🚀 Hytale Early Access Launch – Finally Here

Hytale Is Coming Today!

Hytale is one of those projects that simply refused to disappear. Announced with a viral trailer in 2018, bought by Riot Games, cancelled, then revived by its original founders, it’s now finally heading into players’ hands! In short: “Hytale is saved!” That is what we’ve been celebrating for the last few weeks. It’s been a long way but here we are. In November, there has been an official statement about the Hytale release date:

➔ Hytale enters early access today, January 13, 2026 for Windows PC!

Pre-purchase started December 13, 2025 and since then, players have been eagerly awaiting today. Early access here is meant literally: the developers describe this build as unfinished, rough and still in active construction. It’s an invitation to take part in the project early, not a disguised ‘almost 1.0’ release. So, brace yourself, because as Simon Collins-Laflamme, the founder of Hypixel, said: “The first impression will be rough, but the path ahead matters more.

What Exactly Is Hytale?

Hytale is a sandbox RPG in a fully block-based world, developed and published by Hypixel Studios, the team behind the Hypixel Minecraft server. You explore a fantasy world, gather resources, build bases, fight enemies, delve into dungeons and, if you prefer the quieter side of things, farm, cook and build villages.

Compared to vanilla Minecraft, Hytale leans more toward a strong RPG structure. The world is divided into themed zones with their own terrain, creatures and rewards and combat is more action-oriented with clear gear progression and abilities. Later in development there will be a full story layer and ‘story dungeons’, but even then the game is still meant to remain a sandbox rather than a purely linear RPG.

Hytale Early Access: What That Really Means

For experienced players, early access is a well-known term, for others it can be a risk. You get to enter a game in a state before the completed 1.0 version. ‘True early access’ means a few things:

• features could be missing or incomplete
• balance will change frequently
• bugs and crashes are expected
• there is a real risk of saves or worlds breaking during development

The team is unusually direct about this and even suggests that anyone who is unsure about early access should wait instead of feeling pressured to pre-order. This statement says a lot about the nature with which developers work on Hytale – with a lot of dedication and passion.

What You Can Expect to Play at Launch

For the first early access version, the focus is on the core sandbox and tools, not on shipping every big feature at once. The main playable pillars known so far are:

• exploration mode – a survival-style experience on the world Orbis
• creative mode – a powerful building and editing environment that lets you sculpt terrain, work with prefabs, copy and paste large structures and even create cinematic camera paths
• modding support from day one – servers can run plugins, use data-driven content and custom art assets such as models and animations via tools like Blockbench

Not included at early access launch, but planned as the game matures, are:

• full adventure Mode (the structured story experience)
• official Hypixel-style minigame network

Those will follow once the foundations are stable enough to support them.

World and Gameplay – Orbis, Combat and More

You explore Orbis, a fantasy world shaped by the goddess Gaia and slowly corrupted by a mysterious force known as the Void. Different zones – from tranquil forests to frozen frontiers and scorched wastelands – are home to distinct factions like the tree-like Kweebecs, brutal Trorks and secretive Outlanders. Layered on top is a light RPG structure with dungeons, bosses and story threads about Gaia, the Void and the fight for Orbis that you can follow – or simply ignore while you build, farm and explore. In the background, legends hint at other mysterious ‘alterverses’ beyond Orbis, strange sister worlds that may become more important as Hytale’s story unfolds over time.

As far as we know from current teasers and blogs, combat aims to be more dynamic than simple click-spamming. Different weapon types have different move sets, positioning and timing matter and buffs from cooking and equipment play a notable role. At the same time, there is a clear ‘cozy’ layer on top: farming, cooking, building homesteads and helping NPC settlements are all supported playstyles, not just side activities.

In short, Hytale tries to cover three broad styles in one world: exploration and combat, creative building and a slower, more relaxed ‘life sim’ rhythm.

Your Hytale Server from GPORTAL

Hytale is server-based by design: even singleplayer worlds run on a local server in the background. Modding is server-first as well – plugins, data assets and custom models all live on the server and the client simply downloads what it needs when a player joins. In other words: your server is the heart of the experience, not an afterthought.
That’s where good hosting becomes a real advantage. With our Hytale server from GPORTAL you don’t have to wrestle with configs and hardware yourself. You get:

• fast deployment
• an intuitive panel for restarts and settings
• simple ways to upload plugins, data packs and custom assets
• support

Instead of spending your evenings fixing ports and JVM flags, you can focus on building your world, your community and your minigames.

Early access comes with a clear warning from the developers: crashes and even data loss are possible and serious servers should use frequent backups. We take that seriously. Automated backups, quick restore options and scalable hardware mean you can experiment with mods, world generation and big builds without permanently losing everything when the inevitable early-access-bug hits.

The short version: Hytale puts servers and mods at the centre of the game. We provide the infrastructure that lets you take advantage of that from day one.

Short Hytale, Long Game: Why Early Access Is Only the Prologue

Hytale is entering early access not as a ‘Minecraft replacement’, but as an ambitious sandbox RPG returning from a turbulent development history with a clear, transparent plan: ship the tools and the core game early, grow it in public and let players and server owners help shape where it goes.
Whether you enter in January or later in a solid 1.0 version, the next months will still be interesting to watch – because this time, Hytale is not just a 2018 trailer, but an actual game you can log into.