show_death_messages

booleanJava 26.2 & Bedrock 26.32

Controls whether player death messages appear in chat. When false, deaths are silent — no 'PlayerName was slain by Zombie' messages are broadcast.

Enable show_death_messages

Death messages appear in chat for all players when someone dies.

Java/gamerule show_death_messages true

Bedrock/gamerule showdeathmessages true

Bedrock uses showdeathmessages (all-lowercase, no separators).

Deaths are silent. No message is broadcast to the server when a player dies.

Java/gamerule show_death_messages false

Bedrock/gamerule showdeathmessages false

Default: true. Restore with /gamerule show_death_messages true

Controls whether player death messages appear in chat. When false, deaths are silent — no 'PlayerName was slain by Zombie' messages are broadcast.

Does show_death_messages affect the death screen?: No — the death screen still appears for the dying player. The rule only suppresses the chat broadcast.
What happened to showDeathMessages?: Renamed to show_death_messages in Java snapshot 25w44a. Bedrock uses /gamerule showdeathmessages.