Minecraft is all about customisation. Every world is designed to be torn down and rebuilt to your specifications. You can route through the menus and customise how worlds generate, you can install data packs to change the fundamental rules of Minecraft, or you can use mods to heap on loads of new content. But the one aspect of customisation that often goes understated is the player themselves.
Most people tend to take a ‘set it and forget it’ approach to their Minecraft skin, and it’s easy to see why. Minecraft is primarily a first-person game, so you only see your skin in the crafting menu, and even then it’ll likely be covered with armour most of the time. However, it’s such a simple and fun way to express yourself, especially when playing on a multiplayer server. Whether it’s an exciting design or based on existing media, we’ve collected the best skins across all platforms.
How to apply a Minecraft skin
If you’re playing on Java Edition:
Download your chosen skin to your PC.
Open the Minecraft launcher and select the ‘Skin’ tab.
Click the ‘New Skin’ button and select the downloaded file.
If you’re playing on Bedrock Edition or on consoles:
Select the ‘Marketplace’ on the main menu.
Browse the packs until you find one you like.
Buy and download the pack.
Select ‘Profile’ on the main menu.
Select ‘Edit Character’, browse your purchased skins, and apply the one you want.
Coral Collector’s Pack
Available on the marketplace, this pack is themed around the ocean. This was released in the wake of 1.13 Update Aquatic’s release to encourage you to get out there and explore those oceans. Even with Minecraft’s state in 2022, the oceans are still worth a dive, and you may as well do it in style. Whether you want to be one of two different divers, a Dolphin, a Turtle, or even the living embodiment of the ocean itself, you’re sure to look right at home with the colourful coral below the surface.
Zombie Girl
The default Minecraft zombie isn’t particularly interesting to look at. It’s the default ‘Steve’ skin with a green body and slightly torn-up clothes. What would be cool is if there were variants in the zombies, so they looked like zombified versions of lots of different skins. It’s unlikely we’re going to get that any time soon, but in the meantime why not join the hoard yourself? This skin features a zombified version of the typical cute ‘girly’ Minecraft skins. With nice long hair and a flower crown, there’s surely a very tragic backstory behind this one.
Master Chief
It’s fun to play Minecraft as one of your favourite characters from other games, a formula that was eventually reversed when Minecraft became popular enough to start appearing in games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Master Chief is one of the best choices for a Minecraft skin for a few reasons. Firstly, he is the mascot of Xbox and Microsoft’s games division, of which Minecraft is a part, secondly, from a design perspective, it’s very easy to transfer the design over. Master Chief’s suit is iconic but looks pretty simple, so you don’t lose much detail translating onto a Minecraft character.
Among Sus Pack
Try as you might to ignore them, some games will never truly die. Among Us may not be as popular as it was in mid-2020, but it’s still going strong. What’s more is because Among Us’ player base skews younger, there’s a lot of overlap with Minecraft fans. That’s why it’s no surprise that the creator of this pack, The Lucky Petals, has released five different variations on it, all stuffed to the brim with different-looking Among Us suits.
Shrek
If you want to settle down in a swamp, then play the part properly with the iconic ogre as your skin. There are plenty of variants on Shrek skins (including several we wish we could unsee) but only a few properly convey the look of Shrek in blocky form. The best versions use the outer layer of the head to create a double chin, giving his face the proper proportions, and then you can build your world while listening to Smash Mouth to your heart’s content.
Abigail
A galaxy-saving super soldier and murderous space suits are all well and good, but ultimately Minecraft is a peaceful game about doing mostly peaceful things. As such, a far better game to insert into it would be Stardew Valley, which recently sold over 20 million copies. This is where Abigail comes in as one of the residents of Pelican Town. The thing with this skin and Stardew Valley’s character art is that it isn’t too difficult for an artist to alter this skin, or any like it, to create a skin for their custom Stardew Valley character.
Dream
Along with other characters from pop culture, one of the most popular categories for Minecraft skins are Minecraft YouTubers. A huge portion of the fanbase first heard of the game through YouTube and it’s now the modest viewed game on the entire platform with over one trillion views. Dream has his fair share of controversy under his belt, but it’s hard to deny his status as one of, if not the most popular, Minecraft YouTuber right now so his skin is extremely popular despite its weird look.
Batman
It’s not just games that people like to make Minecraft skins for, and superheroes are some of the most popular skins based on movies. Their distinctive costumes and bright colours make them perfect for Minecraft’s style, and most costumes are identifiable even with minimal detail. The classic Batman look is the most popular superhero, but Wonder Woman, Deadpool, and Spider-Man are all great options, not to mention all the variations in costumes these heroes have had over the years.
Star Wars Classic Pack
An official pack made by the Minecraft team, for just $5 you can get a whopping 55 skins covering just about every character of note in the original Star Wars trilogy. As this pack is officially made, it doesn’t have to adhere to a lot of the restrictions fan-made skins do, meaning they can add additional parts, like the shape of Darth Vader’s helmet, or remove parts allowing for Yoda and R2D2 to have size-appropriate skins. On top of that, there’s a second pack containing all of the prequel characters.
Herobrine
Old memes die hard, as proven by the fact that ‘Removed Herobrine’ is still included in every major update for Minecraft. Herobrine originates from a creepypasta on Reddit back when the game was still in alpha. In 2010, a streamer called Copeland performed a hoax that sent the community into a mini-frenzy.
Lots of different stories were created surrounding Herobrine, with some saying it was the work of a scorned Mojang employee, others saying it was the spirit of Notch’s dead brother, and all sorts of absurd tales. It managed to lodge itself into the collective consciousness of the community forever, and even though it’s a very simple change to the default ‘Steve’ skin, there’s still a child-like thrill to seeing a Herobrine skin in-game.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.
