Spawn chunk

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This feature is exclusive to Java Edition.

Spawn chunks are chunks found around the world spawn point. They are always loaded, unlike normal chunks, which unload when no players are nearby.

Usage

Normally, old chunks beyond the player's chunk loading distance unload. This means the game stops processing those chunks and they are frozen in time. This prevents redstone mechanisms and farms in unloaded chunks from running in the background. Since spawn chunks remain loaded, events occurring in them continue to process, even if no players are nearby. If the world spawn is set to a laggy area using commands, such as an area with many redstone clocks, lag is present wherever the player is in the world.

Behavior

The "spawn chunks" behavior arises from a start ticket that is created for the world spawn chunk. This ticket has a level of 29 with the spawnChunkRadius game rule set to the default value of 2, which flows (i.e. "propagates") to neighboring chunks. Each time the level flows, it increases its level by 1 until the maximum of 44 is reached. This behavior is illustrated by the picture to the right.

Different levels of propagation have different behaviors. These levels are divided into 4 load types.

Load Type	Level	Properties
Entity Ticking	31 and below	In the spawn chunks, this consists of a 3×3 chunk area. All game aspects are active. Note that chunk ticks additionally require a player in range.
Ticking	32	The margin of the 5×5 area. All game aspects are active except that entities are not processed (do not move) and chunk ticks aren't either.
Border	33	The margin of the 7×7 area. Only some game aspects are active (redstone and command blocks do not work). Mobs still count towards the mob cap.
Inaccessible	34 and above	No game aspects are active, but world generation still occurs. Mobs no longer count towards the mob cap.

Limitations

There are some limitations which may affect the behavior of spawn chunks.

Idle timeout

Each dimension has its own "idle timeout." Without a player or forceloaded chunks in the overworld, this timeout eventually expires. When the timeout expires, some behaviors such as entity processing stop for spawn chunks and the rest of the dimension. The timeout can be reset by frequently sending entities through a portal.

Entities

Hostile mobs more than 128 blocks from a player despawn.
Passive mobs only spawn inside a 240×240 block area around the player.
Passive mobs present in the spawn chunks count toward the mob cap. This often prevents friendly mobs from naturally spawning elsewhere in the world.

Changing location

A new world spawn point can be set using /setworldspawn. If no coordinates are provided, the block position that the player is currently standing on becomes the spawn point. The chunk where the world spawn is located is then given a start ticket with a level of 22 and the ticket for the old spawn chunks is cleared.

History

This section is missing information about: when the concept of spawn chunks was introduced.

Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.

Java Edition Beta
1.8			Pre-release				Added spawn chunks.
Java Edition
1.20.5			24w03a				Added gamerule `spawnChunkRadius` to control the size of the spawn chunks.
1.20.5			24w03a				The default spawn chunk propagation is now 3×3 instead of 19×19.
Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
?	?	?	?	?	?	?	Added spawn chunks.

Issues

Issues relating to "Spawn chunk" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.