Recently, the best selling game Minecraft celebrated its 10th anniversary. Having been released on almost every single console, mobile device and of course, on PC, Minecraft has left a lasting impact on people around the world and culture itself.
On the survey gave to the school, not one person hadn’t heard of Minecraft, and the majority owned the game. Some had been playing since 2012, and were still playing to this day.
Minecraft originally started as a passion project from Markus “Notch” Persson, a Swedish independent game developer who was inspired by the, at the time, very early game “Infiniminer.”
Markus took the ideas of random world generation and building to create an early version of Minecraft. Eventually the game would receive updates, new modes, blocks, and creatures that inhabit its world.
One major selling point of the game is its online multiplayer aspect, as players are able to do almost anything with friends in its world, with the freedom to build anything they dream.
The Minecraft modding scene has also always been popular, with the creation and installation of modifications being fairly simple, and a big reason why Minecraft has stayed relevant for such a long time.
In 2014, Markus sold the rights to Minecraft over to Microsoft, and stopped working on developing the game, turning the responsibility over to the people at Microsoft. While some have claimed this is when the game “died”, player numbers have only been rising. Recently, Minecraft became the best selling game of all time, with 176 Million purchased copies.
Countless versions of the game on various platforms and the ability to play whenever and wherever has proven to be a successful business model for Minecraft. With the Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac and more now having it on their system, the game has never been more accessible to new and old players alike.
Minecraft is more than just a game now, it’s a cultural phenomenon. So as we look back on ten years of Minecraft, it’s interesting to see just how many people have been exposed to this game and the impact it’s had on many people’s lives.
Happy Belated birthday, Minecraft!
