Minecraft / Practical guide
Minecraft Mob Vote History: Every Vote, Winner and Loser, and Why There Is No Vote in 2026
All seven Minecraft community votes from MINECON Earth 2017 to Minecraft Live 2023, with the date, the candidates, the winner and when it reached the game, what became of every losing mob, and what Mojang did after it retired the vote in 2024.
ALVIRAN Editorial · Reviewed 2026-10-23
In this guide
Accounts with the Cherry Blossom cape from the 2023 vote
The cape handed to 2023 mob vote participants stays on the account, and every listing names the capes it carries.
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Minecraft mob vote history: every vote from 2017 to 2023
Mojang ran the vote during its yearly show: MINECON Earth in 2017 and 2018, MINECON Live in 2019 and Minecraft Live from 2020. Twice the vote was about a biome instead of a mob. The table uses Mojang's own announcement and result posts, and the Java release for each winner.
| Year | Show and vote date | Candidates | Winner | Added in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | MINECON Earth, 18 Nov 2017 | Barnacle, Great Hunger, Phantom, Wildfire | Phantom | Update Aquatic, Java 1.13, 18 Jul 2018 |
| 2018 | MINECON Earth, 29 Sep 2018 | Taiga, Savanna, Desert (biome vote) | Taiga | Village & Pillage, Java 1.14, 23 Apr 2019 (foxes) |
| 2019 | MINECON Live, 28 Sep 2019 | Badlands, Mountains, Swamp (biome vote) | Mountains | Caves & Cliffs: Part I (goats, 8 Jun 2021) and Part II (new mountains, 30 Nov 2021) |
| 2020 | Minecraft Live, 3 Oct 2020 | Glow Squid, Iceologer, Moobloom | Glow Squid | Caves & Cliffs: Part I, Java 1.17, 8 Jun 2021 |
| 2021 | Minecraft Live, 16 Oct 2021 | Allay, Copper Golem, Glare | Allay | The Wild Update, Java 1.19, 7 Jun 2022 |
| 2022 | Minecraft Live, 14 to 15 Oct 2022 | Rascal, Sniffer, Tuff Golem | Sniffer | Trails & Tales, Java 1.20, June 2023 |
| 2023 | Minecraft Live, 13 to 15 Oct 2023 | Armadillo, Crab, Penguin | Armadillo | Armored Paws, Java 1.20.5, 23 Apr 2024 |
Mojang never ran a mob vote in 2024. Its post of 8 September 2024 said: "We're changing the format for Minecraft Live, and retiring the mob vote, to bring you something new." The armadillo is therefore the last mob ever voted into Minecraft.
Each vote, and what the candidates would have done
2017: Phantom
Mojang designed four mobs, A to D, and players knocked the least popular out during the show until "Mob B" was left. Mojang later named the rivals: the Phantom, pitched as "the Monster of the Night Skies", beat the Barnacle, the Wildfire and the Great Hunger.
2018: Taiga
The first biome vote. Mojang promised to update all three biomes eventually and let players pick which came first, by Twitter poll in two rounds. Taiga won, and foxes arrived in Village & Pillage a year later. Mojang told Desert and Savanna fans "we'll still be updating those biomes in time".
2019: Mountains
Badlands offered vultures, tumbleweeds and new cacti. Mountains offered more jagged peaks and goats. Swamp offered mangrove trees, frogs and boats with chests. Mountains won, and the 2020 show folded it into Caves & Cliffs.
2020: Glow Squid
The Iceologer was a hostile illager from Minecraft Dungeons that would throw ice clouds on the new mountain tops. The Moobloom was a flower cow from Minecraft Earth that would interact with bees. The Glow Squid, also from Earth, won the Twitter poll.
2021: Allay
The Glare would show you spots dark enough for hostile mobs to spawn, the Allay picks up items and carries them to you, and the Copper Golem would press copper buttons and corrode over time. Voting was on Twitter during the show. The Allay won.
2022: Sniffer
The first vote outside Twitter, held in the Minecraft Launcher, on Minecraft.net and on a Bedrock event server, with a Microsoft account sign-in. Over 3.5 million votes were cast, and the sniffer won with 55%, "a greater share than in any previous vote".
2023: Armadillo
The crab was described in press coverage at the time as a mangrove swamp mob whose claw extends your reach, the penguin would help your boat travel faster, and the armadillo drops a scute for wolf armor. Voting stayed open for just over 48 hours. The armadillo won and joined the game six months later.
How the mob vote worked, year by year
| Year | Where you voted | Window | Official result details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | During the MINECON Earth livestream | During the show, losing mobs knocked out in rounds | "Mob B" (Phantom) won; no percentages published |
| 2018 | Twitter poll by @Minecraft | During the show, two rounds | Taiga won; no percentages in Mojang's recap |
| 2019 | During the MINECON Live show | During the show only | Mountains won; no percentages in Mojang's recap |
| 2020 | Twitter poll | During the show | Glow Squid won |
| 2021 | During the show on 16 Oct | Allay won | |
| 2022 | Launcher, Minecraft.net, Bedrock carnival server | 24 hours from noon EDT on 14 Oct | Over 3.5 million votes; sniffer about 55%, almost two million votes |
| 2023 | Launcher, Minecraft.net/live, Bedrock event server; Xbox and PlayStation without owning the game | 1 pm EDT 13 Oct to 1:15 pm EDT 15 Oct | Armadillo won; one vote per Microsoft account, last vote counted |
From 2022 you needed a Microsoft account, and only your last vote counted, even if the server let you pull the levers again. Mojang's 2023 explainer also opened voting on Xbox from 8 to 16 October and PlayStation from 12 to 15 October for people who did not own the game.
