Minecraft Java vs Bedrock: Which edition is more popular?

Ever since Microsoft purchased both Minecraft and Mojang Studios, there has been a divide in the community between the original version of the game, Java Edition, and the Microsoft remake, Bedrock Edition. And while Minecraft Bedrock's recent parity updates have brought the two versions closer together than ever before, they are still very much two different games with two different audiences.

Since Bedrock is available on so many different consoles and platforms, it should come as no surprise that it has a larger number of players. But there's more to the question of popularity than player count.

Detailed below are the advantages each version of the game has, along with determining which is the most popular version.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the author's opinions.

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The different versions of Minecraft

Bedrock Edition

The marketplace is one of the things that makes Bedrock unique (Image via Mojang Studios)

Bedrock has a few key differences from Java Edition that further help explain what makes it more popular.

The first of these is the ability for Bedrock players to play on realms across platforms. This means that mobile players can be in the same realm as PC, Switch, and Xbox players. Offering the capability to play with friends is a huge selling point for consoles.

Bedrock also performs better, at least when comparing the vanilla games. Instead of Java, Bedrock is coded in C++, which is a more efficient and smoother language for games.

Lastly, the existence of Minecraft Bedrock's Marketplace means that this version of the game sees a ton of cool official content not offered by Java, which has helped in retaining players.

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Java's advantages

Shaders and mods are a huge advantage for Java Edition (Image via Mojang Studios)

Java Edition, the original version of the game, has a few key advantages over Bedrock. The biggest of these is Java's extensive ability to be modified by the community. Over the years, countless mods have added a ton of new things to the game, ranging from magic and tech to new dimensions, culminating in Minecraft's best modpacks.

Additionally, Java has more robust multiplayer support, both due to mods and because console players are limited to a set list of available servers rather than being able to connect to IPs directly. Java also has better redstone, gets Minecraft's April Fools updates, and tends to receive experimental content sooner due to being a single platform to code for.

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Conclusion

Bedrock servers might be limited, but being cross-platform is a huge help (Image via Mojang Studios)

There are two different ways to answer this question, depending on how "popular" is defined. If "popular" refers exclusively to player count, then Bedrock is the easy winner, as it is available across all the different major consoles, as well as mobile and PC.

However, if "popular" is intended to refer to which of the versions is most beloved by the community or used more by Minecraft's best YouTubers, then Java Edition is the clear winner. The ease and quality of Java's mods, as well as being able to edit from the same machine, have made it the more popular version to watch.