Minecraft developer Mojang has just announced that Minecraft has sold 10 million copies on Xbox 360. 10 million! Add up $20 a pop for the game and you have an idea of what a cash cow this is, and that's not even taking into account all the DLC sales from the poor, hopelessly addicted gamers out there.
On PC and Mac it's doing even better, of course, since it was birthed on there. 13 million units have been sold on computers. There's also the Minecraft Pocket Edition release for iOS and Android, and there are no sales figures available for that version but it's consistently found among the best-selling lists on both Google Play and the App Store. If you don't own any of these platforms never fear, because Minecraft is also coming to PS3, PS4, Vita and Xbox One. (If you don't own one of those either, well then, what are you doing reading this site?)
Not bad for a game that's solely about breaking and placing blocks. It will be interesting to see if Minecraft continues to sell in these numbers across the new platforms or if people end up getting tired of the game, but so far it shows no signs of stopping. Mojang released the alpha version of Minecraft on PC four years ago and has been stellar at keeping it constantly updated with new challenges and features. The most recent 1.74 update added the option to stream gameplay on Twitch, which has proven to be enourmously popular. Title Update 12 for the Minecraft: Xbox 360 version also hit recently and is really playing catch-up with the PC version, adding new items and worlds that were already in the PC version. It's much, much easier to keep an open platform updated than having to go through Microsoft for any changes.
But what if playing the game isn't enough? What if you want to don a foam blockhead and foam pickaxe and attend MineCon, the annual Mojang-sponsered Minecraft convention? 7,500 people attended this year's festivities in Orlando, Florida, but you might want to reconsider next year...
