{"id":163673,"date":"2021-02-24T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T08:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=163673"},"modified":"2025-07-01T21:12:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T04:12:36","slug":"how-to-play-minecraft-with-friends-in-4-easy-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-play-minecraft-with-friends-in-4-easy-steps\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Play Minecraft With Friends in 4 Easy Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It\u2019s almost impossible to exist in the world today and not have heard of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/minecraft.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Minecraft<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This game has such a massive following and, whether you love it or hate it, you\u2019ll have some knowledge of this pixelated paradise where the only limits are the ones you\u2019ve created in your imagination.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>However, do you know <strong>how to play Minecraft with friends<\/strong>? We\\ll show you in these quick steps.<\/p>\n<h2>How to play Minecraft with friends<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As with all things in life, Minecraft is best experienced with friends. There are a few ways to team up with others in this game, but only one of these methods is free, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ll be covering in this guide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are two ways to play the game online with your friends, but you should note that both methods require a monthly subscription. You can hire a server from a third-party website, such as Apex Hosting, and fully customize your server to any Minecraft version, or you can use the Realm system built into the game.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Ol\u2019 Reliable: The LAN Method<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is the only free method to play Minecraft with others, but it requires that all of you are operating off the same network.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Step 1: Load your world<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Start up your game, select Singleplayer, and load into your world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-163676\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/image\/upload\/v1614024930\/unnamed_2_iiegmq.png\" width=\"512\" height=\"185\"><\/p>\n<h3><b>Step 2: Open to LAN<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once you\u2019ve loaded in, hit Esc and select Open to LAN. In older versions of the game, this option can be found under Options. Then choose your desired settings and click on Start LAN World.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-163677\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/image\/upload\/v1614024931\/unnamed_3_kiajgf.png\" width=\"512\" height=\"317\"><\/p>\n<h3><b>Step 3:&nbsp; Select multiplayer<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now the friend who wants to join your game will need to start their game and select Multiplayer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-163678\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/image\/upload\/v1614024935\/unnamed_4_vxyvsv.png\" width=\"512\" height=\"195\"><\/p>\n<h3><b>Step 4: Scan for local servers<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This will open up a menu that will scan for Local servers. Your friend will need to select the game that you started earlier and click on Join Server. From there, you\u2019ll be able to play the game together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-163679\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/image\/upload\/v1614024936\/unnamed_5_gckyhq.png\" width=\"512\" height=\"361\"><\/p>\n<h2><b>Oh the nostalgia!<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most gamers will remember how the concept of multiplayer started; you\u2019d haul your PC and all of its peripherals and screen over to your friend\u2019s house for a LAN weekend. This sacred retreat would be filled with junk food, sleeping bags, late nights, and you\u2019d all arrive back home on Sunday feeling as if you needed a weekend to recover from your weekend. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Minecraft brings some of this nostalgia back with their free co-op method of playing the game, but, as we previously said, you could always rent a server if you value sleeping in your own bed.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s almost impossible to exist in the world today and not have heard of Minecraft. This game has such a massive following and, whether you love it or hate it, you\u2019ll have some knowledge of this pixelated paradise where the only limits are the ones you\u2019ve created in your imagination. However, do you know how &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-play-minecraft-with-friends-in-4-easy-steps\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How to Play Minecraft With Friends in 4 Easy Steps&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9205,"featured_media":181607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":1},"categories":[2441],"tags":[2328],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-163673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionminecraft"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325035,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163673\/revisions\/325035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163673"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=163673"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=163673"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=163673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}