How much data does Minecraft use?
How much data does Minecraft use?
Minecraft is a sandbox game that gives its players almost limitless creative power. If you play Minecraft on one of the game’s well-populated multiplayer servers, you can end up using a lot of mobile data. To stay below a monthly data limit on a mobile broadband connection, you probably need to keep track of the data you use playing the game.
Here’s how much mobile data you can expect to use playing, downloading, and updating Minecraft on Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 4, Wii U, or Xbox One. Note that these numbers will increase slightly with each patch or update.
Mineplex uses 80-200 MB of mobile data each hour
Players on the popular multiplayer server Mineplex use anywhere from 80 to 200 MB of mobile data per hour. Some servers, however, host fewer players and, therefore, use less data. Standard multiplayer, for example, can use less than 40 MB of data per hour. Of course, hosting a game of Minecraft (or streaming it on Twitch) uses far more data.
To find out how much mobile data you use playing Minecraft, check your data use with your carrier, (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile) before and after you sit down to play the game. For a more exact estimate, monitor your data use through your router or check the bandwidth usage of your Xbox in network settings.
To minimize your data use, switch to a less populated Minecraft server or adjust your game settings. Any change to a setting that minimizes your lag time will typically also save you data, since it reduces the amount of data your game transmits to and from the server. The frame rate, however, usually needs to stay below 144 FPS if you’re on a mobile connection.
Downloading Minecraft typically uses less than 1 GB of data
Compared to other popular games, the Minecraft download isn’t particularly large. In fact, the download size is less than 1 GB on most platforms. Here’s an approximate download size for each platform:
- Nintendo Switch: 900 MB
- PC (Windows/Java): 150 MB
- Playstation 4: 230 MB
- Wii U: 600 MB
- Xbox One: 1 GB
Minecraft updates hover around 1 GB, but patches are often less than 5 MB
Minecraft updates (like Better Together) are just as large as the original game download since the updated files replace the old files completely. Patches, however, are much smaller. The 1.13.1 patch to the Update Aquatic, for example, had a file size of just 2.2 MB.
How to play Minecraft on a 4G LTE connection
Today, wireless internet connections like 4G LTE are finally fast enough to support online gaming. For gamers who use 4G LTE as their primary internet connection, faster speeds open up new opportunities to play multiplayer games like Minecraft. Here’s how 4G LTE speeds compare to Xbox One’s minimum internet speeds for online gaming:
| Minimum internet speeds for online gaming | Average 4G LTE internet speeds | |
| Download speed | 3 Mbps | 5-12 Mbps |
| Upload speed | 500 Kbps | 2-5 Mbps |
| Latency | 150 milliseconds or less | 70 milliseconds |
How much data does Minecraft use? – EvdodepotUSA
While a 4G LTE connection is fast enough to support online gaming, mobile broadband connections often come with a data limit. If you’re sick of keeping track of how much data you use every time you sit down to play Minecraft, consider switching to an unlimited 4G LTE connection.
