Minecraft PC Tops 11 Million Sales

Earnest Cavalli

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Minecraft PC Tops 11 Million Sales



Minecraft is a huge hit. How huge? The PC version of the game just broke the 11 million sales mark.

When Minecraft first debuted in May of 2009, few could have imagined how big a hit the title would become. In the four years since that time, Minecraft has received ports to the Xbox Live Arcade, iOS, Android, Mac and Linux operating systems, and an Xbox One version of the game is slated to appear as one of the upcoming console's launch titles. That would be more than impressive by itself - especially given Minecraft's indie roots - but this morning it was announced by Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson that the game's original PC iteration has surpassed 11 million units sold to date.

That's a huge figure. Far too large for any human person to reasonably conceive. So, for reference, we'll simply point out that this achievement ties Minecraft with StarCraft and Battlefield 2 for the rank of fourth-highest selling PC game of all time. The only PC games that have sold more are Diablo III and the first two Sims games.

But with all of those versions of Minecraft available, it seems a bit myopic to merely judge the title's success based on sales of its PC version, doesn't it? It does. So how has the game fared in total? To date Minecraft has sold over 27 million copies across its various incarnations. For reference, the massively popular Wii Sports - a game that was sold in a bundle with Nintendo's Wii console for quite a while - has only managed to sell 22.67 million units.

Propers to Mr. Persson and the team at Mojang for all of their success. They've earned it, and I hear they're quite attractive people. I'm not just saying that because I'd really like a hot tub, but if somebody over there wanted to send me one in thanks for my kind words I wouldn't turn up my nose at it. What I lack in ethics, I more than make up for in massive hot tub-centric corruption.

Source: Twitter [https://twitter.com/notch/statuses/349431735458598912]

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Simalacrum

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Apr 17, 2008
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I can't help but feel like at least some of Minecraft's longevity in popularity should be attributed to the vast array of Let's Plays and Let's Builds that are hugely popular on YouTube. Unlike other games that are ridiculously popular (but who's sales drop after the first few weeks or so), Minecraft seems to have endured with an ever-expanding audience thanks to people continually finding the game through YouTube videos.

So kudos to both Mojang and the YouTubers I say :p
 

search_rip

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Jan 6, 2009
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I tried this game and I really hated it, but congratulations to Notch and his staff, that's an impresive record
 

Roxas1359

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Aug 8, 2009
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And yet I've still yet to play this game ever. XD
Seriously, should probably get around to playing it at some point in the future.
 

Jamous

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Apr 14, 2009
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Wow. That's a hell of a lot of game. Nice. Gratz all round to Notch and Mojang in general.
 

Daft Ghosty

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Glad to hear he continues to be successful without needing a 150 million dollar budget. I continue to play this game. Though I don't play vanilla any more. Currently use the Feed the Beast mod. It adds in allot of new stuff to give you to work towards, and build.
 

uchytjes

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Daft Ghosty said:
Glad to hear he continues to be successful without needing a 150 million dollar budget. I continue to play this game. Though I don't play vanilla any more. Currently use the Feed the Beast mod. It adds in allot of new stuff to give you to work towards, and build.
This. If games like minecraft have proved anything, its that you don't NEED an enormous budget to be a success. But think about it: How damn amazingly beautiful would minecraft be if it did have a giant budget from the beginning. Hell, it may even benefit from simply being in another programming language beyond java.
 

Mr. Happy Face

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Nice. I've played Minecraft, and it's not my sort of game, but I recognize quality when I see it. And it's nice to see quality rewarded with the praise (and sales!) it deserves. That it's an indie-rooted game, made on a shoestring budget, is just icing.

