What is the Sift?
A new dimension. The fourth, after the Overworld, the Nether and the End, and the first one added in more than fourteen years.
The one-paragraph version
The Sift is a new Minecraft dimension that Mojang Studios revealed at Minecraft LIVE on September 26, 2026. It will come to Minecraft Java Edition and Bedrock Edition in 2027. It already exists in Minecraft Dungeons II (released September 29, 2026), where it is the setting for much of the story. Mojang describes it as "beautiful, vibrant, and teeming with souls". In the Minecraft reveal it looked like a pink meadow with white trees and a small hopping creature called the blub.
Sources: Minecraft.net · Xbox Wire
Where the name comes from
Mojang has not explained the name. Dungeons II footage was briefly published under the internal codename "Wellspring" before being renamed "The Sift" in August 2026, which is the only naming history on record.
Sources: Minecraft Wiki
What it looks like (Minecraft reveal)
Only a short in-development clip was shown. From that clip, Minecraft Wiki editors documented:
- A pink meadow: salmon-pink ground, grass in several shades, blubs hopping about.
- Green plains in the distance.
- Dense forests of white trees with dark-grey trunks and hanging white foliage.
- A dark, turquoise-tinted stone under the dirt.
These names are community stand-ins. Mojang has named none of these blocks or biomes. The broadcast's audio description even called the blocks "orange", so expect the palette to change.
Sources: Minecraft Wiki
What it is like to play (Dungeons II)
In Dungeons II, the Sift is an interconnected set of regions you reach through rifts. Official sources name two areas, the Meadow and the Carapace, and say the rest is being kept secret. It has hazardous blocks, "shifting tides" that affect you and nearby characters, and a cast of new mobs, some friendly, some not. The community wiki adds three region names, a burning liquid called ichor, three named tides and two bosses. See the Dungeons II page.
Sources: Xbox Wire · Minecraft.net · Minecraft Wiki
Why it took fourteen years
Mojang developers have said for over a decade that a dimension needs a functional reason to exist, not just new scenery. In August 2026 Jens Bergensten called that requirement "daunting" and open-ended, which is the closest thing to an explanation for why the Sift debuted in Dungeons II first and arrives in Minecraft later.
Sources: Minecraft Wiki
What nobody knows yet
- How you enter it in Minecraft.
- Which Dungeons II content carries over.
- Whether it is a free update.
- Its version number, month, or snapshot schedule.
Mojang says future Minecraft LIVE events will fill these in. We update the timeline when they do.
Sources: Xbox Wire