When Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson put together the first version of “Minecraft” over a weekend more than a decade ago, he couldn’t have predicted where it would lead.
The game allows players to build, craft, fight and destroy landscapes in their own pixelated worlds. Since its release in 2011, “Minecraft” has become the bestselling video game of all time, selling over 300 million copies and scoring a $2.5 billion acquisition from Microsoft in 2014. It’s spawned an interactive series available on Netflix as well as a live-action movie set for 2025.
As of 2024, roughly 21% of the game’s 170 million monthly active users are aged 15 years or younger — and YouTube videos about “Minecraft” have been streamed on the Alphabet-owned platform more than 1 trillion times.