Thousands of gamers are building the entire EARTH in Minecraft
Do you play Minecraft? Did you know that it is the best-selling videogame of all time?!
If you’re a fan, then you might have heard of this awesome project, where thousands of people are using Minecraft to build the world.
Yes, you read that right – the WHOLE world!
It’s called the Build The Earth (BTE) project, and it is officially the largest project in Minecraft.
You see, because blocks in Minecraft are the equivalent of a metre cubed, it means you can build things to scale with great precision. So these amazing gamers are attempting to make a scale model of the entire planet Earth, from the United Kingdom to the other side of the world in Australia!
For example, check out the Old Town of Graz, the historical centre of Austria’s second largest city, made by the Alps BTE Team:
The project started in March 2020 and, in just 3 months, approximately 300,000 VOLUNTEERS had joined!
“We started everywhere at once and invited the whole world from day one,” Gideon, a member of the International Build The Earth organizing team, explains. “A project that grows this quickly becomes a complex system very quickly.”
BTE split into around 60 regional “Build Teams”, working on different areas of the world – some a single country, some a city, some even a whole continent. Each of these teams has their own organizational structure and server, and they’re loosely overseen by the International Build The Earth Project that Gideon is a part of.
“Wherever you live, there is a Build Team that coordinates the recreation of your city or village,” he says.
Here is a view of the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, temporarily themed for the FIFA World Cup 2026 opening ceremony, featuring the flags of Mexico and South Africa, built by BTE MXCA:
So how much time does each volunteer spend on the project?
Gideon explains: “During holiday time some builders spend weeks to finish a specific grand building, but a large amount of people just join, build a small house in a few hours, and then return after a few months to build something new when they have time.”
Look at the beautiful twin Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, located at Lotus Lake in Kaohsiung City! They were completed (in real life) in 1976, and brought to life in Minecraft by BTE Taiwan:
Gideon has big plans for the future…
“I would like to bring Build The Earth into education,” he says. When the project started, the average age of the members was 15, and it showed Gideon that young people can achieve great things together; he saw teens thriving as leaders in charge of groups numbering in the thousands!
“Imagine having a class about the Pyramids in Egypt and then starting up the game to explore how far it is from the Pyramids to the Nile river. How tall the Sphinx actually is, and how far the next fast food restaurant is in modern Cairo,” Gideon continues. “It is an amazing opportunity for digital classrooms, especially for those who might not have the opportunity to actually travel the world.”
Would you enjoy a class like this?
Take a look at the Plaza Independencia – the most important and central square in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay. It was built by BTE Paraguay + Uruguay:
Despite all the hard work, the project is nowhere near done!
In fact, BTE has completed far less than 1% of the total Earth’s surface. But as their website says, it’s not a race to 100%. According to Gideon, it would take around 100 years for the whole project to be “finished”.
“The special thing about BTE is the love for detail,” he says. “Every place on Earth has someone who cares for it and therefore we care for every place, every detail. We want to get to a point where someone that joins our server and visits their own home can see that it is actually their home. So you could say that the project will never end as long as people care for any new place.”
WOW!
Lastly, check out the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a Bulgarian Orthodox cathedral in Sofia. It represents the symbol of Sofia and Bulgaria itself, rebuilt in Minecraft by BTE Balkans:
You can find more amazing Minecraft records in the new Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition 2027, OUT NOW!