Take a bow, Mojang. You showed 'em how it's done. :)
 

Colbster94

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Mar 26, 2012
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uchytjes said:
Daft Ghosty said:
Glad to hear he continues to be successful without needing a 150 million dollar budget. I continue to play this game. Though I don't play vanilla any more. Currently use the Feed the Beast mod. It adds in allot of new stuff to give you to work towards, and build.
This. If games like minecraft have proved anything, its that you don't NEED an enormous budget to be a success. But think about it: How damn amazingly beautiful would minecraft be if it did have a giant budget from the beginning. Hell, it may even benefit from simply being in another programming language beyond java.
No, a major part of Minecraft's popularity is due to it being a feel-good indie success story. Also it runs on what I assume is an easy-to-code system that is Java, which brings in the mods, which I'm assuming made it even a bigger draw to people.
Which makes me wonder how many other games run on Java? And how come many indie games haven't tried to be as modable.
 

uchytjes

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Colbster94 said:
uchytjes said:
Daft Ghosty said:
Glad to hear he continues to be successful without needing a 150 million dollar budget. I continue to play this game. Though I don't play vanilla any more. Currently use the Feed the Beast mod. It adds in allot of new stuff to give you to work towards, and build.
This. If games like minecraft have proved anything, its that you don't NEED an enormous budget to be a success. But think about it: How damn amazingly beautiful would minecraft be if it did have a giant budget from the beginning. Hell, it may even benefit from simply being in another programming language beyond java.
No, a major part of Minecraft's popularity is due to it being a feel-good indie success story. Also it runs on what I assume is an easy-to-code system that is Java, which brings in the mods, which I'm assuming made it even a bigger draw to people.
Which makes me wonder how many other games run on Java? And how come many indie games haven't tried to be as modable.
Not many actually run off of Java due to the fact that it really isn't the best to create a game in. An example of a game that was coded in Java was the original Runescape. Sure it is easy to actually mod due to the flexibility of the language, but it is buggy as all hell. Most indie games opt for either A: using a more closed system to increase quality or B: using an engine from a company.

If I had to guess as to why they chose Java over another language is for one thing: Browser based gaming and multiplayer.
 

Zombie_Moogle

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Dec 25, 2008
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Simalacrum said:
I can't help but feel like at least some of Minecraft's longevity in popularity should be attributed to the vast array of Let's Plays and Let's Builds that are hugely popular on YouTube. Unlike other games that are ridiculously popular (but who's sales drop after the first few weeks or so), Minecraft seems to have endured with an ever-expanding audience thanks to people continually finding the game through YouTube videos.

So kudos to both Mojang and the YouTubers I say :p
Not to mentioned they're still adding new features, bug fixes, blocks, & mobs to this game

That kind of support is hard to find
 

qou2600

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Earnest Cavalli said:
That's a huge figure. Far too large for any human person to reasonably conceive. So, for reference, we'll simply point out that this achievement ties Minecraft with StarCraft and Battlefield 2 for the rank of fourth-highest selling PC game of all time. The only PC games that have sold more are Diablo III and the first two Sims games.
Sorry if this is off topic, but when I initially read the article title, I immediately compared it to World of Warcraft's 12 million subscribers at one point. I'm curious how a game can have that large of a user base and not be considered one of the top 5 PC games of all time.
 

Tanakh

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qou2600 said:
Sorry if this is off topic, but when I initially read the article title, I immediately compared it to World of Warcraft's 12 million subscribers at one point. I'm curious how a game can have that large of a user base and not be considered one of the top 5 PC games of all time.
Because, same as LoL being the "most played game", we base this on official statements from the companies, not reality or demographic/journalistic investigation. AFAIK the last Blizz official statement of WoW copies sold was from around 2008 at around 8M.
 

qou2600

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Oct 20, 2009
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Tanakh said:
qou2600 said:
Sorry if this is off topic, but when I initially read the article title, I immediately compared it to World of Warcraft's 12 million subscribers at one point. I'm curious how a game can have that large of a user base and not be considered one of the top 5 PC games of all time.
Because, same as LoL being the "most played game", we base this on official statements from the companies, not reality or demographic/journalistic investigation. AFAIK the last Blizz official statement of WoW copies sold was from around 2008 at around 8M.
Thanks! Now I know.
 

vrbtny

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Sep 16, 2009
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Neronium said:
And yet I've still yet to play this game ever. XD
Seriously, should probably get around to playing it at some point in the future.
Basically my thoughts. Well done dudes, good for PC gaming and stuff

I would care so much more probably if I had played the game.
 

SonOfVoorhees

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Aug 3, 2011
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You see the amazing things people build in this game. Amazing palaces etc I wonder if people buy the game based on this and then realise its way more difficult to build those amazing structures. :)