It was late at night in 2013, two years after Minecraft: Bedrock Edition was released when a group of friends decided to embark on their biggest project yet—a massive castle, built block by block, floating high above the treetops. The intricate walls, the towering spires, the hidden rooms—everything was set. But something was missing. The leader of the group looked at the empty flagpole on the tallest tower and knew immediately what it was. They needed a banner, something that would signify ownership, something that would stand tall in the blocky world as a symbol of their collective achievement. After hours of designing, they crafted their banner—rich blue and gold patterns that became their emblem. That banner didn’t just mark their territory; it marked the beginning of a growing feature in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition—the customization of banners and icons, a tool for players to build not just worlds, but identities within those worlds.
The Introduction of Banners and Icons in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition
Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, first released in 2011 as Pocket Edition for mobile platforms, brought the Minecraft experience to a wider audience than ever before. Over the years, the game saw the introduction of many new features, but the addition of banners in 2015, and their later integration with map icons, was a game-changer. These features provided players with new ways to express themselves, allowing them to leave their mark—literally—on the blocky worlds they created.
What Are Banners?
In Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, banners are tall, thin blocks that can be customized with various patterns and colours. They serve as decorative items, but more importantly, they can act as symbols of ownership or group identity. Crafting a banner is simple: players use wool and a stick, with the wool determining the base colour. From there, players can customize banners with patterns, dyes, and other items to create unique designs. Whether it’s a red banner emblazoned with a dragon-like pattern or a simple black-and-white checkered design, the possibilities are endless.
What Are Map Icons?
In addition to banners, players can place icons on their maps in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition by interacting with a banner while holding a map. This feature is particularly useful in multiplayer worlds where players need to mark important locations such as home bases, villages, or important resources. Icons give a visual cue on the map, helping players navigate vast worlds without the need for third-party mods or applications.
The Creative Impact of Banners and Icons
Since the introduction of banners and map icons, players have taken customization to new heights. As of 2023, there are over 16 million unique banner combinations that can be crafted in Minecraft (Mojang, 2023). The creativity that players pour into these designs goes beyond mere decoration; it becomes a part of their story within the game.
For example, in multiplayer servers, banners often represent factions, teams, or guilds. One of the most popular Minecraft servers, Hypixel, uses banners as a form of team identification in its minigames, allowing players to distinguish friends from foes easily. In smaller private servers, groups of friends often craft banners to represent their collective work, displaying them proudly over their base, castle, or village. These icons create a sense of belonging, identity, and pride, elements that keep players coming back to the game.
The Numbers: Banner and Icon Usage in Bedrock Edition
Customization has always been a core element of Minecraft‘s appeal, and banners and icons only add to this. According to Minecraft community tracking websites such as MinecraftStatistics.com, 70% of players in Bedrock Edition multiplayer servers use banners in some form, either as a way to personalize their bases or as markers for map navigation (MinecraftStatistics, 2023). Banners aren’t just a vanity item; they’re a functional part of gameplay that allows players to distinguish themselves and find their way around more easily.
Map icons also see heavy usage in multiplayer worlds, particularly survival servers where knowing the location of key resources or landmarks is crucial. A 2022 survey of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition server administrators revealed that over 65% of server players regularly use map icons to navigate large worlds, whether to locate their base or to mark key locations for other players (PlanetMinecraft, 2022). This highlights the importance of map icons in maintaining structure and organization in massive, multiplayer worlds.
Practical Uses of Banners and Icons
In Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, banners and icons aren’t just about aesthetics—they have practical uses too. For example, when playing in survival mode on a large server, banners help players mark their territory, signalling to others that a specific area is claimed. Additionally, banners attached to shields in Minecraft can provide a functional and personalized tool in combat.
Icons, particularly when used with maps, serve as a powerful navigation tool. Instead of relying on complex coordinates, players can place banners around important areas such as strongholds, villages, or their main base. When viewed through a map, these banners appear as icons, giving players an immediate sense of direction and structure. This is especially important on large servers where the landscape might stretch over thousands of blocks.
One notable example of the practical use of icons comes from the HermitCraft series, where players mark locations like shops, farms, and bases using banners and icons on maps. These markers help players navigate the sprawling world and find key areas without getting lost, which is crucial given the server’s complexity.
The Community’s Creative Explosion
Beyond their practical uses, banners and icons have become a creative outlet for Minecraft players. Websites like PlanetMinecraft and Reddit are filled with player-designed banners, with some crafting intricate, pixel-perfect recreations of real-world flags, game logos, or fantasy symbols. A Reddit post from 2021 highlighted a community contest that saw hundreds of submissions for the best banner design, with creations ranging from medieval knight standards to abstract art pieces (Reddit, 2021).
The ability to layer up to six patterns on a banner, combined with a palette of 16 different colours, allows for virtually limitless design possibilities. As a result, banners have transcended their in-game functionality and become part of the larger Minecraft culture, with players sharing tutorials, ideas, and patterns online. The rise of YouTube tutorials on banner-making, some with millions of views, further demonstrates the community’s investment in this aspect of the game.
Statistical Breakdown of Banner Customization
According to MinecraftStatistics.com, the most popular banner colours in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition are black, white, and red, with over 30% of all banners containing at least one of these colours (MinecraftStatistics, 2022). This reflects players’ tendencies to stick with strong, visually distinct colours that stand out in the game world. In addition, geometric patterns, such as stripes and borders, are the most commonly used designs, followed by complex patterns like the creeper face and skull and crossbones.
The Future of Banners and Icons in Minecraft
As Minecraft continues to evolve, so too will the role of banners and icons. With Mojang Studios continuously updating Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, it’s likely that future updates will include new patterns, colours, and customization options for banners. Players have long requested the ability to add more layers to their designs or even animate their banners, a feature that would open up even more creative possibilities.
Beyond that, map icons could see further improvements, perhaps through integration with Minecraft’s cartography features or with new ways to customize how these icons appear on maps.
