Minecraft is getting a fourth dimension. At Minecraft LIVE on Saturday, Mojang revealed The Sift, the game’s first new dimension in more than 14 years, joining the Overworld, the Nether and the End. Players can explore it first in Minecraft Dungeons II starting Tuesday, September 29, and it comes to Minecraft Java and Bedrock Edition in 2027.
What The Sift is
Mojang first teased The Sift at Gamescom, and today’s show filled in more of the picture. Xbox Wire describes a colorful place teeming with souls and home to new mobs, some companions and some threats. “Shifting tides” affect characters there, and hazardous new blocks change how you explore. Two areas have been named so far, the Meadows and the Carapace, and Mojang is keeping the rest under wraps.
The broadcast also gave a brief look at The Sift running in Minecraft itself, still in development, including one of the mobs that lives there. Mojang isn’t saying yet how players will reach it in Minecraft or how that version will differ from the one in Dungeons II. It says more will come at future Minecraft LIVE shows.
In Dungeons II, rifts that appear around the game’s new interconnected world transport players into The Sift, according to the official Minecraft recap. The sequel launches September 29 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, and it’s included with Game Pass. RCG’s preview of the show ran Friday.
Next game drop: Ice Caves
Closer at hand, Minecraft’s next game drop heads underground. Ice Caves are a rare new cave biome, joining the dripstone and lush caves, filled with ice, calcite, icicles that grow from the ceiling and ice crystals that grow on the ground and give off a soft light. Windows Central reports the crystals can be placed vertically or horizontally, so they can double as lighting in builds.
The caves come with a new frozen zombie variant that doesn’t have a name yet. Its hits deal a freezing effect on top of damage, and some of them throw ice balls. Per Windows Central and IGN, the freezing effect stacks until you freeze, zombies caught in powder snow turn into the frozen variant, and ice balls can be picked up or crafted, then thrown as a weapon or brewed into a freezing potion. Mojang didn’t give a release date for the drop.
425 million copies sold
The show also came with a new sales milestone. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma posted on X: “More than 300,000 people play Minecraft for the first time on an average day. After 17+ years and 425M+ copies sold, I love that Minecraft is still finding new players and giving longtime ones new things to discover.” VGChartz notes Minecraft had reached 350 million copies in April 2025 and 300 million in October 2023.
Switch 2 on October 27, and the rest of the show
Minecraft for Nintendo Switch 2 is still set for October 27, with Vibrant Visuals and a Super Mario Mash-Up update. Nintendo says a digital upgrade path will be available for Switch players, but it hasn’t announced the price or how the upgrade will work. Its only word so far is “More details to follow.”
Sound Effects Packs are coming to the Minecraft Marketplace later this year. Chief Creative Officer Jens Bergenström laid out a creator platform meant to make it easier to build, manage and share Minecraft content, and according to IGN, he ruled out an update to the End. Minecraft World opens in 2027 at Chessington World of Adventures Resort in London with the first Minecraft World Hotel, which has a deep-sea diner and themed rooms, and Escape the Nether, the first Minecraft rollercoaster, which runs both indoors and outdoors.
Minecraft Education also turned 10, and the next community challenge asks players to place 50 million straw beds and 200 million cushions around the Overworld.
