How many chunks are in a Minecraft world?

A chunk is just a funny name for the units of land that generate as a Minecraft player explores the Overworld, Nether, or the End. Each chunk is determined by the map seed.

As seen in the above, chunks commonly have errors that lead to a gaping hole in a Minecraft world. These holes will lead all the way down into the void. However, it is not possible for players to fall into these holes. Instead, they will just get stuck. Players who get stuck in a missing chunk will have to close and relaunch their client.

Chunks | Minecraft Guide

Bedrock Edition[]Main article:

All game aspects are active in loading chunks, including chunks within a players simulation distance and chunks loaded by Commands/tickingarea. Unloaded chunks are unprocessed by the game and do not process any of the game aspects.

Entities

• Mob spawning is evaluated for every chunk within a 6 chunk cylindrical radius of the player that is loaded.

Events in a ticking area may affect blocks in outside chunks. If the outside chunk is inactive, the effects are suspended in most cases. Specifically,

Block changing on the edge of a ticking area can spread updates to blocks outside the ticking area and respond appropriately.

Flowing water or lava can spread to the first adjacent block in an outside chunk, but the flow becomes suspended there until the outside chunk becomes active.

Fire can spread to the first adjacent flammable block outside the ticking area. Like water and lava, it becomes suspended there; although visible, its animation does not run, and it cannot spread further until the outside chunk becomes active.

Grass and mycelium can spread to the first adjacent block in an outside chunk, but the affected block does not actually change its appearance until its chunk becomes active; it then changes instantly. Grass and mycelium cannot spread beyond the first such block, nor from such a block into the ticking area until the outside chunk becomes active.

Pumpkin and melon stem growing on the edge of a ticking area can place their fruits on an adjacent block in an outside chunk.

An entity (mob, minecart, arrow, etc.) that attempts to move into an outside chunk becomes suspended as soon as it leaves the ticking area. It remains visible but motionless. When the outside block becomes active, the entity resumes moving.

Exploding TNT can damage or destroy blocks in an inactive chunk, and unlike other events, its effects are not limited to adjacent blocks. However, secondary effects in the outside chunk are suspended until the chunk becomes active. For instance, if an explosion destroys a block that supported sand or gravel, the sand or gravel does not fall immediately. The same thing happens with items that were attached to destroyed blocks, such as item frames and Redstone torches; they do not drop until the chunk is activated.

Primed TNT launched into an inactive chunk is suspended in mid-air within the first outside block it enters. It disappears until the outer chunk becomes active, at which time it resumes its flight and countdown.

Finding chunk edges[]

X and Z coordinates that are divisible by 16 represent the boundaries between chunks. EG: (96, -32) is a corner where four chunks meet. One of those chunks is between X coordinates 80 to 96 and Z coordinates -48 to -32. Another one is between X coordinates 96 to 112 and Z coordinates -32 to -16, and so on. When either X or Z crosses a multiple of 16, the player is moving across chunks.

Essentially, the player is in the top-left corner (north-western) of a chunk when both X and Z coordinates are divisible by 16.

Additionally, the player can know the chunk they are on by this formula: The X of a chunk is floor(X coordinate / 16) The Z of a chunk is floor(Z coordinate / 16) Where floor is the largest previous integer. E.g. Floor( 27.9561 ) is 27 In other words, if X was 27, Z was −15 the chunk is chunk (Floor(27/16), Floor(−15/16)), meaning that the player is on chunk (1, −1). Also, the coordinates of a block within a chunk can be found by taking the coordinate mod 16.

In Java Edition, the key F3 + G can be used to display chunk boundaries. Alternately, pressing the “F3” button opens the Debug screen that shows the players X, Y, and Z coordinates, in addition to the “chunk” variable. These coordinates change as the player moves around. The player can know the chunk they are in by the variable “chunk”.

In Bedrock Edition, when toggling fancy graphics, the world renders again, loading only the chunk the player is in for a split second, briefly showing the chunk boundaries. When the player changes the render distance rapidly, chunk barriers appear as a blue line. Also, if in mid-air and bridging with full blocks, when a chunk border is intersected the next block placed will fade into view, showing the chunk border. This is sometimes unreliable, but useful as it only happens on chunk borders. This does not happen underground or when the block placed is close to more than one block.

Why Chunks Matter

While chunks typically wont have a large impact on your play session, anyone with a map theyve been working on for years might want to keep track of their current chunk location in relation to the rest of their world. Certain mobs will only spawn if youre within a few chunks of their location and some plants will only grow if theyre within the local render distance – run too far away, and their chunk will unload to free up processing power.

Theres also Spawn Chunks – a unique type of chunk that surrounds the area where you first spawned in the world. While these appear in-game as a standard chunk, they will never unload from your game and are a great location to build any mob grinders or farms.

Beyond those exceptions, chunks are primarily technical jargon that you dont need to worry about. Understanding how they work might help you learn a bit more about your Minecraft world, but most players wont have to worry about keeping track of their 16 x 16 chunks.

FAQ

How many chunks are in a Minecraft map?

Are Minecraft worlds infinite?

How many chunks are in a Minecraft Old world?

How many blocks is 1 chunks?