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How to play Minecraft with friends

Shared happiness equals doubled hapiness – easy enough right? Especially for gaming! So, we’ve summarized all the ways you can play Minecraft together with our friends in the following article so you can enjoy playing Minecraft with as many friends as you like. Whether you would like to play with your friend next to you on the couch in split-screen or with friends from all over the world on your own server, here you’ll learn what you need to know.

  • Christian
  • Minecraft, Tutorials
How to play Minecraft with friends

Split-screen - At home on the couch

The easiest way to play Minecraft together is in split-screen mode, which is only available on consoles. Therefore, if you have a console version of Minecraft and enough controllers, you can play with up to three more friends on one screen at the same time. One specific technical requirement here is that the screen you play on has at least a 720p resolution. Make sure these requirements are met for you to start playing together. You can check your console’s settings to see what resolution your screen has.

Follow these steps to start the split-screen mode:

  1. Create a new Minecraft world or load an old world and start playing.
  2. Check the “Online Game” box. This is needed to start the local multiplayer.
  3. All other players press the start button of their controllers and activate them.
  4. The other players log in with an account on the console. Guest accounts can also be used here.
  5. You can now start plaing.

LAN - Get your friends together for a party

If you want to play locally with several friends or the splitscreen windows are just too small for you, then the LAN mode is the perfect alternative. Through LAN (Local Area Network) everyone who is on the same wifi can connect to your server.

For this you need a powerful computer, which you can use as a server for all players and for playing by yourself. You can start your LAN party with the following steps:

  1. Create a new Minecraft world or load an old world and start the game. Then open the menu.
  2. Press “Open to LAN” and decide if you want to allow cheats. Then press “Start LAN World”
  3. Other players can find the world on their PC in the multiplayer tab and join it over the local network.
  4. You can now start plaing.
Showcase hot to activate the LAN Mode in Minecraft
Find the LAN option in the menu

Public Servers - Meet your friends or find new ones

There are a lot of public Minecraft servers out there where you can meet your friends. Many of these servers host huge communities and offer minigames and adventures. Use websites like minecraftservers.org to see which public servers are the most popular right now. Just join the same server with your friends and start playing together with a lot of other players.

This is how joining public servers works:

  1. Find the IP address of a server on websites like minecraftservers.org or minecraft-server.eu.
  2. Click on Add Server or Direct Connection in the multiplayer tab of the Minecraft client.
  3. Enter the IP address of the public server and start the game.
  4. You can now start plaing.
Showcase how to find a MInecraft Multiplayer Server online
On Websites like this you can find a list of public Minecraft Servers (click the picture)

Private Server - Maximum flexibility with friends from all over the world

Of course, the best Minecraft experience with friends will be on a privately hosted server. Here you have complete control over the settings. For example, you can decide in which version you want to play, how many people can play on the server and much more. In particular, you can use the numerous plugins and mods that the Minecraft community has developed on your private server. You get to make the rules and there’s no one else telling you what to do or what not to do.

In this article you’ll learn how to create your private game server in four simple steps.
You can find out which hosting model is best for you in this article.

We hope you have many exciting adventures and a enjoy playing Minecraft or reading one of our other articles.

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