By now, most technology-friendly folks who have had access to a home computer, games console or mobile device have played Minecraft to some degree. Furthermore, given the enormity of the game’s success, it’s hardly surprising that it’s one of the most popular video games in history. And of course, sales are going up and up all the time, as Mojang’s own Marc Watson recently posted on his Twitter profile.
Minecraft for PC passed 18 million sales today…
— Marc Watson (@Marc_IRL) January 5, 2015
Eighteen million is a phenomenal milestone to achieve and puts the game ahead of such huge titles as Half Life 2, The Sims 3 and even World Of Warcraft in terms of sales. Watson – who does customer support and social media for the development team – announced the news earlier today and plenty of congratulatory responses are continuing to flood his profile.
For those who are not yet aware, Minecraft was launched for the PC in alpha on May 17th, 2009 before the final version was released in 2011. Since then, the game has enjoyed global success and has been ported to the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, as well as Android and iOS mobile devices.
As of October 2014, more than 60 million copies of the game had been sold across all platforms, 12 million of which were bought for the Xbox 360 console alone.
Also, back in September of 2014, ex-Mojang director Markus “Notch” Persson sold the company to Microsoft for a staggering $2.5 billion with rumours of a Minecraft sequel slowly coming to light.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see where Mojang takes the brand following this incredible success. For now, though, the team should take some time to celebrate this milestone, as should Notch himself. Congratulations to them all.
