453K Copies of Minecraft Sold on Christmas Day

Mojang co-founder and Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson said via Twitter that across all five platforms – PC, Mac, iOS, Android and Xbox 360 – the company's popular world building game sold 453,000 units on December 25 alone.

As of December 13, the Minecraft franchise had sold over 17.5 million copies, 5 million of which stemmed from Minecraft: Pocket Edition for the iOS and Android platforms. The PC and Mac versions were the dominant sales, pushing 8.3 million units whereas the Xbox Live Arcade version sold 4.48 million copies.

Fans interested in getting an inside look at the development of Minecraft can now purchase 2Player Productions' Minecraft: The Story of Mojang, the official Minecraft documentary. It's offered in two formats: a $20 limited edition DVD set, and an $8 DRM-free digital download. The soundtrack is also up for sale for $7, composed by C418.

"Minecraft: The Story of Mojang is a feature-length documentary that follows the young company over the course of its first year as their profile expanded across the world stage and into the homes of millions of gamers," reads the product description. "Featuring insights from industry icons (Peter Molyneux, Tim Schafer), journalists (Geoff Keighley, Stephen Totilo), tastemakers (Gabe & Tycho of Penny Arcade), and players profoundly impacted by the game (Yogscast, The Shaft, Minecraft Teacher), the film serves as a time capsule for one of this generation's most unorthodox success stories."

"During the editing of what was supposed to be a twenty-minute short, it became clear that an important chapter of gaming history was still being written, and that a feature-length documentary about Mojang's first year would make a powerful statement about what it means to create, release, and play games in the twenty-first century," 2Player Productions said.

Minecraft originally launched as an alpha on the PC in May 2009, and then finally went "retail" in November 2011. The mobile version eventually landed on the Android-based Xperia Play smartphone as Minecraft: Pocket Edition during E3 2011 and later on Google Play in October 2011, followed by an iOS release in November 2011. The Xbox 360 version, co-developed by 4J Studios, didn't crash the console scene until May 2012.

TOPICS

More about console gaming

Microsoft hikes prices of Xbox consoles, controllers, headsets, and games worldwide - cites market conditions and price of development

Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders will start April 24 — the system still costs $449.99

Russia's Baikal has produced 85,000 of its CPUs since 2012, aims for more

See more latest

19 Comments Comment from the forums

chimera201

What is the world coming to?

I would make a world in my own game and sell it rather than making a world in someone else's game that is bought.

This just proves that there are way too many casual players with low end pcs.
Reply
reprotected

The Android version is better than the iOS version.
Reply
apache_lives

chimera201What is the world coming to?I would make a world in my own game and sell it rather than making a world in someone else's game that is bought.This just proves that there are way too many casual players with low end pcs.
the game actually need decent amounts of cpu and ram to play well
Reply
captainblacko

chimera201What is the world coming to?I would make a world in my own game and sell it rather than making a world in someone else's game that is bought.This just proves that there are way too many casual players with low end pcs.
Have you tried it?
Reply
infernocy

chimera201What is the world coming to?I would make a world in my own game and sell it rather than making a world in someone else's game that is bought.This just proves that there are way too many casual players with low end pcs.
That my friend is totally wrong .. minecraft needs a hell lots of ram to run and good cpu power ..
also if you go to minecraft forums you can see that this game increased java development cos a lot of kids are creating their own mods

Reply
infernocy

damn you tom when are going to add an edit button
Reply
wardoc22

Well someone is rich
Reply
Darkerson

chimera201What is the world coming to?I would make a world in my own game and sell it rather than making a world in someone else's game that is bought.This just proves that there are way too many casual players with low end pcs.
The game is actually rather deceptive and needs a decent amount of CPU/GPU power to be played smoothly, especially if you start adding in high res texture packs, various mods, or to run a decently sized server. But im sure you actually knew that, and were just looking for a way to make some snarky, asinine comment.

infernocydamn you tom when are going to add an edit button
See up top, right after the comment section starts?

"Read the comments on the forums"

Click on that, and in the forums, you can edit your comments.
Reply
CrArC

chimera201What is the world coming to?I would make a world in my own game and sell it rather than making a world in someone else's game that is bought.This just proves that there are way too many casual players with low end pcs. You have demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge of what is required to "make a world in my own game and sell it", and simultaneously missed the point of Minecraft entirely. Well done.
Reply
mazty

apache_livesthe game actually need decent amounts of cpu and ram to play wellProof that it's a badly coded pile of shit.
Minecraft is just the autistic version of farmville & it's just as good for gaming as farmville. It's nothing but a worthless time sink that autists get hooked on - meth for autists if you will.
Reply

Show more comments

Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter