Should You Start a MCPE Realm?

Making a MCPE Realm can be one of the most fun and adventurous ways to make Minecraft a completely new game. However, realms require many resources and commitment that can take up a significant amount of time. There are many benefits and costs of owning a realm and in this post we hope to help you decide whether starting a MCPE realm is for you or not.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF REALMS?

Realms have many advantages and features that make it totally worth the cost! For starters, it is a 24/7 server that is online at all times. You don't need to worry about hosting or finding domains because realms will take care of that for you. Compared to making a server, making a realm is much easier and requires significantly less money. Realms also have a built-in admin panel where you are able to monitor all realm members and set certain permissions and roles to the players. Realms also automatically make backups of the world every couple hours. This is to ensure that certain activity can be undone. Realms in general are super fun when an active community is on it. It is a perfect place for friends to relax and just enjoy the game.

THE PROBLEMS OF REALMS?

Realms are awesome but they do have their own problems. For starters, realms cost $8 a month just to run. That means running a single realm would cost almost $100 a year to run. This can be extremely costly for some so make sure you have the money before committing to realms. Another problem with realms is the strict player limits. Only 10 people can play on a realm at a time. This is no problem for those who have small friend groups and don't plan to invite more than 10 people. However, realms with over 10 players can never play at once. At the moment, there is no way to increase the player capacity for realms. In order to play with a large amount of players we recommend making a server instead. Realms can be very buggy. At times the admin panel is not responsive or will just take an extremely long time to load. These bugs can be extremely inconvenient and take up a lot of time. Realms will continue to get updates so it seems these bugs will likely be fixed. 

WHO SHOULD GET A REALM:

Realms should mainly be created by those who have a small friend group looking to collaborate on a single Minecraft world. It is also ideal that realms are only open to trusted people who won't cause harm to the realm or even hack it. Realms can be public but will require a bit more effort. If you plan on making a realm public we strongly suggest investing in an anti-cheat system to prevent hackers from joining the realm. 

REALMS VS SERVERS:

Realms are often compared with Minecraft servers and for good reason. Both provide a way for players to join a single world together. We recommend going for a server over a realm under the condition you have the money to pay for hosting, domains, etc and you plan to have a large number of players to join. Servers usually have minigames such as skywars or bedwars which can be very complex to develop. Servers are more intricate but are much bigger commitment. Servers can be profitable businesses through selling ranks and crates.

REALM SUPPORT:

Microsoft makes every effort to provide support to all realm owners. For any questions or comments you have about realms, you are able to contact Microsoft and directly ask them. 

I have owned realms for around 4 years and in those 4 years I have had a love hate relationship with realms. I have had the most fun playing a game on realms but realms have also bought a significant amount of frustration. In general, realms are far more positive than negative and over the years realm support has been improving and improving. I would give realms a solid 8/10. I highly recommend you invest in a realm!