Mob Vote (Minecraft)

Overview

Mob Vote is an annual online election where Minecraft players vote between several new potential mobs, with the winning mob being added to the game. The first Mob Vote happened in 2017 and the second happened in 2020, becoming an annual event in the years following. Historically, in the days leading up to the vote itself, the Minecraft community campaigns for their respective choices in the election through memes, fan art and content supporting their desired mob.

History

Mob Vote 2017

The first Mob Vote was announced on Twitter^[1] on November 1st, 2017 and took place on November 18th of that year during the MINECON Earth live stream. The potential new mobs were: the Barnacle, the Phantom, The Great Hunger and The Wildfire. The mobs were each showcased in a video promoting the vote (shown below). The Phantom won the vote and was added to the game during the July 18, 2018 update.^[2]

Mob Vote 2020

The second Mob Vote took place on October 3rd, 2020 during the Minecraft Live stream. On October 1st, each of the three new potential mobs were detailed in a video posted to YouTube (shown below). The mob choices were: Moobloom, Glow Squid and Iceologer. The Glow Squid ended up winning the vote with 52.7% of the final votes.^[3]

On the day of the 2020 Mob Vote, Dream tweeted his support for the Glow Squid, asking his followers to vote for it. This inspired some controversy, particularly after the Glow Squid won, with some, especially Moobloom supporters, thinking Dream swayed the vote unfairly due to his large following.

Mob Vote 2021

The third Mob Vote took place on November 16th, 2021 during the Minecraft Live 2021 live stream. The mobs up for vote were: the Glare, the Allay and the Copper Golem. The Allay won the vote with over 54% of the total votes in the final round.^[4]

Mob Vote 2022

Voting for Mob Vote 2022 starts on October 14th, 2022 at 12:00 EDT and runs for 24 hours. 2022s Minecraft Live event takes place on October 15th. On October 3rd, 2022, Minecraft.net^[5] published an article detailing the first new mob up for election during Mob Vote 2022, the Sniffer, a mob that can find ancient seeds that players can grow into new, unique plants. On October 4th, they published an article^[6] detailing the second new potential mob, Rascal, a creature that when found three times underground awards players a prize. On October 5th they published an article^[7] on the third potential mob, Tuff Golem, a moving statue that can hold a given item and collects items off the ground. On October 7th, the Minecraft YouTube channel posted a video briefly detailing each mob, garnering over 4.4 million views in four days (shown below).

Memes and fan art about the mobs up for election became increasingly prevalent online in the days leading up to Mob Vote 2022. The Sniffer seemed to take the most interest out of the mobs, inspiring significant amounts of fan art and memes in support of it. On October 6th, Twitter^[8] user @Its_Aiq posted artwork of the Sniffer, writing, "For all the times you've done wrong in the mob vote you can now do right. Choose the fucking sniffer," garnering over 1,400 likes in five days (shown below, left). On October 8th, Instagram^[9] user nikofergi posted similar fan art asking people to vote for Sniffer, garnering over 35,000 likes in three days (shown below, right).

On that day, Instagram^[10] user minecraftbuildgallery made a post detailing each of the mobs up for vote, explaining what they do and asking commenters to write their choice, garnering over 6,800 likes in three days (shown below, left to right).

The Tuff Golem and Rascal also gained support, however, posts about them were, on average, not as enthusiastically supported as posts promoting voting for the Sniffer (examples shown below).

The Sniffer won the mob vote.

Mob Vote 2023

On October 3rd, 2023, prior to the official reveal of the mob vote options, Redditor u/Quilavapro31 posted a screenshot to /r/PhoenixSC^[11] of what appears to be three private videos on the Minecraft YouTube channel revealing the upcoming 2023 mob vote options, alleging them to be the seagull, jellyfish and crab, garnering over 2,300 upvotes in three days. The alleged leak was posted by X^[12] user @0microngaming that day, garnering over 56,000 likes in three days (shown below). The crab mob was officially announced as part of the mob vote later that day, although the other two mob vote options were not the seagull or jellyfish, proving the leak to be false.

Between October 3rd and 5th, the @Minecraft X^[13][14][15] account announced the three mobs in competition for the mob vote: the crab, armadillo and penguin. Each potential mob was also given a page on the Minecraft website,^[16][17][18] explaining how the penguin can help boats travel faster, the crab's claw allows players to place blocks from further away and the armadillo provides armor for a player's wolf. The mob vote is set to take place on October 13th, 2023. Additionally, three videos were uploaded to the Minecraft YouTube page announcing each mob (shown below).

2023 Mob Vote Revolution

The 2023 Minecraft Mob Vote Revolution or End the Mob Vote refers to a campaign and series of memes, largely videos on TikTok, calling for an end to the Minecraft mob vote. The revolt was popularized on TikTok in October 2023 shortly after the 2023 mob vote was announced, with members of the revolution wanting Mojang to simply add all the mobs to the game rather than make players choose only one, failing to understand why they can't add all the mobs, or the losing mobs at a later date rather than forever shelve them, resulting in parody revolution posters calling for the end of the event. A Change.org petition calling for an end to the mob vote was also shared that month, gaining over 175,000 signatures in three days. Videos participating in the revolution are often set to the song "Feed the Machine" by Poor Man's Poison.

2023 Mob Vote Winner

On October 15th, 2023, the armadillo was announced as the winner of the 2023 Mob Vote.^[19]

Online Presence

Every year during Mob Vote, Minecraft players campaign for the mob they want to win through memes, fan art and content supporting the mob of their choice.

Search Interest

External References