Minecraft experts dedicate 3 years to building Breath of the Wild's entire open-world map out of blocks: "I put everything else aside"

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Blood, sweat, and blocks

A screenshot shows Breath of the Wild's map recreated in Minecraft.
(Image credit: Grazzy)

YouTuber and Minecraft architect Grazzy recently finished building Breath of the Wild's entire, surreal open-world map in the sandbox game after three years of toiling. 

"I'd put this idea off for so long because of one simple reason: it's impossible," Grazzy says in a recent video explaining how he brought Nintendo's wistful cel-shaded world to the land of cubes. "Replicating every patch of ruins, every settlement, every Guardian – that would be hard enough on its own, but how would I even replicate the terrain of Hyrule itself?"

With help, it turns out. Grazzy used the open source Minecraft map editor WorldPainter, which allows users to sculpt and draw detailed landscapes, to convert a map of Hyrule to stacks of Minecraft blocks. 

By 2024, Grazzy's map was appropriately full of forests and flying dragons, and he became more determined to complete it. 

"Being so close to the end," he says, "I was more motivated than I ever had been. My schedule was cleared, and I put everything else aside to solely focus on finishing this project."

Want something more custom? Here's our full Minecraft grade to building the best world possible. 

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.