Which mob is the fastest in Minecraft?

There are many mobs in Minecraft, with almost all of them being quite unique from one another, and several more that are direct threats to a player's survival. From trade-loving villagers to elusive and adorable sweet berry-loving foxes to the horrifying sounding phantom that haunts the skies, there truly is no shortage of strange creatures to be found throughout a survival world.

With such variety visible just outside of many Minecraft starter bases, it begs the question of just which of these creatures is the quickest of its feet. And while this question may seem simple, there are actually a few different answers, as detailed below.

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Minecraft's fastest-intended mob

A flock of phantoms circle above the player (Image via Mojang Studios)

Phantoms are a lot of things. They were the first mob to win a community mob vote and are widely regarded as one of Minecraft's most annoying mobs. They also happen to be the fastest regular mob in the entire game. When a phantom dives to try and attack a restless player, it can reach speeds of up to 24.2 blocks per second.

This might come as a surprise, as their normal flight speed is much slower and more relaxed, but phantoms can be quick when they need to be.

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The Fastest Glitched Mob

A theoretical size eight slime would move faster than the player (Image via Mojang Studios)

However, there are mobs faster than phantoms if glitches are taken into account. For example, an axolotl placed on a lead and then tied off to a fence post will go a staggering 23.6 blocks per second, landing them squarely as the fifth fastest mob in general, just behind Minecraft's ender dragon final boss. The ender dragon is a mere 0.4 blocks per second faster at 24.

However, it's slime and magma cubes that take the title of fastest glitched or illegal mob. The speed that a slime or magma cube can travel is actually tied directly to its size. This means that if a player can manage to spawn the largest possible slime or magma cube, it will jump at a speed upwards of 500 blocks per second, blowing the rest of the mobs so far out of the water.

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Minecraft's fastest teleporting mob

The game's many pets are actually all tied for fastest (Image via Mojang Studios)

If teleportation is considered movement, there is actually a type of mob that's tied for first place, equally faster than everything else in the game. These are the different pets, such as the adorable new wolf variants, parrots, and cats. When they get too far away from the player, they instantly teleport to them.

And the range of this teleportation has no limits. They could travel the entire game world instantaneously, making them inarguably faster than everything else, including advanced Minecraft redstone builds such as ender pearl statis chambers.