The Creepers, Ender Dragon and Steve are as relevant as ever as Mojang has announced the latest sales figures for Minecraft. Since its inception, the sandbox builder game has now sold upwards of 122 Million units. Just how big of a number is that? That would be like if every person in Canada bought 3 copies of the game and every person in Belgium bought one, they would still be 3 million units short. Mojang had some of their own stats, indicating that statistically: 12 million people who purchased Minecraft hate cilantro, 3.8 million are as tall as Hugh Jackman and 4 million are cat people.
The second new Minecraft statistic of note was that there are 55 million players who still boot up the game every month. While these numbers tend to boggle the mind the continued growth of the title has to be what has Microsoft most pleased about purchasing the game’s Swedish developer. In June 2016, Microsoft reported 40 million monthly users. That means that in a mere eight months, the base of monthly players has exploded by 15 million gamers or an increase of 38%. Questions answered on the official Minecraft Twitter page also confirm that the sales and player numbers do not double count gamers who received a free Microsoft 10 version of the game because they owned the previous PC/Mac version.
The newest sales figures for Minecraft help it easily pad its lead as the second best-selling video game of all time. While these numbers tend to be fluid, Wii Sports or GTA V, depending on who you talk to, are a distant third place to the blocky juggernaut. If you are wondering what number 1 on the list is, then “blocky” may just be the best hint. According to Forbes, as of June 2016, the king of video game sales was Tetris with 495 million copies. Comparing Tetris to Minecraft may not be the fairest comparison for revenue generation. Minecraft still garners a typical retail price between $19.99 and $29.99 while the 1980s classic is lucky to be valued more than a couple of bucks.
