My experience: My son is five and a very big fan. He doesn’t really grasp the mechanics, but he enjoys the exploration. We started off on peaceful mode for the first dozen sessions or so, just until he got the hang of it. The. I built a house with a balcony so he can watch me fight monsters, a favorite activity of his.

We’ve been playing for about a month, just an hour or so before bed. He’s starting to get interested in crafting. He loves to smelt, so I built him a dedicated space to grab ore and store the bars.

We play whatever he wants, so sometimes we’re playing Mario Kart or the like. But more often than not, he comes back to Minecraft.