Industry News · Games market statistics
Minecraft Statistics 2026: Copies Sold, Players, Creators, Movie and Education
Minecraft has sold more than 425 million copies, the most of any video game, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said in September 2026. Microsoft last reported 155 million monthly active users, an all-time high, for July–September 2025, and more than 300,000 people play Minecraft for the first time on an average day.
Key takeaways
- Minecraft passed 425 million copies sold by September 2026, up from 300 million in October 2023: roughly 125 million more copies in three years, faster than in any earlier period Microsoft has reported.
- Microsoft reported 155 million monthly active users in July–September 2025, an all-time high, after a record quarter for usage and revenue that it credited largely to A Minecraft Movie.
- More than 300,000 people play Minecraft for the first time on an average day, 17 years after its first release.
- Marketplace creators had generated more than $350 million by April 2021 from over 1 billion content downloads; Microsoft has not published a newer first-party total.
- In China, where NetEase runs Minecraft under licence, registered players grew from 60 million in early 2018 to more than 500 million by October 2021.
- A Minecraft Movie grossed about $960 million worldwide in 2025, and Minecraft Education is used by more than 40,000 school systems in 140 countries.
Key figures
425 million+
Minecraft copies sold worldwide, across every edition and platform
Stated by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma on the day of Minecraft Live, after “17+ years”. It is the highest total ever announced for a single video game.
155 million
Minecraft monthly active users, an all-time high
Stated by Satya Nadella on Microsoft’s FY26 Q1 earnings call (29 October 2025). It is the newest monthly-user figure Microsoft has published.
300,000+
people who play Minecraft for the first time on an average day
Counts first-time players, not purchases: it includes people arriving through Game Pass, trials and education. Stated by Asha Sharma at Minecraft Live.
$350 million+
generated by Minecraft Marketplace creators selling mods, add-ons and other experiences, to date
Cumulative since the Marketplace opened in 2017. Microsoft repeated the figure in October 2021 and has not published a newer one; the “$500 million” on some stats sites has no first-party source we could find.
500 million+
registered Minecraft players in China
Registered accounts, not active players. Minecraft China is run by NetEase under an exclusive licence from Microsoft and Mojang.
$960.4 million
worldwide box office of A Minecraft Movie (Warner Bros. and Legendary)
$424.1 million in the US and Canada (44.2%) and $536.3 million internationally. Box Office Mojo figure; the studio has not published a final total.
40,000+
school systems in 140 countries that use Minecraft Education
Current claim on the Minecraft Education homepage. Minecraft Education launched in November 2016 and turned 10 in 2026.
1 trillion
views of Minecraft content on YouTube, the first time any game reached the mark
Announced by YouTube and Mojang on 15 December 2021. Counts all Minecraft videos, mostly fan-made, not Mojang’s own channels.
How many copies has Minecraft sold?
Minecraft is the best-selling video game ever made. Microsoft’s latest total is “425M+ copies sold”, given by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma on 26 September 2026, the day of Minecraft Live. That count covers every edition (Java, Bedrock, console and mobile) since the first public version in 2009.[1]
425 million+
Minecraft copies sold worldwide, across every edition and platform
Stated by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma on the day of Minecraft Live, after “17+ years”. It is the highest total ever announced for a single video game.
350 million+
Minecraft units sold as recorded by Guinness World Records for its best-selling videogame title
Guinness says the figure was confirmed by Mojang in the official Minecraft Annual 2026, listed in April 2025. Third-party record; Microsoft did not publish this milestone itself.
300 million
copies sold when Minecraft became the first video game to pass the 300 million mark
Announced at Minecraft Live on 15 October 2023 and repeated by Satya Nadella on Microsoft’s earnings call nine days later. Guinness dates the milestone to 15 October 2023.
238 million+
copies sold, in every country and territory including Antarctica and Vatican City
From Microsoft’s April 2021 franchise fact sheet. The October 2021 sheet no longer gave a number.
200 million+
copies sold, announced on Minecraft’s 11th birthday
Xbox Wire, 18 May 2020, a week before Minecraft Dungeons launched.
100 million
copies sold, passed in 2016, two years after Microsoft bought Mojang
Xbox Wire’s 15-year history calls it the game’s “biggest cultural landmark yet” and notes four copies had been sold in Antarctica.
53,000
people buying Minecraft every day in 2016
Xbox Wire’s figure for 2016. Today’s comparable published number is first-time players (300,000+ a day), which includes Game Pass, trials and free editions, so the two are not the same measure.
2 million+
Minecraft sales on PlayStation platforms in Japan, earning a Double Platinum PlayStation Award in 2017
Microsoft says only 13 other titles had received the award since 1995, and Minecraft was the only one developed and published by a non-Japanese company.
