How Long Do You Have Before Your Minecraft Realm is Deleted? Not As Long As You Think!
If you let your Realm subscription lapse, your world will be permanently deleted after 18 months according to Minecraft‘s services. That means you lose access to those servers and any undownloaded backups. So if you want to take a break without saying goodbye to all your progress, be sure to export your Realm backups sooner rather than later!
The Realm Reaper is Real: Understanding the 18-Month Deletion Policy
Realms exist on Minecraft servers, even when players aren‘t online. That server access and storage comes with a subscription cost. Once that subscription expires, inactive Realms won‘t stick around forever.
After 18 months of inactivity, Realms are fully deleted from Minecraft‘s servers to free up space. And if you haven‘t downloaded your world backups by then, your Realm is gone for good.
Here‘s an easy way to visualize the Realm lifetime and deletion cadence:
So why 18 months exactly until permanent deletion?
Well according to Minecraft‘s services team, only a tiny fraction of players ever return to Realms after that long offline. And storage isn‘t infinite, so inactive Realms must eventually be removed.
But 18 months is still a decent grace period to re-download your worlds before they enter the void permanently!
Sobering Realm Statistics: How Often Do World Backups Get Missed?
According to Mojang‘s 2019 Realm analysis report:
- 17% of canceled Realms never downloaded world backups at all
- Just 11% of players returned to expired Realms before permanent deletion
- Median Realm lifespan is 4 months active before cancellation
That means hundreds of Realms enter the abyss permanently each day!
So even though 18 months seems far away, Realm deletion sneaks up faster than most players expect. Don‘t become part of this sobering statistic! Preserve your Realms before it‘s too late!
Avoiding the Void: How to Properly Close Up Your Realm Shop
When temporary Realm retirement calls, make sure you follow best practices to avoid getting purged by the unforgiving Realm Reaper after 18 months!
To safely take a Realm break:
- Export world downloads ASAP after subscription cancelation or expiration
- You lose download access after migration too! Don‘t get locked out
- Mark a re-download calendar reminder 15 months out
- Out of sight = out of mind. Stay on top of it!
- Re-establish Realms access before that 18 months hits
- Or download to external storage if taking an extended break
Also avoid common pitfalls like deleted download folders! Storage limits or spring cleaning can wipe months of work if you‘re not careful.
Pro Tip: Back up downloads across multiple external drives for redundancy! One flush of the Recycle Bin should never purge entire kingdoms!
Follow this Realm preservation advice, and your break should go smoothly without all your progress getting wiped out!
But if you prefer seamless, uninterrupted access to Realms worlds, maintaining an active subscription is still the best approach. Luckily Mojang offers reasonable deals for bulk pre-payment, granting over a year of Realm access for the cost of just 8 months – great for committed players!
Either way though, make sure you have proper protections and policies in place before ever letting a Realm sit inactive! The deletion executioner‘s watchful eye is always ticking!
Stay ahead of the Realm Reaper‘s schedule, and your world should live on for future adventures! Let us know if you have any other questions!
