Minecraft sold over 400 million sandbox copies
Swedish studio Mojang put Minecraft out as an early-access alpha in 2009 and released it properly for PCs in November 2011. Built by Markus Persson, known as Notch, in Java, it has since sold more than 400 million copies, making it the best-selling video game ever made.
After the full launch Persson handed development to Jens Bergensten, nicknamed Jeb. In November 2014 Microsoft paid 2.5 billion dollars for Mojang and the rights to the game. Xbox Game Studios now publishes the Bedrock Edition, a unified cross-platform version grown from the old Pocket Edition code, which replaced the earlier console builds and is updated alongside the original Java Edition with only small differences.
Each world is a persistent grid of rough cubes standing for dirt, stone, ores, logs, water and lava, generated from a seed that is random or chosen by the player. You break blocks and place them elsewhere, and most float where you leave them rather than falling. There is no required goal, only optional achievements. Players craft tiered armour, swords, bows, pickaxes and shovels, build furnaces and torches, trade emeralds with villagers, and wire redstone into circuits and logic gates. A full day and night lasts 20 real minutes, and darkness brings zombies, skeletons, witches, giant spiders, sneaking creepers that explode and teleporting endermen.
The terrain is meant to be effectively endless. Early versions broke down more than 12 million blocks from the centre into a glitchy wall-like zone called the Far Lands; today an impassable barrier sits 30 million blocks out in every direction, with unbreakable bedrock below and a height limit a few hundred blocks up. Portals lead from the starting Overworld into other dimensions.
Mods, servers, skins, texture packs and custom maps from a vast community extend the game, and social media, parodies, merchandise and the yearly Minecon helped spread it. Spin-offs include Story Mode, Dungeons and Legends, and A Minecraft Movie in 2025 became the second highest-grossing video game film at its release.
Source: Minecraft
