Are achievements important in Minecraft?

Minecraft, like many other games, has achievements for players to achieve. In both Bedrock and Java Edition, there are tasks to accomplish, though they differ from version to version. In Java Edition, there are far fewer and they're called advancements.

Either way, players may be wondering if completing these achievements or advancements actually does anything. They may also be wondering if they're important at all. Here's the answer to those questions.

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Do Minecraft achievements/advancements do anything?

Ultimately, the answer is no. They aren't really that important. Players can play the game entirely through without trying to complete any of them. They'll naturally complete a few of them, but the vast majority can be left incomplete. It changes nothing about the game.

Except for maybe showing them off to their friends and followers.

However, on several different platforms, they do actually do something. For Bedrock Edition, most platforms have a tracking system that counts the achievements and totals up a score.

On Xbox One, players' profiles will keep track of their gamer score across all games. Each achievement from each game has a point value associated with it. These will tally up and players will have a place on a leaderboard with their friends.

Nintendo Switch tracks the same, but it doesn't go towards the same game. The Xbox app (since Microsoft owns Minecraft) tracks what players have done on "Minecraft for Nintendo Switch". Pocket Edition falls under the regular Minecraft game.

Players have gamer scores from achievements in all games (Image via Microsoft)

That's all the achievements/advancements do, though. There's no reward for completing them or even for placing high on the leaderboard. It's a fun thing to keep track of, but it's rather meaningless. Until players complete all of them, they'll always have tasks to work on.

The only point of achievements and advancements is to give players something to strive for in the game by accomplishing various tasks. Each update introduces a few new achievements to the game. These achievements were added in 1.18:

• Caves & Cliffs
• Feels Like Home
• Star Trader
• Sound of Music

What kind of achievements will be introduced in the 1.19 Wild Update? Let us know in the comments section below!