Even GTA 5 doesn’t come close to Minecraft’s total sales figure, as the family favourite crosses the 300 million threshold in its 14th year.
Not many video games can boast of having a healthy lifecycle nearly 15 years after they first launched, especially as even Fortnite is apparently struggling after just six years. As such, many publishers are no doubt envious of the continued success that Minecraft is enjoying.
Developer Mojang recently held its annual Minecraft Live event, to both celebrate the game and announce new content, including a Star Wars themed DLC pack that adds lightsabers, Force powers, and a lot of blocky looking Jedi on November 7.
Mojang also shared a sales update on Minecraft, revealing that since its original 2009 launch the game has sold 300 million copies, firmly cementing its position as the best-selling game in the world.
‘As we approach the 15th anniversary, Minecraft remains one of the best-selling games of all time, with over 300 million copies sold, a milestone no one could have dreamed of when we were all placing our first blocks,’ said Mojang studios head Helen Chiang during the event.
‘Our incredible community has built Minecraft into what it is today and what it will become in the future. We can’t wait to share new Minecraft content and experiences in the years ahead.’
You can find a full rundown of everything shown during Minecraft Live on the official website, including the addition of armadillos, as voted on by players.
300 million sales is a frankly astounding number and one that will be very hard to top. Not even Grand Theft Auto 5 has sold that much in its lifetime. In the 10 years since it launched, GTA 5 has managed 185 million sales, just over half of Minecraft’s total.
Admittedly, Minecraft is available across far more platforms than GTA 5, having jumped from PC to Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo consoles (including handhelds). The only things it’s missing are dedicated PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S ports – although it still runs on them anyway.
Instead of GTA, Minecraft’s main competitor is Roblox. Although Roblox is a free-to-play live service title, built around letting users make their own games, both it and Minecraft rely heavily on user generated content and are very popular with young audiences (and have both been used to spread Russian propaganda).
As it’s free-to-play, there are no sales numbers for Roblox but it currently has over 202 million monthly active users and it’s estimated more than half of all Americans under the age of 16 play the game.
By comparison, Minecraft has around 140 million monthly active users, while also generating considerably less revenue – bringing in $380 million (£312 million) in 2021, compared to $1.9 billion (£1.5 billion) for Roblox.
It’s unknown how much profit each game makes, but clearly both are doing extremely well, and are on an entirely different level to other more traditional video games.
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