Minecraft remains the best-selling video game of all time by a wide margin. And Mojang has decided to share some new figures and data, as the title approaches its 15th anniversary.
On the official Minecraft website, Mojang announced that the game has sold over 300 million copies globally since its first public release in 2009. The studio described it as a “milestone no-one could have dreamed of when we were all building our first dirt houses.”
With over 300 million units sold globally, Minecraft is still the best-selling game ever. It currently beats Grand Theft Auto V, ranked 2nd, by 115 million, and other titles don’t even come close.
The top 10 also includes games like:
- GTA V (2013) — 185 million;
- Tetris (2008’s mobile title by Electronic Arts) — 100 million paid downloads;
- Wii Sports (2006) — 82.9 million copies;
- PUBG (2017) — 75 million copies;
- Mario Kart 8 (2014) — 63.92 million copies;
- Super Mario Bros. (1985) — 58 million copies;
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) — 55 million copies;
- Overwatch (2016) — 50 million copies;
- The Witcher 3 (2015) — 50 million copies.
When looking at the top 50:
- 26 games were developed and/or published by Nintendo, including 1989’s Tetris (48 million), Animal Crossing: New Horizons (42.7 million), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (32.3 million), and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (31.7 million);
- Mario is the top-selling video game IP with 10 games on the list, followed by Pokémon (6), Call of Duty (4);
- There are also six games from Activision Blizzard (2019’s CoD: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops, Black Ops 2, Diablo III, and Overwatch) and five Rockstar titles (GTA: San Andreas, GTA IV, GTA V, RDR, and RDR 2).
- The only indie games on the list are Terraria (44.5 million), Human: Fall Flat (40 million), and The Walking Dead (28 million).
Originally created by Markus Persson, the Java Edition of Minecraft was first released publicly on May 17, 2009. Version 1.0 came out in 2011 and has been constantly updated ever since. In 2014, Persson left Mojang and sold the studio to Microsoft for $2.5 billion, making the Redmond-based corporation the owner of one of the most valuable IPs in the games industry.