Game Tick in Minecraft

This Minecraft tutorial explains all about game ticks in Minecraft. Let's take a closer look.

What is a Game Tick?

Minecraft advances all gameplay based on a unit of time called a game tick. There are 20 game ticks in a second which means that 1 game tick occurs every 0.05 seconds in real life.

20 game ticks = 1 second

When you are waiting for the time of day to change, fireworks rockets to explode, monster spawners to spawn the next round of mobs, a chicken to lay an egg, or baby animals to become adults, these advancements all occur in a certain number of game ticks.

How Long is an In-Game Day?

One full day in Minecraft takes 20 minutes which is 24000 game ticks (calculated as 20 mins x 60 sec/min x 20 ticks/sec).

When you first start a Minecraft world, the age of the world will start at 0 game ticks. As the number of game ticks increases, the time of day changes. For example:

Day 1

Game Ticks Description
0 Start of Day 1
1000 Day
6000 Noon
12000 Sunset
13000 Night
18000 Midnight
23000 Sunrise
23999 End of Day 1

Day 2

Game Ticks Description
24000 Start of Day 2
25000 Day
30000 Noon
36000 Sunset
37000 Night
42000 Midnight
47000 Sunrise
47999 End of Day 2

Day 3

Game Ticks Description
48000 Start of Day 3
49000 Day
54000 Noon
60000 Sunset
61000 Night
66000 Midnight
71000 Sunrise
71999 End of Day 3

And so on...

Congratulations, you just learned about game ticks in Minecraft.

Commands that Use Game Ticks