Minecraft's 10-year anniversary map is like a museum and theme park in one

Mojang and Microsoft continue to build up hype for Minecraft's 10-year anniversary this Friday, May 17, and their latest gift to the Minecraft community is astounding. Dedicated Minecraft design studio Blockworks has created an absolutely gigantic 10 Years of Minecraft map chronicling a decade of updates, and it's free for Minecraft players on all platforms to explore.

This massive, hexagonal map is the next best thing to a real-world Minecraft theme park, full of attractions that showcase every nook and cranny of Minecraft history. There's a museum with a complete collection of every block type and enemy in the game, along with little descriptions and tips for each. You can take a trip on a minecart dark ride that zooms past highlights from every patch of the past 10 years. Or you can poke around looking for hidden references - and merely glancing at the bird's-eye view of this blocky wonderland should give you a sense of just how long that could take.

"We created a map that celebrates everything about Minecraft past and present," Blockworks wrote on its website. "Filled with Easter eggs, secrets, and community references, this map is a tribute to the creative, curious, and adventurous community of Minecrafters worldwide." You can download the map for free on both the Bedrock (that's Xbox One, Switch, PC, and mobile platforms) and Java versions of Minecraft, so everyone's invited to come enjoy this monument to all things Minecraft.

As part of the lead-up to the 10-year anniversary, you can now play Minecraft for free in your browser, and Microsoft recently gave us a glimpse of a Minecraft AR experience where your mobile phone can display Minecraft denizens in the real world, Pokemon Go style. Only time will tell what other wonders Mojang and Microsoft have in store for the day when Minecraft officially turns 10.

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