Minecraft Hits Milestone As Mojang Confirms 100 Million Copies Sold To Date
Give Microsoft credit, it didn't ruin Minecraft when it purchased Mojang for $2.5 billion nearly two years ago. At the time of purchase, Xbox boss Phil Spencer noted that Minecraft was "one of the most popular franchises of all time." It had sold over 54 million copies, and now two short years later, sales have almost doubled with Mojang bragging nearly 107 million copies sold to date.
"We’d like to offer our heartfelt thanks to every one of you who’s bought Minecraft over the past few years, no matter which platform you play on. We’re constantly in awe of our community and the amazing things you achieve together. You really are the best. <3," Mojang said in a blog post announcing the sales milestone.
To be precise, Mojang said at the time of its posting that Minecraft had sold more than 106,859,714 copies. It also noted that if each person who bought a copy formed a nation, it would be the 12th most populous in the world. That amounts to over 53,000 copies sold per day since the beginning of 2016.
Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson took some heat from fans when he decided to sell Mojang to Microsoft, a company he had been critical of in the past. Just two years before the sale, Notch said Microsoft was "trying to ruing the PC as an open platform."
"As you might already know, Notch is the creator of Minecraft and the majority shareholder at Mojang. He’s decided that he doesn’t want the responsibility of owning a company of such global significance. Over the past few years he’s made attempts to work on smaller projects, but the pressure of owning Minecraft became too much for him to handle. The only option was to sell Mojang. He’ll continue to do cool stuff though. Don’t worry about that," Owen Hill, former CEO of Mojang, said of Notch when Microsoft acquired the company.
Despite the concerns from fans over selling Mojang to Microsoft, the franchise appears to be in good hands and has done spectacularly well since the acquisition.
"We’d like to offer our heartfelt thanks to every one of you who’s bought Minecraft over the past few years, no matter which platform you play on. We’re constantly in awe of our community and the amazing things you achieve together. You really are the best. <3," Mojang said in a blog post announcing the sales milestone.
To be precise, Mojang said at the time of its posting that Minecraft had sold more than 106,859,714 copies. It also noted that if each person who bought a copy formed a nation, it would be the 12th most populous in the world. That amounts to over 53,000 copies sold per day since the beginning of 2016.
Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson took some heat from fans when he decided to sell Mojang to Microsoft, a company he had been critical of in the past. Just two years before the sale, Notch said Microsoft was "trying to ruing the PC as an open platform."
"As you might already know, Notch is the creator of Minecraft and the majority shareholder at Mojang. He’s decided that he doesn’t want the responsibility of owning a company of such global significance. Over the past few years he’s made attempts to work on smaller projects, but the pressure of owning Minecraft became too much for him to handle. The only option was to sell Mojang. He’ll continue to do cool stuff though. Don’t worry about that," Owen Hill, former CEO of Mojang, said of Notch when Microsoft acquired the company.
Despite the concerns from fans over selling Mojang to Microsoft, the franchise appears to be in good hands and has done spectacularly well since the acquisition.
