Minecraft Realms, the subscription service that enables players to create and join personalized servers, has encountered notable connectivity challenges since August 13. These issues emerged shortly after the rollout of Minecraft update 1.21.20, which aimed to enhance Realms invite links and address various bugs, according to reports from IGN.
Connectivity Challenges Persist
Instead of delivering the anticipated improvements, the update seems to have inadvertently caused prolonged loading times, connection errors, and ongoing outages that have impacted users across all gaming platforms. In response to the situation, Microsoft Corp.'s Mojang, the studio behind Minecraft, promptly acknowledged the connectivity issues. On August 15, the Realms team communicated via Twitter that they were diligently working “around the clock” to restore service.
Despite these concerted efforts, the problems have lingered. By August 17, Mojang reported that only approximately 70% of players had regained access to their Realms. A tweet from the Mojang Status account indicated that they had to block traffic to Realms on version 1.21.20 across all platforms, with the exception of the Nintendo Switch, until a hotfix could be deployed.
We are still hard at work to bring Realms back online for all players. As of now roughly 70% of players should have access. As part of this work we have had to block traffic to Realms on 1.21.20 on all platforms other than Switch (until Switch gets the hotfix). -DK— Mojang Status (@MojangStatus) August 18, 2024
While some players have reported improvements, many continue to face difficulties. As of August 19, complaints about connectivity issues remain prevalent, with Downdetector — a service that monitors online outages — indicating a significant increase in reports related to Minecraft Realms.
This extended disruption has led to considerable frustration within the Minecraft community. Many fans have taken to social media to express their dissatisfaction, raising concerns about the reliability of a paid service that has been experiencing outages for nearly a week.