Java and Bedrock accounts with 5+ capes
Event and promotion capes cannot be earned once their window closes, and each listing shows the full cape list before checkout.
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What happened to the mob vote losers
Players often ask whether losing mobs come back later. Mojang never promised it, and the record is short. We checked every losing candidate against Java 26.3, the current release, and the changelogs since 2017.
| Candidate | Lost in | In Minecraft today? |
|---|---|---|
| Copper Golem | 2021 | Yes. Added in The Copper Age (Java 1.21.9) on 30 Sep 2025, now sorting items from copper chests instead of pressing buttons |
| Swamp (biome) | 2019 | Yes, as planned. The Wild Update added the mangrove swamp, frogs and boats with chests on 7 Jun 2022 |
| Desert, Savanna (biomes) | 2018 | Not as a named update. Mojang said in 2018 it would update them "in time"; the 2023 winner, the armadillo, lives in savannas and badlands |
| Badlands (biome) | 2019 | No vultures or tumbleweeds in the game |
| Iceologer, Moobloom | 2020 | No. Both came from spin-offs: the Iceologer from Minecraft Dungeons, the Moobloom from Minecraft Earth, which has since shut down |
| Glare | 2021 | No |
| Rascal, Tuff Golem | 2022 | No |
| Crab, Penguin | 2023 | No |
| Barnacle, Great Hunger, Wildfire | 2017 | No |
How we checked: none of the losing mobs except the Copper Golem appears in the entity list of Java 26.3 or of the 26.4 test builds released up to 20 October 2026. The upcoming Ice Caves drop adds the Frostbite, a zombie variant, not a former candidate.
Minecraft mob vote 2026: is there one?
No. In the same 2024 post Mojang said Minecraft Live would become "a more focussed broadcast, and it will happen twice per year", and that the base game would get several free game drops a year instead of one big summer update. The shows since then (28 September 2024, 22 March 2025, and the 2026 shows including 26 September 2026) announced features directly, without a vote.
New mobs still arrive, they are just picked by Mojang: the creaking, the happy ghast, the copper golem, the nautilus, the sulfur cube and, in testing now, the Frostbite. Our Minecraft updates 2026 page lists every drop of this year. If a search result promises a "2026 mob vote", it is out of date or invented.
One thing that looks like a vote is a joke: the Vote Update was Mojang's April Fools' snapshot of 1 April 2023, where players voted on rule changes inside a test world. It had nothing to do with the mob vote.
The mob vote cape
The 2023 vote is also the only one that left something on player accounts. According to the community Minecraft Wiki and press coverage at the time, Mojang gave participants a cape, called Cherry Blossom on Java and Cherry on Bedrock. We did not find a Mojang page that states the terms, so treat the details as unofficial. With no more votes, it cannot be earned again.
Capes are the part of Minecraft history that stays with the Microsoft account, unlike mobs and items, which live in a world. Our capes guide sorts every common cape by how it was earned and whether it is still open. For the version numbers behind each winner, see every Minecraft version in order, and for the hardest items the winners led to, such as sniffer eggs, see the rarest Minecraft items.
Frequently asked questions
Who won the last Minecraft mob vote?
The armadillo, in the 2023 vote that closed on 15 October 2023. It beat the crab and the penguin and was added in the Armored Paws drop on 23 April 2024.
Is there a Minecraft mob vote in 2026?
No. Mojang retired the mob vote on 8 September 2024. There was no vote in 2024, 2025 or 2026, and Minecraft Live now announces new mobs directly.
Why did Mojang stop the mob vote?
Mojang's own post only says it was changing the format of Minecraft Live and "retiring the mob vote, to bring you something new". It gave no other reason.
Who won the 2022 mob vote?
The sniffer, with about 55% of the vote, the biggest share in any mob vote. Over 3.5 million votes were cast. It was added in Trails & Tales in 2023.
Who won the 2021 mob vote?
The allay, over the copper golem and the glare. It was added in The Wild Update, Java 1.19, on 7 June 2022.
Will mob vote losers be added?
Only one has been so far: the copper golem, the 2021 runner-up, added in The Copper Age on 30 September 2025. Mojang has made no promise about the others.
What was the first Minecraft mob vote?
MINECON Earth on 18 November 2017. Players chose the phantom over the barnacle, the wildfire and the great hunger, and it was added in Update Aquatic in July 2018.
How many mob votes were there?
Seven community votes in total: five mob votes (2017, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023) and two biome votes (2018 and 2019).
Accounts that go back to the vote years
The Migrator cape marks a Java account that moved to Microsoft before the 2023 deadline, and listings show it next to the other capes.
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Sources and editorial scope
Reviewed 23 October 2026. Votes and results from Mojang's minecraft.net posts: 2017 vote, 2017 result, Mob Menagerie: Phantom; 2018 vote, 2018 result, Mob Menagerie: Fox; 2019 vote, 2019 result; 2020 vote, 2020 recap, Mob Menagerie: Glow Squid; 2021 candidates, 2021 recap, Mob Menagerie: Allay; 2022 details, 2022 recap, Mob Menagerie: Sniffer; 2023 explainer, crab, penguin, armadillo, 2023 recap, Mob Menagerie: Armadillo, Armored Paws. Retirement: The future of Minecraft's development (8 Sep 2024). Release dates: Mojang's Java version manifest and changelogs. Losers checked against the Java 26.3 and 26.4 Snapshot 5 entity registries. The Cherry Blossom cape is documented by the community Minecraft Wiki, not by a Mojang page we could find.
Mojang says buying or selling accounts goes against its Terms of Service, that it cannot provide support for licenses bought from resellers or third-party sites, and that buying from a third-party seller does not make you the legitimate owner of a Minecraft license or account. The Microsoft Services Agreement restricts transferring account credentials. A check does not override those terms.