Minecraft has come along way since its early days as a humble clone of Infiniminer. Mojang Studios announced that Minecraft has topped 200 million sales in its lifetime, with those same Minecraft sales being helped along with more than 126 million players jumping into the game each month.
The current novel coronavirus pandemic has helped of course, but it’s not all terrible news. The strength of these sales is also owed in part to the various platforms the game has been ported to, giving it solid reach, as well as the incredible staying power the game had on YouTube and Twitch in its early days. So even in 2020, it’s kind of a shock to see the growth in player numbers over the last few years. In April, Minecraft recorded a 25 percent increase in new players and a 40 percent increase in multiplayer numbers.
The explosion of popularity, and the increase in Minecraft sales, was certainly a catalyst for an explosion in online content creation. Various well-known YouTube brands found their stride thanks to this one game.
When Microsoft acquired Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014, the goal was pretty clear. The company had picked up a game that had already racked up 50 million copies sold across PC, Xbox 360, PS3, and other platforms. The approach was basically to blast Minecraft into the minds of gamers all over the globe by any means necessary.This strategy became a bit of a golden goose and led to the game getting a big bump in sales.
The future of the entire franchise is pretty bright, especially considering the amount of tie-in merchandise and games that have helped turn Minecraft into a global phenomenon. The likes of Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Earth, and Minecraft Dungeons have all added their own twists to the formula that the original adventure built on.
Minecraft is out now for iOS, PC, Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. These various versions of the game have been helped along by not only constant updates from Mojang and other developers, but also an active modding scene. Some would say that modding is what has allowed the property to stick around so long after its first alpha phase.
Source: The Verge
