, so it is for Sonic maps. In a change of pace to the standard parkour format, this map is all about completing the course as quickly as possible. At the start, you're given special boots that let you run faster, jump higher and fall safer. As you sprint through this version of the Green Hill Zone, you'll find obstacles, checkpoints and even spring pads to propel you on your way.

Biome Box

Version: 1.6.4 | Download

Like Cube Survival, Biome Box is a parkour map themed around different Minecraft biomes for you to jump through. One of the biomes is cake though, indisputably the best not actual Minecraft biome. 

Minecraft CTM maps

The best Minecraft CTM maps

Minecraft CTM maps stand for "capture the monument", a popular subgenre of adventure and puzzle maps. The original goal of CTM maps is to find and collect certain colorful blocks of wool guarded by various challenges and bring them back to a central area to complete a monument of sorts. Many CTM maps include a bit of everything: parkour, combat, and a bit of puzzling too. These are fun all around challenges to test your Minecraft mettle.

Diversity 3

Version: 1.14.4 | Download

Why is Diversity such an impressive map? Because of how diver–, er, varied it is. It's a CTM—or 'Complete the Monument'—map, in which you add missing blocks to a central statue. In Diversity, those blocks are coloured wool, and each is found at the end of a self-contained level.

Those levels are fully realised challenges, and each takes the form of a different style of custom map. You'll find a "Dropper" challenge, a parkour course, a survival puzzle, and more besides. While none are as detailed as a good map tuned for a single style, the sheer breadth and variety is staggering. Not only that, but it's a great sampler of the different map types favoured by the Minecraft community. Download Diversity here.

Super Hostile

Version: 1.12.2 | Download

Vechs' Super Hostile series is a collection of maps designed to make Minecraft hard. Really, really hard. Some are short on resources, some are full of traps, others are full of monsters. There's a wide variety of worlds on offer, from the giant trees of Canopy Carnage to the sparsely lit Black Desert. But while each map is themed around a different idea, they all have one thing in common: they want you dead.

Minecraft custom build maps

The best Minecraft custom build maps

Some custom maps for Minecraft are just all about impressive builds. Check out some of the coolest maps you can download or join via server to take a look at all the years of creativity and work that teams of builders have produced over the years.

WesterosCraft

Version: Custom Launcher | Download

There's an unwritten rule in gaming that goes something like, "if it can be built, there'll be a Game of Thrones mod of it." Clearly Minecraft was going to have its own version of George R. R. Martin's oft-fatal fantasy. Luckily that version is breathtaking in its size and scope. If you need convincing, here's just a small example: the map's recreation of King's Landing features over 2,000 houses.

WesterosCraft can be accessed through a custom launcher that will do everything needed to get you into its immense map. Once there, you can visit a small town that acts as the central hub, imparting server news, setting build rules, and letting tourists portal to a multitude of the book/show's most notable places. You can even sit on the Iron Throne. Well, squat on the Iron Throne. 

Breath Of The Wild

Version: 1.16.4 | Download

This extremely cool recreation of Breath Of The Wild's map is like a big open canvas for you to start your own builds on. It only includes the landscape of BOTW's map, not the cities, so you'll notice places like Zora's Domain are pretty open unlike in the game. Because of how huge everything is, the map's creator recommends you play this one with your render distance cranked up pretty high but it's sure worth it!

Cyberpunk City

Version: 1.12.2 or 1.14| Download

This giant, glowing metropolis was inspired by Cyberpunk 2077's Night City but isn't a total recreation. It's a giant build that might slow your computer down to a crawl but it's worth it just for a chance to walk around. To give it some extra beauty, make sure to play with some of the best Minecraft shaders.

Minecraft Middle Earth

Version: Joinable Server| Download

Minecraft Middle Earth is actually a giant collaborative project to recreate Middle Earth on a server. You can't build all willy-nilly here and will need to follow the server's rules but you can jump in for a look around at all the amazing work that's been done so far.