Mineplex has officially been shut down

One of the world's most well known Minecraft servers has officially shut down after it's decade long struggle against other Minecraft server giants such as Hypixel and The Hive. Mineplex is not unlike many other online Minecraft servers, functioning as a minigame and hub for players to gather and play a wide variety of game modes or simply join up for some survival Minecraft fun on a server accessible by the public. It is unlike them however, in it's unrelenting struggle to keep up against dwindling players, and struggling server uptime.

If you haven't seen the news recently, it has quickly taken to Twitter by storm, and claimed just about everything on Google related to the Mineplex name. Considering the Mineplex host website is STILL down as of writing this article on the 18th of May, it's no wonder these articles have taken over priority for the time being. Checkout this Tweet detailing one of the last remaining comments left by staff of the Mineplex server after it's eventual (and permanent) going offline.

Mineplex Shutdown History

Why though? Many fans of the long running server have been completely left in the dark about the events of this decision, even with the details of dwindling players in mind. Mineplex has been a part of Minecraft's "featured servers" list for almost a decade on the bedrock version, how could it have been genuinely struggling so heavily? Despite this, without any further notice, the Mineplex website and servers both mysteriously went completely offline on May 12th, only for the server to also be de-listed on bedrock edition on the 15th.

This all comes to light after the server has struggled with extreme hosting issues, and an even more extreme downfall of players from it's peak of 40,000+ in 2016 to a mere 4,000 approaching 2020. The best guess is for years Mineplex has been taking a loss in continued upkeep of their servers, especially amidst repeated server issues in recent years. When servers stumbled and went offline on May 12th, the team most likely decided that it was the final straw, and called it quits.

Mineplex Alternatives

Mineplex featured many minigames that aren't entirely exclusive to their platform, fortunately allowing veterans of the Mineplex server to find new homes on alternative servers (or creating your own!) Some of the most notable minigames being Survival Games (Minecraft's spin on The Hunger Games), Skywars (a classic Minecraft PvP experience held entirely on floating islands), and a "unique" minigame called Cake Wars where players would need to eat each other team's cake in order to prevent their respawn (Mineplex's equivalent of Bedwars).

As described above, Mineplex has suffered for a decade due to it's competition with many other servers, as these other servers have offered the same experience, but with larger communities, and potentially better options as well. Just some of these servers are: Hypixel, The Hive, Wynncraft, 2b2t, Pixelmon, and Universocraft. If you're looking to revisit the nostalgic 2016 Mineplex era with a group of friends, why not just start up a server of your own instead?

Mineplex Management Difficulties

Among many other issues across Mineplex, were rumors of several layers of management issues across the board. From moderation in-game to decision making about the server's direction, Mineplex wasn't able to keep up with it's direct competitors in a changing gamer climate. While other servers have lively communities, free of toxicity, Mineplex was struggling to say the same and this in combination with other issues spelled disaster for the server as a whole.

This unfortunately has seen a ripple effect, with toxic members of the community widely celebrating the server's downfall in the public sphere. This has caused further divide between the community in a moment of sadness at the end of an era, and will leave a lasting impression on the veterans of Mineplex as they look back at the server as a whole. Hopefully, an inspired Mineplex player can take up arms and make another attempt at Mineplex's greatness...one day.

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