I Rank Every Update From 1.4 to 1.16 WORST to BEST

 The updates are ranked by how much I personally liked the features, found them useful, found them new, fresh, not entirely useless, and updates I overall felt benefited the game and breathed life into it.

And of course, this is only my opinion.

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13 - Buzzy Bees (1.15)

The update that was so unexpected, it became a meme. This update was primarily a bug-fix update, yet still managed to fix less bugs than the average update. Due to this being a "primary bug-fix" update, it was incredibly low on new features, adding bees and honey. Bees are useless, and honey is useless (unless you do redstone). But what absolutely cements this at bottom place (by a long shot) is the EIGHT MONTHS this update took! Seriously! Eight months for less bug fixes than most updates and... bees?!

12 - The Frostburn Update (1.10)

This very small update really didn't have a whole lot going for it. I guess magma blocks were kinda cool? The "main feature" of this update was an unnecessary mob that has a low spawn rate and to this day, its AI is kinda broken. But hey, this update only took 3 months!

11 - The World of Color Update (1.12)

This update had some pretty good things in, but I feel the actual colour thing was severely limited by the block ID limit. This really should've come after the removal of block ID limits because I feel it was such a crutch for this update. They didn't even expand from the 16 colours that we've had since almost the dawn of Minecraft.

10 - The Redstone Update (1.5)

I'm really not a redstoner and never have been, so there really wasn't much for me in this update. I know, this update was amazing to some, but not to me personally. But I did absolutely love the Nether Quartz, it is an amazing building block, and an ore in the Nether!

9 - The Horse Update (1.6)

Well, this update certainly gets the prize for the worst named update. Though quite a small and very focused-on-one-feature update, horses have been a staple of my Minecraft experience since 2013. So yeah I have to give this update quite a bit of credit. I know a lot of people were disappointed with this update, but really, this update gave quite a lot of staple features - name tags, terracotta, hay bales, regional difficulty... so I really can't knock this one too hard.

8 - The Bountiful Update (1.8)

The only update since 1.4 I don't consider to have a theme. This update had a bit of everything. Of course, the Ocean Monument was easily my favourite feature of this update. This was also the update where TheMogMiner was active, and he really listened to what the fans wanted in the game. Mojang are a lot better at this nowadays, but back in 2014, not so much. The only trouble is, this update did take a very long time to come out for what it was. The development seemed to hit a lull for most of the first half of 2014.

7 - The Combat Update (1.9)

All the problems I had with the time taken for the Bountiful Update, only double the time. This update took a YEAR AND A HALF to come out, and almost a year to even get a snapshot. Shields have also become a staple since their release, as have Elytra. But this update is higher up on this list because of all the changes to the End primarily. To be honest, I think of this more as the End update than the Combat update.

That being said, I do feel this update gets way too much hate. I seem to be one of the only ones who doesn't object to the combat mechaics, as it has definitely made fights more strategic and interesting than the days of spam-clicking.

6 - The Exploration Update (1.11)

This would be even higher on the list, but I feel lots of the stuff in this update is rather endgame and takes a while for a casual survival Minecraft player to access. I still don't think I've ever actually tried to seek out a Woodland Mansion. But yeah the Woodland Mansions are really fun once you do find them, and they are the main feature of the update. Also, this update introduced illagers, one of the most interesting and best concepts in Minecraft in my opinion (and even inspired the main enemies in Dungeons!). It also added some very useful items such as the Totem of Undying and Shulker Boxes!

5 - Village and Pillage (1.14)

When the theme of the update was first announced at Minecon 2018, I was very disappointed. Caves need an update, the Nether needs an update, but they're choosing.... villages!? That being said, this update actually turned out to be a pretty big success in my opinion. Lots of interesting new mobs, a complete overhaul of villages, loads of new blocks, it really did change gameplay quite a lot. Villages actually seemed like a rather small part of the update, all things considered! Perhaps my only gripe with this whole enormous update is the fact it made totems a little too easy to get/farm. Overall, this was a massive and highly successful update.

4 - The Pretty Scary Update (1.4)

The first update I ever saw, this update was somewhat of a revolutionary one. This started the trend of themed updates, as well as adding a new boss and command blocks. For that latter reason alone, I have to put this update high up. And for an update that took less than 3 months to develop, it was a pretty large one. Even if it was rather rushed and very buggy upon release. Minecraft needs more updates like this.

3 - The Nether Update (1.16)

This is an update I had been waiting on for YEARS, and it did not disappoint! I'd always found the Nether... half-baked. Like it was missing so much potential. This update came roaring in with new biomes, blocks and minerals, and made the Nether a fun place to explore again. Epic bastions, a mineral stronger than diamond(!!!), some of the most amazing new biomes I have ever seen in this game (the Basalt Deltas has to be THE most amazing-looking biome ever added in my opinion!) this update nailed pretty much everything! Except mobs. There were some cool new mobs, but I feel there should have been maybe 1 or 2 non-pig mobs (the Hoglin is uninspired!). But everything else, absolutely on point!

2 - The Update That Changed the World (1.7)

I adored this update. Coming in late 2013 when I'd been playing for over a year, I'd longsince done everything and seen everything, and the game was really losing its sense of adventure. They even added horses in the previous update, but I had no desire to explore, because the terrain was just so... boring. It was around this time I really started to avidly follow the snapshots, because I was absolutely blown away by this update. I was actually counting down the days till the next snapshot! But the first snapshot, 13w36a, will always be my favourite snapshot of all time.

Even if the Mesas were completely glitched out with pretty hilarious results.

.....and of course......... I know this is super duper predictable but.......

1 - The Update Aquatic/Technically Updated (1.13)

I mean come on, how could it not be? Free from the shackles of many of the production limitations thanks to "Technically Updated", they were able to provide us with this bumper update that didn't just add new content to the Oceans after seven years of being awful, but REVOLUTIONISED the oceans. Basically almost turning them into their own dimension! This update breathed so much life back into the game, and finally brought life to what, for seven years, had been one of the most lacking parts of the game. The oceans have transformed from merely a travel obstacle to somewhere where I REALLY want to go and explore, because there's just so much to see down there now! This update definitely was overdue, but I'm glad they left it this long, because they're now able to do bigger and better updates than ever before, and finally give the oceans all the love they deserved for so long!

And those are my ranks! Do you majorly disagree on any of them? How would you rank them?