Created by Swedish developer Markus Persson and first released in 2011, Minecraft has now become the most successful game of all time. Microsoft purchased the game in 2014 and it has now become the best-selling game of all time and is available for purchase at just $20 USD. This is following over 180 million copies worldwide and over 110 million players actively playing the game each month. This gives an indication of the following of the game, which sees fans regularly picking up their Minecraft t shirt at Popgear. This is just one of many examples of the loyal fan base to the game.
So what exactly is Minecraft?
The game sees players travel and explore a 3D pixelated world, in which they build structures and can battle against other players and computer generated opponents. You can also team up with other players in the same world. There are a number of different game types available but the most popular is survival mode. This covers players using the available resources in order to build the world around them and survive. Another option is creative mode, in which players have unlimited resources available to them. There is also a Java edition option in Minecraft.
Minecraft has now become available across a number of different platforms including the Xbox 360. This was released in 2012 and broke the sales record on the day with 400,000 players worldwide. It was then also released on the PS3 and had surpassed one million sales in just five weeks. Minecraft is now available across the likes of PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
The sales and success of the game has been remarkable and has resulted in the game picking up a number of awards. This included it winning numerous Editor’s Choice awards for the Innovative and best single player Indie. Following the release of the game and the original success, the game also won awards at the Game Developers Choice awards in 2011. It won the Best Debut game, Best Downloadable game and the Innovation award. These all gives further examples of the popularity and success of Minecraft from the off.
Moving to more recent times and the game has also placed sixth in Time’s best video game list of all time. This is why it now stands as one of the greatest and most influential games of all time.
There has also now been four further spin-off releases of the game. The first of these is Minecraft: Story Mode. This became available in 2015 and was released across all platforms, including Windows, PS4 and Xbox One. Minecraft Classic was another of the spin-offs and was released in 2019 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the hugely successful game. This covered an updated version of the original.
Minecraft Earth was also released last year by Microsoft and covered many of the same aspects from the original game. Finally, Minecraft Dungeons is set to be released in the coming months and is another exciting spin-off of Minecraft.
