What you need to know
- Mojang Studios has announced the Minecraft Marketplace Pass, a new subscription service that provides access to a rotating catalog of Minecraft items, packs, and DLC.
- The Marketplace Pass costs $3.99 a month and is compatible across all Minecraft: Bedrock Edition platforms, with over 150 items.
- New products will come and go from the Marketplace Pass periodically, and will provide free Character Creator items to players every month.
- It's the same catalog that's available through Minecraft Realms Plus, so current subscribers need not apply.
One of the best gaming subscriptions in the world right now is Xbox Game Pass, which grants players access to a rotating library of hundreds of Xbox, Windows PC, and cloud games. It seems Mojang Studios wants Minecraft to offer a similar experience, and has just announced the Minecraft Marketplace Pass for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, available now across Xbox, Windows PC, PlayStation, Switch, and mobile devices.
Announced via Minecraft.net, the new Marketplace Pass costs $3.99 /month and provides unrestricted access to over 150 worlds, adventures, skin and texture packs, and more. Subscribers even get free Character Creator items every month, which can be added to their wardrobe to keep forever. The Marketplace Pass library isn't set in stone, too, periodically getting new items (while existing ones may leave the service).
It's an easy, affordable subscription for those always looking to try new experiences in Minecraft, and you always have the option of buying DLC you wish to keep forever. However, not all Minecraft players will need to bother with the Marketplace Pass; all of the items and DLC included in this pass are the same included in Minecraft Realms Plus (which also provides a private, 11-person server). You can read our Minecraft Realms FAQ for more information.
If you have a normal 4-person Minecraft Realms server, you can still subscribe to the Marketplace Pass and share those items with your fellow players, but at that point you're probably better off moving up to the Realms Plus tier. The Minecraft Marketplace Pass is not available for Minecraft: Java Edition. It does sync to your Microsoft Account, though, meaning one subscription gives you access to all the same items and DLC across all Minecraft: Bedrock Edition platforms.
It's an interesting new option for one of the best Xbox games, and comes hot on the heels of the announcement that Minecraft: Bedrock Edition now has official mod support on all platforms. It's not clear how many players will actually take advantage of this option, though, since you'll need to be a pretty hardcore Minecraft fan for it to be worth the monthly cost. More free content is coming in the future, though; in case you missed it, Mojang Studios recently revealed that the Minecraft 1.21 content update will also introduce seven brand-new wolf variants to the game.
If you want to check out the Minecraft Marketplace Pass, you can subscribe through Minecraft (this will open the game on your device if installed).
