Spawn limit

To prevent the game from lagging or running out of usable memory in Legacy Console Edition and in New Nintendo 3DS Edition, most entities have a maximum number of how many can exist in a world. If the player attempts to spawn another mob when the maximum number has been reached, a chat message will appear, explaining that the limit has been reached. Only entities which are in loaded chunks are counted.

In Legacy Console Edition

Spawn limits are the same for all Legacy Console Editions.

Values

Category	Maximum amount
Animals	90
Wolves	26
Fish/squids	38
Chickens	26
Mooshrooms	30
Bats	28
Dolphins	18
Iron golems	16
Snow golems	16
Villagers	50
Enemies	70
Phantoms	5
Armor stands	16
Boats	40
Minecarts	250
Ender dragon/wither	5
Paintings/item frames	400
End crystals	64
Banners	400
Beacons	900
Falling blocks	20
Primed TNT	20
Experience orbs	50

Breedable mobs also have a breeding limit, which is lower.

Breeding limits

Category	Maximum
Animals	70
Chicken	16
Wolves	16
Mooshrooms	22
Villagers	35

Behavior

Spawn eggs and fish buckets cannot be used if the limit for the corresponding mob has been reached. Players are unable to breed animals for which the breeding limit has been reached but may still be able to spawn them using spawn eggs if the spawn limit is not reached yet. Thrown eggs are unable to spawn more chickens if the breeding limit is reached. Mooshrooms cannot be sheared if the breeding limit for animals has been reached. Villagers are unable to turn into a zombie villager if the spawn limit for enemies has been reached and will die regardless of difficulty. When experience orbs are spawned while its limit has been reached, the oldest experience orbs will vanish. If TNT is ignited while the limit for primed TNT has been reached, the TNT will vanish. If the limit for falling blocks has been reached, gravity affected blocks will not fall until the amount of falling blocks decreases. Paintings and item frames also have a rendering cap of 100 on the screen, which is divided when using split screen. Attempting to build a wither, snow golem or iron golem while the limit has been reached, causes the blocks to drop as items. Wandering trader spawn eggs do not spawn the trader llamas if the limit for animals is reached. Spawn limits also limit the amount of entities that can go through portals before the chunks on the other side are loaded. This counter is however not saved upon reloading the world. Monster spawners play a sound when failing to spawn mobs due to spawn limits. Monster eggs do not spawn silverfish when mined while the spawn limit for enemies is reached. Withers may spawn less than 3 wither skeletons when reaching half health when the enemy spawn limit is almost reached.

Bypassing

Spawn limits may be bypassed by having entities in unloaded chunks. Spawn limit for villagers can be bypassed by curing zombie villagers. By spawning 5 withers in the End while the ender dragon is not alive it is possible to have 6 boss mobs after respawning the ender dragon. Slimes and magma cubes can still split into smaller ones when killed even if the spawn limit has been reached. Triggering a skeleton horse trap bypasses the limit. Pigs and villagers may be struck by a lightning and turn into zombie pigmen or witches even if the spawn limit for enemies has been reached. Evokers can spawn vexes even when the spawn limit for enemies is reached, bypassing the limit. Additionally, zombies and its variants can bypass the limit by spawning reinforcements. Dragon eggs still fall even if the limit for falling blocks has been reached (but are counted to the limit when falling), meaning that an infinite amount of dragon eggs can fall at once. Ocelot spawn eggs used when there are 88 or 89 animals still have a chance to spawn 2 additional baby ocelots, bypassing the limit. Ender pearls may still spawn endermites when the enemy spawn limit is reached. Zombie sieges are still able to spawn when the enemy spawn limit is reached.

In New Nintendo 3DS Edition

Due to the more limited nature of the New Nintendo 3DS hardware, spawn limits are much stricter than Legacy Console Edition and span fewer categories.

Values

Category	Maximum amount
Animals	24
Squids	16
Villagers	16
Enemies	24

History

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
?	?	?	?	?	?	?	Added spawn limits.
TU7	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added animal breeding with its limits.
							Added snow golems, which have a spawn limit of 8.
TU9							Added spawn eggs with chat messages when reaching the spawn limits.
TU10							Reaching the maximum number of item frames/paintings in a world now prevents the player from placing more of them instead of removing existing ones.
TU11							A chat message is now displayed when trying to spawn a mob for which the spawn limit has been reached.
							A chat message is now displayed when trying to breed animals for which the breeding limit has been reached.
							A chat message is now displayed when the maximum amount of item frame or paintings has been reached.
							Mooshrooms can no longer be sheared if the spawn limit for animals is reached.
							Increased the limit for paintings/item frames, villagers and snow golems in a world.​
							The message for attempting to spawn something when the spawn limit is reached now only shows up for the player attempting to spawn something.
TU12							The maximum number of boats in a world has been increased from 20 to 40.
							Added iron golems, which have a new spawn limit category.
							Added zombie sieges, which can bypass the enemy spawn limit.
TU13							A limit to the number of villagers spawned by breeding has been added.
TU19	CU7	1.12	1.12	1.12			Added withers, which have a spawn limit of 1.
							With the addition of the ability for zombies to spawn reinforcements, there is another way to bypass the spawn limit.
							Added a maximum number of beacons in a world.
TU21	CU9	1.14	1.14	1.14			Increased minecart limit.​
TU31	CU19	1.22	1.22	1.22	Patch 3		Increased spawn limits.​
							Added armor stands, which have a spawn limit.
							Ender pearls can now spawn endermites, which can bypass the enemy limit.
TU34	CU22	1.25	1.25	1.25	Patch 4		Mooshrooms now have seperate spawn limits.
TU41	CU30	1.33	1.33	1.33	Patch 11		Only up to 100 item frames and paintings can now be rendered on the screen at once.
TU43	CU33	1.36	1.36	1.36	Patch 13		Added a maximum number of banners in a world.
TU46	CU36	1.38	1.38	1.38	Patch 15		Added end crystals, which have a new spawn limit category.
TU48	CU38	1.41	1.41	1.41	Patch 17		Added a particle effect and sound effect when a monster spawner fails to spawn due to spawn limits.
TU54	CU44	1.52	1.52	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	The spawn limit for withers/ender dragons has been increased from 1 to 5.
							The spawn limit of squids has been increased from 10 to 38.
							Added evokers, which can bypass the limit by spawning vexes.
TU60	CU51	1.64	1.64	1.64	Patch 30	1.0.11	Changed the wither to spawn 3 wither skeletons when reaching half health on normal or hard difficulty and made sure that this never bypasses the enemy spawn limit..
TU63	CU53	1.67	1.67	1.67	Patch 32	1.0.13	A chat message is now displayed when the maximum number of end crystals has been reached.
TU69		1.76	1.76	1.76	Patch 38		Added dolphins, which have a seperate spawn limit from other animals.
							Added phantoms, which have a seperate spawn limit from other enemies.
							Squids and fish now share the same spawn limit category.
							The message for attempting to spawn something when the spawn limit is reached now shows up for all players again.
							Added fish buckets, which cannot be used if the limit for fish and squid mobs is reached.
			1.91				Added wandering traders, which do not spawn their llamas when spawned from their spawn egg, while the limit for animals is reached.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added spawn limits.