Minecraft is getting a fourth dimension. At the end of Minecraft Live on September 26, 2026, Mojang announced that next year you will be able to enter the Sift in vanilla Minecraft. It is the first new dimension in over 14 years and joins the Overworld, the Nether and the End.
The Sift debuts first in Minecraft Dungeons II, which releases on September 29. So the first look at it comes from that game, not from vanilla Minecraft. This post separates the two: what Mojang confirmed for vanilla, and what the Sift looks like in Dungeons II.
What Is Confirmed for Vanilla Minecraft
Mojang has confirmed very little so far:
- The Sift comes to vanilla Minecraft next year, in 2027.
- It is the fourth dimension, next to the Overworld, the Nether and the End.
- It is a milestone on Mojang's "aspirational adventures" path: new challenges, meaningful rewards and bigger content that give players a reason to go exploring.
- More details will follow in future Minecraft Live shows.
What has not been announced: how you get there, which biomes, mobs and blocks come along, and whether it matches the Dungeons II version. Anything more specific you read right now is speculation.
The Sift in Minecraft Dungeons II
In Dungeons II, rifts start appearing across the Overworld. Walking into one takes you to the Sift, a dimension very rich in Souls, a powerful energy in the world of Minecraft. This is what was shown during the Deep Dig after the show:
- The Meadows: the first area you reach. Lush and bright, with a color combination the team chose because it is uncommon in Minecraft.
- The Carapace: a desert-like biome full of huge bone structures, and one of the developers' favorites.
- Ichor: a liquid rich in Souls. Stepping in it drains your health and your Souls.
- Blubs: creatures native to the Sift that love to bathe in the Ichor.
- The Monarch: a late-game boss deeper in the Sift. Midway through the fight it creates a Monarch Echo, and defeating the Monarch defeats both.
When a player asked whether the Sniffer is related to the Sift, because a creature there looks a lot like it, the developers would not confirm or deny it.
The developers also explained why the Sift was designed carefully: the Nether and the End were added quickly in the game's early days, while the Sift was built on purpose to feel different from the existing dimensions and to complement them.
What a New Dimension Could Mean for Servers
None of this applies before 2027, and Mojang has not shared technical details. Still, there are a few things you can reasonably expect, based on how the Nether and the End work today.
More world to store and back up. On a server, the Nether and the End are stored as separate parts of the world, each generated and saved on its own. If the Sift works the same way, it adds one more area that grows as players explore. Backups get bigger with it, so this is a good reason to already have automated backups in place.
Another area to pregenerate. Pregenerating chunks avoids lag when players rush into new terrain, and on launch day of a new dimension everyone rushes in at once. Our chunk pregeneration guide explains how it works and why disk space matters with multiple dimensions.
Plugins and mods need time. Dimension-aware plugins such as world management, claims and teleport plugins will need updates before they understand a new dimension. Expect a delay after release, as with any major update.
We will update this post when Mojang shares more about the vanilla Sift.
The Rest of Minecraft Live
The show also revealed the next game drop with Ice Caves and the Frozen Zombie, a Switch 2 edition on October 27, and Minecraft World opening in 2027. See the full Minecraft Live September 2026 recap and our Ice Caves guide.
Build a world worth exploring. Minecraft server hosting on Space-Node comes with NVMe storage, DDoS protection and 9 regions, and you can upgrade RAM later without losing your world.