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Build the Earth
Collaborative Minecraft project

BuildTheEarth (BTE) is a project dedicated to creating a 1:1 scale model of Earth within the sandbox video game Minecraft.

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History

Build TheEarth was created by YouTuber PippenFTS in March 2020 as a collaborative effort to recreate Earth in the video game Minecraft.1 During the COVID-19 lockdowns, the server aimed to provide players with the opportunity to virtually experience and construct the world. In a YouTube video, PippenFTS called for prospective participants to recreate man-made structures over a rudimentary model of Earth's terrain.23 A Discord server created to help coordinate the project4 attracted over a hundred thousand users by April 2020.5 PippenFTS left the project entirely in 2024, but the project is still actively maintained by the community.

Following unsuccessful attempts to generate terrain using a Mercator projection, organizers opted for a modified version of the Dymaxion map projection. The alternative approach prioritized minimizing distortions in land masses, at the cost of highly distorted oceans.6

Minecraft developer Mojang Studios featured the project on their website on Earth Day 2020.7 In July 2020, YouTuber MrBeast released a video where he and 50 other people built his hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina within the project.8

In 2020, a full sized recreation of the Taj Mahal was completed on the server by Daniel Tan.9 In 2022, a team of over 2,000 players constructed a recreation of many places in New York City on a 1:1 scale, including many famous sites such as the 9/11 memorial, New York County Supreme Court, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Soho.10 A team of over 400 players has completed construction on multiple buildings from Portugal, including the Algarve International Circuit.11

Software

Originally, the project primarily depends on two Minecraft modifications to function: Cubic Chunks and Terra++. Cubic Chunks removes Minecraft's limitation on building structures beyond a certain height. Terra++ uses information from geographic data services, such as OpenStreetMap,12 to automatically generate terrain to ease the building process.

However, with the introduction of new world height limits in Minecraft version 1.18, more regions around the world can fit into the vanilla range. As of 2025, majority of the project has shifted to Minecraft 1.20+ with no modifications, with the exception of a few areas such as the US and parts of South America.

References

  1. Cooke, Alex (2020-10-21). "Halifax teen working to 'Build the Earth' in Minecraft". CBC News. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2021-03-28. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/halifax-teen-working-build-the-earth-minecraft-1.5764364 ↩

  2. Clayton, Natalie (2020-03-28). "Minecraft mod recreates the Earth to scale – and now it wants players to fill in the gaps". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on 2020-12-05. Retrieved 2020-09-11. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/03/28/minecraft-mod-recreates-the-earth-to-scale-and-now-it-wants-players-to-fill-in-the-gaps/ ↩

  3. Gault, Matthew (2020-04-02). "Thousands of People Are Building a 1:1 Recreation of Earth in 'Minecraft'". Vice. Archived from the original on 2020-09-13. Retrieved 2020-09-11. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7jykw/thousands-of-people-are-building-a-11-recreation-of-earth-in-minecraft ↩

  4. Kent, Emma (2020-03-27). "Someone's built the entire Earth in Minecraft - to scale". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 2021-04-17. Retrieved 2020-09-11. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-03-27-someones-built-the-entire-earth-in-minecraft-to-scale ↩

  5. Cuthbertson, Anthony (2020-04-07). "Tens of thousands of people are building the Earth on a 1:1 scale in Minecraft". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2021-06-24. Retrieved 2021-06-21. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/minecraft-build-earth-discord-coronavirus-lockdown-a9452861.html ↩

  6. Karel, Daniel (2022-03-10). "The 2,731-Person Project to Build New York City in Minecraft". Curbed. Retrieved 2024-02-22. https://www.curbed.com/2022/03/global-minecraft-team-building-new-york-city.html ↩

  7. Dankis, Sofia (2020-04-22). "It's Earth Day Again!". Mojang Studios. Archived from the original on 2021-04-11. Retrieved 2020-09-23. https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/it-s-earth-day-again- ↩

  8. Aldridge, Bailey (2020-07-06). "North Carolina-based YouTube star MrBeast builds his hometown Raleigh in Minecraft". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on 2021-07-27. Retrieved 2021-06-21. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article244033857.html ↩

  9. "Gamers Recreated the Taj Mahal in Minecraft With 1:1 Ratio & It Looks Stunning". MensXP. 2021-07-04. Retrieved 2024-02-22. https://www.mensxp.com/technology/games/90014-gamers-recreated-the-taj-mahal-in-minecraft.html ↩

  10. Karel, Daniel (2022-03-10). "The 2,731-Person Project to Build New York City in Minecraft". Curbed. Retrieved 2024-02-22. https://www.curbed.com/2022/03/global-minecraft-team-building-new-york-city.html ↩

  11. "Building Portugal – Virtually". www.theportugalnews.com. Retrieved 2024-02-22. https://www.theportugalnews.com/news/2023-11-14/building-portugal-virtually/82981 ↩

  12. "Home · BuildTheEarth/terraplusplus Wiki". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2022-03-13. Retrieved 2022-03-13. https://github.com/BuildTheEarth/terraplusplus ↩