Multiplayer Esports and Event Technical Considerations

Esports in Minecraft Education can be an exciting way to unleash students' creativity in a way that challenges them and builds skills. Before beginning an esports multiplayer event, we recommend reviewing the guidance below.

For most large events, we recommend hosting a dedicated server. Dedicated servers remove the hard limit of players who can be in a single world and are generally more performant for E-Sports type events. Additionally, they can be configured to run 24/7, allow other schools to connect, and more. Learn more about Dedicated Servers here: Dedicated Server FAQ

While Minecraft Education peer-2-peer sessions support up to 40 players in a single world, this number is not guaranteed and is highly dependent on the host's hardware capabilities and network configuration. We recommend testing the event to ensure the host device and network are equipped to host a multiplayer session with the number of joinees you're aiming for, in the environment in which you plan to run your event.  
To get a broad idea of how many players your host device should support, you can find our minimum and recommend specifications here: System Requirements

Network Considerations

While Minecraft Education does not take up a great deal of bandwidth for a small-group multiplayer session, the best way to know if your network can handle the Minecraft Education multiplayer event, you're planning is to run a test with the target number of users on the target host device in advance of the event. You’ll also need our URLs allowlisted on the network firewalls to ensure devices can connect to our services. 

In addition, stability is key to ensuring users stay connected in longer, multi-user sessions. We suggest using a wired ethernet connection for both the host and joining users' devices. Unstable network connections may result in event interruptions such as users disconnecting from the host's multiplayer session.

Host Device Considerations for Peer-2-Peer Sessions 

Hosting a multiplayer session via Peer-2-Peer take more processing power than solo play, and the load on a device (especially it’s CPU and RAM) increases as more users connect to the host. In-game activities such as coding and Redstone usage will also increase the load, as will exploring new areas in the world (i.e., increasing world size by generating new chunks). Lowering your video settings may help increase stability. 

Using the device with the highest number of resources (best CPU and higher amount of RAM) will result in a more stable experience. We also recommend closing any unnecessary apps on the hosting device to free up more of the device’s resources.   

See our article here for minimum device recommendations to use as a starting point. We recommend you also keep in mind the activities your users will be doing in Minecraft Education, and any running background tasks, when choosing a host device.

Host Device Considerations for Dedicated Server 

For Dedicated Servers, you can find our hardware recommendations here: https://edusupport.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/46913335157140-Dedicated-Server-System-Requirements