Minecraft Mob Vote 2026: why Mojang put an end to it

Every summer, the same question used to pop up on French-speaking Discord servers: who will be the three candidates for the Mob Vote 2026? In 2026, the question no longer makes sense. After seven editions and a resounding controversy in 2023, Mojang officially retired the famous community vote in September 2024. No trio of new mobs will be put to a vote this year. And yet, the history of the Mob Vote still influences every Game Drop of the game, right up to the announcements made at Minecraft Live in May 2026. Here's what you need to know about the disappearance of this event, about the losing mobs that still haunt the community, and about those that could well make a comeback in the coming months.

No Mob Vote 2026: what Mojang decided in 2024

On September 9, 2024, Ryan Cooper, then Minecraft product lead at Mojang Studios, published an unequivocal statement on the official website: «We're changing the format for Minecraft Live, and retiring the mob vote, to bring you something new.» In other words, no more community vote. Minecraft Live 2023, the one featuring the Armadillo, the Crab and the Penguin, will remain the last event of its kind. A chapter closes, after seven editions running from 2017 (MINECON Earth) to 2023 (Minecraft Live), which had until then marked the end-of-year celebrations for the whole community.

The decision didn't come out of nowhere. Since 2020, every edition of the vote had generated frustration: a sense of impossible choices, losing mobs immediately forgotten, a lack of details about promised abilities. In 2023, tension reached a peak. A petition calling for the vote to be scrapped gathered more than 300,000 signatures before the poll even took place. Once the results came in, Mojang admitted having detected attempts at automated vote manipulation, while assuring that they hadn't been enough to change the winner. Suffice to say the atmosphere around the ritual had noticeably soured.

Officially, Mojang explains that it prefers to give its teams creative freedom rather than have a mob dictated by the community majority. The studio adds that losing creatures aren't doomed forever: they can come back, reworked, in a future update. The Copper Golem, the loser of the 2021 vote, has become the perfect example of this new policy.

Game Drops replace the Mob Vote as the release calendar

Since 2024, Mojang has been releasing several updates spread throughout the year, called Game Drops. Each drop introduces one or two mobs, a biome, a handful of blocks and sometimes a structure. This system is what has replaced the Mob Vote as the official calendar. And it's running at full speed in 2026:

• First 2026 drop — Content focused on cherry trees and crafting, announced at Minecraft Live in March 2026.
• Second 2026 drop — Chaos Cubed, released on June 16, 2026, featuring sulfur caves, physical Sulfur Cubes, the music disc Bounce, and an enchantment overhaul.
• Third 2026 drop — The dappled forest biome (aspen trees, wool slabs and stairs) and the abandoned camp, announced at Minecraft Live in May 2026 for the fall.

The result: where players used to expect one mob a year, Mojang now delivers two to four. The Sniffer, the Allay and the Armadillo were all introduced through a vote; the Copper Golem, the Sulfur Cube and soon the mystery mob from the third drop won't have needed a single ballot. The transition is complete.

The Copper Golem, the loser who ended up winning

The best proof that the end of the Mob Vote doesn't mean the death of losing mobs is called the Copper Golem. A candidate in the 2021 Mob Vote against the Glare and the Allay, it lost by a narrow margin (45.7% of the vote versus 54.3% for the Allay, according to official figures). Many players swore at the time they would never forgive it.

Four years later, it has finally arrived in the game with the Game Drop called The Copper Age, released on September 30, 2025 (Java 1.21.9, Bedrock 1.21.111). But Mojang reworked the original concept considerably. The Copper Golem no longer presses buttons: it empties Copper Chests left out for free use and sorts their contents by item type into the surrounding chests. It oxidizes through four stages like any copper block, freezes into a Copper Golem Statue once fully oxidized, and can be woken up with an axe. It drops one to three Copper Ingots upon death.

This posthumous success sends a clear signal to the community: a loser can come back. But only when Mojang's teams find the idea compatible with the rest of the game, and with no obligation tied to a schedule.

Complete history of the Mob Votes (2017-2023)

To fully understand the significance of this closing chapter, here is the complete summary of the seven editions, with the official English names of the mobs put to a vote:

Note that between 2018 and 2019, Mojang held not a mob vote but a biome vote (the Biome Vote). The Taiga and then the Mountains were voted in, leading respectively to the village overhaul in 2019 and the massive Caves & Cliffs update in 2021. These votes are not counted in the table, but they are part of the same legacy.

The five losers the French community absolutely wants to see return

On French-speaking servers as well as on Reddit and the site feedback.minecraft.net, five losers keep coming up in almost every wishlist. Here's why players care about them so much, and why they are the best positioned for a Copper Golem-style comeback.

1. The Iceologer (2020)

A hostile illager variant that summoned clouds of ice above the player's head, the Iceologer was meant to spawn in mountain peaks. Beaten by the Glow Squid, it never resurfaced, even though Minecraft Dungeons added it to its bestiary as early as 2020. The studio therefore already has a complete 3D model and working AI: all that's missing is a product decision to bring it in.

