There is a Minecraft world that is older than Minecraft multiplayer. It was generated on April 13, 2010, in the Infdev builds, as one player's single-player survival world. On August 4, 2010, at 10:12:39 in the morning, Pacific time, the day survival multiplayer was released, that world went online as a server. It has run since, without a full-map reset, which makes Novylen's map "the oldest continuously used multiplayer survival map still available for exploration and play today," in the words of its own FAQ.
A single-player world, made public
The detail that makes Novylen different from the other 2010 survivors is the origin. MinecraftOnline's Freedonia was generated the day SMP launched. Novylen's world already had four months of one player's history in it, rbos's Infdev world, when the server software arrived and it became everyone's. The terrain around the oldest builds is Infdev terrain, generated by an algorithm that no longer exists in the game, which you can still walk across.
What it's like now
Quiet. Novylen was, as one hosting company's history of old servers put it, "small and relatively unknown until recent years," and it is still a server where a handful of people are online, all of whom know each other. The upside is that it plays like a private world with a public door: current Minecraft version, plain survival, a wiki maintained by regulars, and fifteen years of ruins and tunnels to find. Nobody will bother your build, and nobody will rush you.
The map has never been fully reset. Newer regions generate with modern terrain; the old core is Infdev.
No custom items, no economy plugins to learn. The interest is the history and the company.
Twenty slots. If you want a crowd, this isn't it; if you want to be the newest resident of the oldest map, it is.
Live status from our pinger:
Live from our pinger · checked 7 min ago
Joining
Add mc.novylen.net on the current Java version. Say hello in chat; on a server this size, people answer. Then walk back toward the old spawn and look at the terrain. It doesn't look like that anywhere else.
For the other 2010 map that never reset, read MinecraftOnline. For Reddit's server from the same year, Nerd.nu. Our small servers guide is for anyone who prefers this size.
Quick answers
What is the Novylen IP?
mc.novylen.net, on the current Java version.
Is Novylen the oldest Minecraft server?
Its map is the oldest: generated in Infdev in April 2010. MinecraftOnline holds the Guinness record for the oldest never-reset server; both went online the same day.
Is Novylen free?
Yes. No ranks, no store.
How many players are on?
A handful. It's a small community by design, with twenty slots.
Sources
- Novylen wiki: FAQ (map origin and launch time)
- Minecraft Forum: Novylen, public survival, no map resets
- Bisect Hosting: What is the oldest active Minecraft server?
Player counts, votes and uptime on this page are live from our own checks. Everything else comes from the sources above. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
