A Minecraft world could be coming to a theme park near you

While Disney is the global leader in theme parks, the second-largest theme park conglomerate in the world is Merlin Entertainments, which operate and own various parks and attractions around the world, including Alton Towers, Legoland, Sea Life, Madame Tussauds, and the London Eye in the UK. The reason we're telling you this is because Merlin recently won the rights to create themed worlds based on Minecraft, meaning a Minecraft land could be coming to a theme park near you.

We're told that Merlin and Mojang will be teaming up for two attractions to begin with starting from 2026 in the UK and 2027 in the US. These will either come in the form of locations in existing parks or city centre attractions instead. It's unclear what parks/cities are being targeted first (although we will know more later today), but this isn't the first time that Merlin has teamed up with a video game maker, as it formerly had a deal with Sega that led to the creation of the Sonic Spinball ride at Alton Towers.

Kayleen Walters, vice-president of franchise development for gaming at Microsoft stated: "Our vast and diverse community is always looking for new opportunities to explore and engage with Minecraft, and we are thrilled to build touchpoints around the globe that will surprise and delight them. These new real-life Minecraft experiences will not only grow our community but also offer fans many more opportunities to immerse themselves in the world of Minecraft in ways they've never imagined."

What has been stated is that this deal will cost Merlin £85 million for just the first two attractions, showing that this could be the company's biggest deal since aligning with Lego years ago.

Would you visit a Minecraft theme park world?