Bedrock 26.60 is dated 27 October, and the headline is not a feature list. It is that Minecraft finally gets a native build for Nintendo Switch 2, after a closed beta, and the render distance goes to 28 chunks.
There is also a Minecoins change buried in the notes that is worth reading before anyone buys any.
The Switch 2 version is a new build, not a patch
The original Switch version continues to run on Switch 2 through backward compatibility, and it keeps the old limits. 26.60 is the first full release of a native Switch 2 build.
Two things come with being native. Regular render distance rises to 28 chunks, up from the 12 the handheld has lived with. And Vibrant Visuals is supported, which the previous hardware could not do at all.
A jump from 12 to 28 chunks is not a settings tweak – it is the difference between a world that ends just past the trees and one where terrain reads as landscape. For anyone whose main Minecraft device is a Switch, this is the largest single change the platform has had.
Vibrant Visuals, and Mario
The Super Mario Mash-up, which ships bundled on Nintendo platforms, is being updated for Vibrant Visuals. That is a ten-year-old pack getting a lighting pass, and it is a reasonable signal that Nintendo-platform content is not being left on the old renderer.
If you have not turned Vibrant Visuals on elsewhere, our guide to what it actually changes covers the settings and the cost.
The Minecoins change
From this update, newly purchased Minecoins will no longer be cross-platform between Nintendo platforms and other platforms.
Read that carefully. It applies to newly purchased coins, and the split is specifically Nintendo versus everything else. Coins bought on a Switch after this lands will spend on Nintendo platforms only.
For anyone who plays on both a Switch and a PC or console and has been treating their Minecoin balance as one pool, that stops being true. If you buy Minecoins, buy them on the platform you intend to spend them on.
The wiki entry does not describe what happens to coins bought before the change, so the safe assumption is that the distinction starts at purchase and existing balances are unaffected – but that is an inference, not a documented guarantee.
What else is in 26.60
The rest is a normal drop-adjacent Bedrock release. Gameplay adjustments to mushroom placement, trapdoor mechanics and armour stand equipment swapping. Realms feature and UI work. API, block component and entity component changes for add-on authors. Custom dimension support and graphical improvements. Around 65 bug fixes carried in.
Three preview versions and three betas have been available, which is the usual cadence and means the feature list is unlikely to move much before release.
Why the render distance number matters beyond Switch
Render distance is the setting players notice most and the one platforms cut first, because it costs both CPU and memory. Bedrock on constrained hardware has historically shipped conservative defaults and let nobody move them.
28 chunks on a handheld puts Switch 2 in the same conversation as a mid-range PC, and it follows Realms raising its own cap earlier this year – a change we covered when Realms went to 25. The direction across the whole platform is the same, and the reason is the same: the world generation work done over the last several versions is wasted at short distances.
On Java the equivalent conversation is about what the client can be made to do with mods rather than what the platform allows, which is a different problem with a different set of answers.
Dates and caveats
- 27 October 2026 – Bedrock 26.60, including the native Switch 2 release.
- Old Switch version keeps working on Switch 2 via backward compatibility, without the new limits.
- Render distance 28 chunks and Vibrant Visuals are native-build features.
- Newly bought Minecoins split between Nintendo and everything else.
Java is unaffected by all of it. The current Java release remains 26.3, with no announced version after it – Wilderness Bound is where that side of the game sits for now.
What backward compatibility means here
Running the old Switch build on a Switch 2 is not the same as running the native one. The backward-compatible version keeps the original render distance and has no Vibrant Visuals, because those limits were compiled into a build made for the older hardware.
That matters for worlds and purchases more than it sounds like it should. Anyone who has been playing on Switch 2 through compatibility has been playing the old version this whole time, and the upgrade on 27 October is a real switch rather than a patch that arrives quietly.
Worlds carry across, as they always have on Bedrock. What changes is what the client is willing to draw.
For add-on and Marketplace authors
The API, block component and entity component changes in 26.60 are the part that affects anyone shipping content rather than playing it, and custom dimension support is the headline among them.
The practical consequence of the render distance change is worth thinking about too. Content built for a 12-chunk horizon – structures placed assuming the player cannot see far, or terrain tricks that rely on draw distance hiding something – behaves differently at 28. Anything Nintendo-targeted is worth a look on the new build before it ships.
Images: YUNG’s Better Strongholds project gallery.