2. Moobloom (2020)

Yellow cow covered in buttercups, able to interact with bees to boost their honey production. A runner-up from the 2020 vote, Moobloom perfectly embodies what the community loves about "peaceful" mobs. The game's fauna still sorely lacks cow variants (unlike horses or rabbits), which leaves plenty of room for a comeback.

3. The Glare (2021)

A minor contender in the 2021 vote, overshadowed by the buzz around the Allay and the Copper Golem controversy. The Glare was meant to signal areas dark enough for hostile mobs to spawn. Since Caves & Cliffs, the lighting mechanic has been thoroughly overhauled (introduction of light level 0 for mob spawning, addition of Sculk sensors). A comeback for the Glare, reframed around the new light physics, would make perfect sense.

4. The Rascal (2022)

A little cave prankster that played hide-and-seek with the player in exchange for a reward. The Rascal was universally praised for its cuteness but also for its very "Minecraft" gameplay: one more reason to explore caves. Since then, Trial Chambers and sulfur caves have considerably enriched this biome. The Rascal would naturally find its place there.

5. The Crab (2023)

Runner-up in the last official vote, the Crab promised to extend the player's placement range thanks to a claw acquired after several days of growth. It's probably the most requested losing mob among the "technical" community: builders and filmmakers dream of a mechanic allowing them to reach a block four meters away without scaffolding. Mojang has announced it's working on a revamp of the reach mechanics for 2026; the most persistent rumors mention a release of the Crab on this occasion, though there's no official confirmation to date.

Concept mobs that will probably never make a comeback

Not all runners-up leave with the same chances. Two categories stand out clearly in the Mob Vote archives. The first includes highly polished mobs whose function overlaps with that of a mob already in the game. The Tuff Golem, for example, allowed players to display an item like a mobile statue. Since then, armor and mob heads can already be placed on Armor stands, which weakens the case for it. The Penguin, meant to speed up boats, suffers from the same redundancy with the oar enchantments currently being experimented with.

The second category includes older mobs whose concept has aged poorly. Barnacle (2017), a tentacle that dragged players underwater, would coexist poorly with the Glow Squid and the Drowned. The Great Hunger, that lizard which "ate" enchantments, would directly conflict with the enchantment rework that arrived in 2025. These mobs are probably doomed to remain in "mob votes retrospective" YouTube video archives.

Where to vote and share your opinion now?

The disappearance of the Mob Vote doesn't mean the end of giving the community a voice. Three official spaces still allow French-speaking players to weigh in on Mojang's decisions:

• feedback.minecraft.net — the official suggestions portal. Threads dedicated to bringing back losing mobs (Cryologist, Crab, Rascal…) rack up tens of thousands of upvotes there.
• bugs.mojang.com — useful for reporting anything related to the generation of existing mobs (spawn rates, AI, animations).
• Snapshots and Preview versions — Mojang regularly tests its new mobs before release and gathers feedback through a form built into the client.

A lesser-known tip: Bedrock Previews often feature experimental mobs before Java does. Turning on the “Experimental Features” toggles when creating a world sometimes lets you test a mob before it's publicly announced.

What to remember from the May 2026 Minecraft Live

The latest Minecraft Live, streamed on May 30, 2026 from TwitchCon Rotterdam, confirmed Mojang's new strategy. No vote, no promise of a new bulletin at the end of the year, but a more packed catalog of announcements than ever: the detailed content of Chaos Cubed, a preview of the third 2026 Game Drop (mottled forest biome, abandoned camp, wool slabs and stairs), several cinematics for Minecraft Dungeons II featuring the new boss Twisted Warden, and the official title of the upcoming movie, A Minecraft Movie Squared, with the return of Jack Black.

This abundance illustrates the goal Mojang set for itself after burying the vote: to offer more content, more frequently, without depending on a calendar or community pressure. French-speaking players gain in visibility (the Game Drops are localized as soon as they're released) but lose out on emotion: no more mob vote evenings around a stream commented on by everyone's favorite creators.

Verdict: should we miss the Mob Vote?

Objectively, the formula had run out of steam. The ritual turned into controversy every year, the losing mobs disappeared into a digital graveyard, and the pressure on Mojang's teams ended up harming the quality of the candidates presented. The proof: the best incarnation of a former loser, the Copper Golem, arrived in the game once it had been thoroughly reworked, far from any electoral deadline.

That said, the Mob Vote created a unique communal moment in video games. For a month, French, English, Korean and Brazilian speakers voted for the same mob, argued on Reddit, produced fan art and musical covers. No Game Drop, however high its quality, can reproduce that collective energy identically. Mojang's bet consists precisely of wagering that the quality and regularity of releases will be enough to compensate for this loss of folklore.

Personally, our advice to French players is simple: since there won't be a Mob Vote in 2026, it's worth investing that energy in the community threads that really matter (feedback.minecraft.net first and foremost) and focusing on upcoming Game Drops. The Cryologist, the Crab or the Moobloom might eventually show up, but it will be because the studio decided so, not because the majority shouted louder than anyone else.