The game received its final update in January 2021 and officially shut down on 30 June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Players could gather resources by collecting "tappables" in the in-game map and by completing "adventures" which may be a puzzle, a specific task, or a virtual location with hostile entities to defeat.

Minecraft Earth considers physical objects such as trees and lakes so there are fewer incidents and interferences with the AR simulation.

[15] A closed beta was first released for iOS on 16 July 2019 in Seattle and London,[16] then in Stockholm, Tokyo, and Mexico City over the next two days.

[18] Minecraft Earth was first released in early access in Iceland and New Zealand on 17 October 2019,[19] and slowly rolled out in other countries in the following weeks, such as the United States in November.

[21][8] On 5 January 2021, developer Mojang Studios announced that they were releasing the final build of Minecraft Earth, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a factor.

Many of the game's previously exclusive mobs were featured as pets in the Fauna Faire Adventure Pass for Minecraft Dungeons on 19 October 2022.