The sandbox RPG Minecraft has been around for well over a decade, and many of its faithful players have been exploring its blocky world since the beta. Whether you prefer to mod your Minecraft experience until it’s almost unrecognizable, or explore the world ad infinitum in its vanilla state, the hours that most Minecraft players put in can astonish. Some work inversely with the title, however, attempting to complete the game as quickly as humanly possible. Here are the ten best Minecraft speedrunners, and their times, on random seeds at 1.16+ glitchless any%.
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10. Megelimc — 9:16.343
- Date: November 17, 2022
Megelimc actually had a rough go of this speedrun, noticeable in a few parts of the time submission. A standard tactic for defeating the Ender Dragon is hanging up the dragon on the post, and using the detonations of beds within The End to eliminate the Ender Dragon. Megelimc brought four beds, which wasn’t enough to end it thanks to an off explosion, causing them to need to switch to an axe to finish the job. Still, RNG was prevalent in this run, as is the norm in Minecraft speed running — that extra bed would have shaved off three seconds, at most.
9. Cube1337x — 9:08.82
- Date: January 23, 2022
This run would likely have been a bit better if Cube1337x didn’t get stuck in the Fortress portion, chasing Blazes while trying to dodge incoming hordes of Wither Skeletons around the 6 minute mark. Unfortunately, Minecraft speed running does lend itself to some RNG influence, which ended up costing a few seconds across the run. Clocking in slightly above 9 minutes, however, from spawn to Ender Dragon kill, is no small feat.
8. DougThePig — 9:07.741
- Date: November 9, 2022
True to his name, Doug the Pig takes his pig-centric Minecraft skin through everything the game has to offer in a little over nine minutes, with a minor hang-up with the classic Piglin RNG. At the three-minute mark, Doug comes through a lava-heavy Y-level and turns it almost instantly into a Nether portal with a bucket of water, setting a clean example of some Minecraft speed running strategies.
7. Feinberg — 9:00.487
- Date: October 15, 2022
Spawning on an island with no trees, Feinberg takes advantage of a nearby shipwreck to quickly gain iron and a singular diamond, and opts to cut down the masts for wood. This spawn turns beneficial quickly, as Feinberg builds his Nether portal within two minutes of spawn. Some difficulty finding gold blocks increases his time in the Nether, although that’s made up with a Blaze spawn quickly found.
6. Silverr — 8:47.927
- Date: October 21, 2022
Playing in his native Serbian language while commentating in English, Silverr puts up the first sub-nine-minute Minecraft speed run for any% glitchless 1.16+ of the top ten. Notable in his run is the decision to nerd-pole up to the Ender Dragon, needing to use multiple beds as he can’t get the direct hits necessary to peel its health down in four hits. Thankfully, he brought multiple beds.
5. Korone — 8:47.223
- Date: October 2, 2022
Playing in Croatian, Korone brings a couple of unique techs to their speed run, using the swim animation to crawl through a 1×1 chasm and doors to block lava from cooking them, all within the first minute of the run. There were two instances of bad RNG with this run — the Fortress was far from the initial Nether portal, and it took too long to find the Blazes. If not for those, this run could have been the one to beat, with fantastic Piglin procs and gold finds.
4. Reignex — 8:39.218
- Date: September 18, 2022
Reignex enjoyed a short time on the top of the speed running leaderboards for Minecraft 1.16+ any% glitchless with this run. There are roughly 20 seconds separating this run from the best, and it’s difficult to note where the time could be made up. There’s a mildly flubbed jump onto the Fortress at 2:23, and the distance from the portal to the Nether Fortress could be closer, but at this stage we’re talking about shaving seconds rather than re-approaching the speed run at the whole.
3. Sagi_Enderman — 8:36.658
- Date: July 7, 2022
Interestingly, Sagi_Enderman offers the first 1.16+ speed run on the list where we get to see the Nether biomes that were added in 1.16, at minute three. It’s a brief-lived foray, as it’s little more than a means to an end of reaching the Fortress. This distance, between the original Nether portal and the Fortress, is ostensibly the worst RNG offered in the entirety of the run. Ample Piglin procs and Blazes make the Stronghold aspect of this run one of the shortest on this list.
2. Zylenox — 8:27.473
- Date: December 18, 2022
It would be interesting to take Zylenox’ seed and see how quickly it could actually be ran, as it’s a fantastic seed with Nether Fortress placement. That’s a different category entirely, however, and when it comes to pre-determined seeds, there are simply better. Still, there’s no denying that Zylenox not only got a fantastic seed but also managed to capitalize on almost every aspect of the run, clocking in at 8:27.
1. Doogile — 8:15.537
- Date: November 6, 2022
Doogile claimed the best 1.16+ any% glitchless speedrun with 8:15, and Zylenox has come closest with their 8:27 run — two months after first place was claimed. Doogile has the uncontested world record for an approved standard Minecraft speed run — a nearly flawless Blaze spawn allowed the player to quickly stack Blazes, where other runners struggled to gather the necessary Rods for the Eyes.
