In a post on Xbox.com Microsoft has announced that over 200 million copies of Minecraft have been sold to date. Not only that, but 126 million people are playing the game on a monthly basis. That's... a lot of people still playing Minecraft!
This news, written by head of Mojang Studios Helen Chiang, follows the announcement over the weekend that Mojang, the studio that originally created the game before being acquired by Microsoft in 2014, has now got a new name and logo that unites both its Redmond and Stockholm studios under one banner. In a move that must have taken many, many seconds of brainstorming and focus testing, Mojang (which means 'gizmo' in Swedish) is now known as... Mojang Studios.
The announcement was made as part of a blog post to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the game's first beta release (its official release was in November 2011). Check out the video at the bottom of the page to get a look at the rationale behind Mojang's new logo. Sorry, we mean Mojang Studios, of course.
With so many new titles getting released every week, it's sometimes easy to forget the titans of gaming still going strong. It's been a while since we fired up Minecraft, but 126 million players a month is a staggering number. Let's also not forget that it was the most-watched game on YouTube last year with a mind-boggling 100.2 billion views. Plenty of life the old game yet, it seems!
Minecraft Dungeons is hitting later this month following a delay from its planned April release, so keep an eye out for our review in due course. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts on Minecraft's longevity and Mojang's radical new name below.
[source news.xbox.com, via minecraft.net]
Comments (23)
I remember when Minecraft was not the only game that Mojang was working on... Seems like a one-trick pony these days.
That being said, I do think it's amazing the staying power that Minecraft has.
Minecraft reached 100 million copies sold by 2016, so to see the sales of the game double over the last ~4 years is staggering
@FiveDigitLP Videogames market has become a market of heists. We don't see long career game designers anymore. If videogame want to be considered as an art the market should be more than that.
Remember that time Nintendo passed on publishing Minecraft or do we not mention that on a Nintendo fan site.
So, how much money does that equate to it making to date?
Not that I'm an expert on Minecraft, but to me these numbers are a victory for player freedom. Minecraft seems a very open game, letting the player do what they want. It could be cool to see Nintendo loosen some of the reins on its games. Breath of the Wild is a good example of a Nintendo game offering a previously unknown level of freedom. I'm all for more of it.
I understand why Nintendo does maintain a tight grip, but it's hard to argue against Minecraft's success.
Wow impressive numbers. And that's still a lot of people playing it as well! Glad to see some people still enjoying it, although I could never get into it.
@sixrings I can honestly say I dont remember that.
Really looking forward to Minecraft Dungeons, should be great fun. I still hop on Minecraft every so often, I actually went to an in-game concert by the PC Music label which was brilliant.
Cool logo but that video was pretty cringey, lol
I remember when they added beds to this game. lol
I put a lot of hours into this game back in university. Especially once I started getting into the mod community.
But after all those hours, it's just for me anymore. Not single player. I can still have a blast with friends, but most of my friends have moved on from the game now as well.
Must be a great game. Kids are playing it while I write.
Beautiful day ☀☀☀
Ah. Because there's MORE than one studio!
And I'm sure Microsoft appreciates them picking a new logo that both alludes to blocks AND isn't an apple with a bite taken out of it, as I hear one of their persistent rivals utilize a similar emblem.
I wonder if the sales numbers are accounting for all versions (Bedrock console and mobile versions, Java PC versions, licenses for the Educational Edition, legacy console editions, et cetera). Also, of the millions playing, how many are students playing as part of their course work? Of those students playing, how many have a separate copy of the game at home?
@T7Hokage017 same thing happens to me when I play Skyrim, CoD or many other massive games. I only got into Minecraft because we had our own server with friends and started some stupidly massive projects which we rarely finished.
My favourite being the server crashing pyramid. We built an entire pyramid to the maximum height in the game with lamp blocks, wired it with a single switch to illuminate it. When we all gathered on the opening day when it was all finished to flip the switch. Not only did it crash the Minecraft server, but the entire Linux server which was rather robust and hosted our Teamspeak server (the good ol' days).
Long story short, if you want to get into Minecraft, it is better with friends and stupid building ideas, as you would build with an infinite amount of Legos.
@chiefeagle02 I wouldn't think that they'd count Education Edition, as they seem to consider it as almost a separate game on their website and when talking about it, so I'm guessing it's just all the other versions excluding Education, but I could totally wrong.
Is Nintendo going to change to Nintendo Studios?
@FiveDigitLP Well, the whole point of their announcement was to make known that Mojang Studios is expanding the Minecraft franchise by making more (spin-off) games and other content.
Granted it'll all most likely be centered around Minecraft, but I think it's a safe bet for success. After all, their other games didn't hit as hard as Minecraft did so it's probably a good idea for them to stick with blocks.
Kudos to Microsoft for buying such a major franchise and not keep it only for pc/xbox.
I love the new title(though a basic change it may be)! Minecraft has been my number 1 game for about 11 years now and I don’t see that ever changing. I love all things Minecraft, from the original game to the two seasons of story mode! I have earth and am hyped for dungeons too! Keep going Mojang Studios! You guys are doing a fantastic job!
She said a new live show? Why not. Also, Nintendo Life don't be so hard on their name, these people proved to be creative enough already. Wish to see a sale here once in a while.
@Tim2020 I'm definitely keeping a close eye on dungeons as well. My son (almost 6) has been really enjoying minecraft. I'm thinking he may also be interested in dungeons. But we'll see.
Never understood why Minecraft is so popular. Then again, I was always a Knex kid instead of a Lego kid so maybe that might explain why I never cared for it.
@glaemay video games, like any other art form, get its most inspired work pieces out of lower budget productions/shops.
Disney/Universal/Sony dont throw 200 million at experimental art films, they toss a fraction of that to those projects.
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