BedWars is a game played on Minecraft (since 2017) or Roblox servers (since 2021). It's a team game where you start on an island and must protect your bed and build bridges to attack other teams' beds. The trick is the ecosystem of items and crafting you need to quickly work through to get the upper hand. It's one of the most popular Roblox games getting over 1 billion visits a year (in 2022).

In BedWars teams of 2-4 start on separate islands with a bed. They have the aim of getting to and destroying the other team's bed. Starting with just a Wooden Sword you use a limited resource of materials to craft specific items and blocks with either defence or offence in mind. A large island in the middle of the map offers the chance to get higher-powered resources to then craft more powerful equipment.

This simple premise leads to a game of cat and mouse, as each team tries to outmanoeuvre the other. This can be by quickly creating swords, explosives, teleportation or projectiles. Alternatively, players may focus on defence and create super-strong walls to protect their bed.

The game is considered to be high-skill because of the combination of building, strategy and player-vs-player fighting ability. Although Minecraft looks like a game for young children, games like this (and other server games like SkyWars, Parkour, Spleef and Death Run) offer a high-skill challenge.

In addition to these individual skills, you need to coordinate your tactics as a team. One player needs to look after the bed and build defences, another can attack the other teams and another can be responsible for finding and collecting resources.

You access the BedWars and other server games by adding the server to your Minecraft setup. BedWars is available on the HyPixel and Lifeboat, for example. There is a Bed Wars game on Android from Blockman Go Studio, but this is a spin-off game not based on Minecraft and a different experience.