Incessant gamer reaches fabled edge of Minecraft map after more than 14 years — has been walking towards mythical 'Far Lands' at the edge of the map since 2011, covering 12,500km in-game

Minecraft offers one of the largest worlds in any game, but it still has its limits. Earlier versions of the title top out at around 12.5 million blocks, after which the game glitches out, with a jagged, vertical wall, called ‘Far Lands’, appearing on the edge of the map. YouTuber and Twitch streamer kurtjmac decided to reach this mythical land on foot — no teleportation, cheats, or mods — which took over 14 years to finish.

Kurtjmac started this in 2011 on Minecraft Beta 1.7.3, the last version of the game to carry the bug. While at it, he livestreamed the journey while also running fundraisers on behalf of various charities. He could’ve used other means to quickly reach the end of the map; he instead decided to savor the journey, documenting every step of the way on Twitch and YouTube in a series called ‘Far Lands or Bust’, or FLoB.

He finally reached the end of his Minecraft world 5 hours and 34 minutes into his last stream, which is Day 69 of his FLoB-a-Thon Season 12. At the very end, he sees the weird vertical formation expected of the Far Lands, after nearly 14 years of walking.

“We may not be the first people to have reached the Far Lands. But in my book, we are absolutely the first to have brought along an amazing community, a generous community, and I would not have changed any of it or gotten here any sooner,” kurtjmac told his viewers. “And I very much appreciate all of you being here.”

Each Minecraft block measures 1 x 1 x 1 meter, or around 3.2 x 3.2 x 3.2 feet. That means he travelled nearly 12,500 kilometers or over 7,767 miles in over 14 years. This is approximately the distance between New York City and Cape Town in South Africa.

Given that there are 8,760 hours in a year, that means his average walking pace in the game is a little over 100 meters per hour. This might be pretty slow, but our streamer, of course, had to live his life outside of Minecraft, and he also played other maps and games. Nevertheless, this achievement, no matter how long it took, shows that it’s the journey, not the destination, that matters the most.

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