Minecraft Reveals The Sift: New Dimension Coming in 2027
Mojang unveiled Minecraft's fourth dimension, The Sift, at Minecraft LIVE, confirming a 2027 arrival for Java and Bedrock after its Dungeons II debut.
Mojang Studios closed out its fall Minecraft Live broadcast on September 26 with the biggest reveal the show has had in years: a fourth dimension. Called the Sift, it is the first new dimension added to Minecraft since the End launched more than fourteen years ago, and players will not have to wait long to see it in action. It debuts inside Minecraft Dungeons II, out September 29, before arriving in Java and Bedrock Edition sometime in 2027.
01What Mojang Announced at Minecraft Live
The stream, hosted from Mojang's Stockholm studio and streamed on Minecraft.net, YouTube and Twitch, covered several updates, but the Sift dominated the conversation. Game Director Agnes Larsson opened the show by reaffirming that Minecraft's long-term roadmap is centered on adventure, and the Sift is the clearest sign yet of that direction: a genuinely new place to explore rather than another biome variant.
Mojang also confirmed a new frozen cave biome for the next Game Drop, sound effects packs headed to the Marketplace, a refreshed feedback site at feedback.minecraft.net, and a community challenge asking players to place 50 million straw beds and 200 million cushions across the Overworld. None of it overshadowed the dimension reveal.
02What Is the Sift?
According to Xbox Wire's official recap, the Sift first appears when strange events start upending the natural order of the Overworld: new enemy types show up and souls begin drifting through the world. Stepping through one of these disturbances pulls you into the Sift itself, described as a colorful, unstable reality with new mobs, both hostile and friendly, and hazardous new blocks that change how you approach exploration. Two biomes have been named so far, the plant-covered Meadows and the fossil-dotted Carapace, though Mojang is keeping the rest secret for now.
Unlike the Nether or the End, the Sift is described as having "shifting tides" that can affect the player and nearby creatures over time, which suggests a dimension built around changing conditions rather than a single fixed environment. Mojang has not detailed how players will access the Sift once it reaches vanilla Minecraft, saying only that more information is coming at a future Minecraft Live.
03The Sift Arrives First in Minecraft Dungeons II
Design Director Laura de Llorens walked through the setup for Dungeons II during the show: the world's ecosystem has fallen out of balance, the Arch-Illager's old followers have organized into an "Illager High Council," and it falls to you and up to three friends to restore order. Art Director Ullis Linder and Game Director Måns Olson also showed off Dungeons II's structure, which replaces the original game's level-select map with an interconnected overworld linked by traversable rifts, some of which drop you straight into the Sift.
Minecraft Dungeons II launches September 29 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, and is included with Game Pass at launch. Its Steam store page lists the same date for PC.
04The Sift Is Coming to Vanilla Minecraft in 2027
The bigger long-term news is that the Sift will not stay exclusive to the spin-off. Mojang confirmed it will join Minecraft Java and Bedrock Edition in 2027 as an official fourth dimension alongside the Overworld, the Nether and the End. The studio showed a short in-development clip of the dimension running inside vanilla Minecraft during the broadcast, including a glimpse of one mob that will call it home, though full details on how the dimension will be reached, and how it may differ from its Dungeons II counterpart, are being saved for a future show.
05Everything Else From the Broadcast
Chief Creative Officer Jens Bergenström used the opening segment to outline a broader "creator platform" push aimed at making it easier for new players to build, manage and share their own Minecraft content, part of Mojang's stated goal of lowering the barrier to becoming a creator. Elsewhere, Creative Producer Daisy Mercedes of Merlin Entertainments and Mojang Creative Lead Filip Keatley-Thoms confirmed that Minecraft World, a physical attraction including a Minecraft-themed hotel and an indoor-outdoor roller coaster called Escape the Nether, opens at Chessington World of Adventures Resort in London in 2027.
The show also previewed the next Game Drop, adding icy cave biomes with calcite blocks, glowing ice crystals and a new frozen zombie variant that deals a freezing effect alongside damage, and marked Minecraft Education's tenth anniversary. Minecraft is also confirmed for Nintendo Switch 2 starting October 27.
Brave a new dimension in #DungeonsII: The Sift! Hear what our team has to say about this beautiful new world.
— Minecraft (@Minecraft) on X
06What's Next
With Minecraft Dungeons II two days out at the time of the broadcast, that release is the immediate way to see the Sift for yourself; the vanilla version remains unconfirmed for an exact date beyond "2027." Mojang says more Sift details, including how it will function in the base game, are being held for a future Minecraft Live.
FAQ
When does Minecraft Dungeons II come out?
September 29, 2026, on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, with Xbox Game Pass included at launch.
When is the Sift coming to regular Minecraft?
Mojang has only confirmed 2027 for Java and Bedrock Edition. No specific month, or how players will access the dimension, has been announced yet.
What biomes are in the Sift?
Mojang has named two so far, the Meadows and the Carapace, and says further areas are being kept secret until players discover them in Minecraft Dungeons II.
Is the Sift the first new Minecraft dimension since launch?
Yes. It's the first new dimension since the End, which shipped more than fourteen years ago, making it the fourth dimension alongside the Overworld, the Nether and the End.
Where can I watch the Minecraft Live announcement?
The full broadcast is on the official Minecraft YouTube channel and at Minecraft.net/live.
Official resources
Priya covers patches, updates and announcements for Tutorial.Games, working from developer patch notes, publisher newsrooms and official channels only. If a change affects one of our guides, she flags it to the guides desk the same day.
