There aren’t many constants in this industry that you can rely on to continue indefinitely, but Minecraft‘s unstoppable success is certainly one of them, at least for the foreseeable future.
As per Microsoft’s announcement, the sandbox title has now sold 122 million copies worldwide, making its pixelated world more populous than some real world countries. Adding to that bonkers figure, the game’s Twitter page also confirmed that more than 55 million players come and go through its doors every month, which you can see put into astounding perspective by way of some celebratory GIFs below.
Hurrah! Sending a big thank you to all our amazing players. pic.twitter.com/5RaD1dpW65
— Minecraft (@Minecraft) February 27, 2017
… We didn't calculate how many of you in the conga line would be going for a swim. Pack your snorkel! pic.twitter.com/trDqqDbgI2
— Minecraft (@Minecraft) February 27, 2017
Having acquired developer Mojang and the Minecraft property itself back in 2014 for a cool $2.5 billion, Microsoft has since published the title for essentially every platform currently available in the market, including its competitors – a rarity that you don’t often see. While largely offering the same experience regardless of platform, discrepancies between versions do exist. The Super Mario Mash-up Pack, for example, which introduced various new textures and sound effects based on Nintendo’s platforming series, is only available on the Wii U.
The Mass Effect, Skyrim, Fallout and Halo series’ are just some of the other big names to have been immortalized in Minecraft‘s universe since release, which likely continues to enjoy such huge success due to the frequency in which it receives new content. Back in June of last year, Microsoft confirmed that worldwide sales of the title had surpassed 100 million, meaning it has taken less than a year for the total to grow by an additional 22 million. Crazy.
Can we expect that figure to reach the 150 million mark before the end of 2017? Judging by the above, it’s not exactly a tall order.