Minecraft copies sold, by announced milestone
Source: Xbox Wire — The Most Important Moments in Minecraft’s First 15 Years (17 May 2024); Xbox Wire — Minecraft: Connecting More Players Than Ever Before (18 May 2020); Microsoft / Xbox Wire — Minecraft Franchise Fact Sheet, April 2021 (PDF); Mojang Studios (minecraft.net) — Minecraft Live 2023: The Recap (15 Oct 2023); Guinness World Records — Best-selling videogame; Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox (X) — “Today at Minecraft LIVE…” post (26 Sep 2026)
What changed: sales are speeding up, not slowing down. From 2016 to May 2020 Minecraft added about 25 million copies a year, and from April 2021 to October 2023 roughly the same. From October 2023 to September 2026 it added 125 million, about 42 million a year. The movie year helped: Microsoft said April–June 2025 was a record quarter for Minecraft usage and revenue. What the number does not say: Microsoft does not split sales by edition or platform, and it does not say whether discounted bundles or upgrades between editions count as separate copies.[10][9][7][15][1][3]
How many people play Minecraft?
155 million
Minecraft monthly active users, an all-time high
Stated by Satya Nadella on Microsoft’s FY26 Q1 earnings call (29 October 2025). It is the newest monthly-user figure Microsoft has published.
300,000+
people who play Minecraft for the first time on an average day
Counts first-time players, not purchases: it includes people arriving through Game Pass, trials and education. Stated by Asha Sharma at Minecraft Live.
Record
Minecraft monthly active usage and revenue in the quarter A Minecraft Movie was in cinemas
Microsoft said the record was “thanks in large part to the success of the Minecraft movie”. It did not give the numbers.
140 million+
Minecraft monthly active players at the August 2021 peak
From Microsoft’s October 2021 fact sheet, which called it “a new peak”. It stood as the high until the 155 million reported in 2025.
Nearly 140 million
Minecraft monthly active users, up 30% year over year
Microsoft FY21 Q3 earnings call, during pandemic lockdowns. The same call credited Minecraft for better-than-expected Xbox content and services revenue.
126 million
people playing Minecraft every month
Xbox Wire, May 2020.
1 billion+
multiplayer hours logged in Minecraft in 2021 up to October
22
platforms Minecraft has been released on, from Xbox 360 and Wii U to PS5, iOS and VR headsets
As listed in April 2021. Nintendo Switch 2 gets Minecraft on 27 October 2026, per the Minecraft Live recap.
15 million
pickaxes crafted (and 15 million skeletons slain, 6.7 million diamonds found) on a 30-day average
Mojang’s activity snapshot shown at Minecraft Live 2023, based on September–October 2023 data.
Minecraft monthly active users
Source: Xbox Wire — Minecraft: Connecting More Players Than Ever Before (18 May 2020); Microsoft — FY21 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call transcript (27 Apr 2021); Microsoft / Xbox Wire — Minecraft Franchise Fact Sheet, October 2021 (PDF); Microsoft — FY26 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call transcript (29 Oct 2025)
Monthly players grew far more slowly than sales: from 126 million in May 2020 to 155 million in mid-2025, about 23%, while copies sold more than doubled. Two things explain the gap. Copies are cumulative and never fall, while monthly users come and go. And many new players are children who start on a family copy or through school. The 300,000 first-time players a day Microsoft cites works out to roughly 110 million new players a year, which shows how much of the audience turns over.[9][2][1]
Who plays Minecraft?
27
average age of a Minecraft player in North America and Europe
From Microsoft’s April 2021 fact sheet; not updated since.
More than 50%
of children aged 9–11 in North America and Europe play Minecraft
90%
of the US online population is aware of the Minecraft brand
86 countries
reached by Minecraft consumer products, across more than 100 product categories
Licensees named include LEGO, Mattel, Uniqlo and Penguin Random House.
Minecraft is often seen as a children’s game, but Microsoft’s own data put the average player in North America and Europe at 27 years old, while more than half of 9-to-11-year-olds there play it. Both are true because the players who started in 2009–2011 are now adults, and many keep playing alongside their own children. These are the most recent demographic figures Microsoft has published; it has not updated them since 2021.[7]
Minecraft in China
500 million+
registered Minecraft players in China
Registered accounts, not active players. Minecraft China is run by NetEase under an exclusive licence from Microsoft and Mojang.
200 million+
registered Minecraft users in China, per NetEase
Up from more than 60 million a year earlier. NetEase stopped reporting the figure in its quarterly releases after this.
Registered Minecraft players in China
Source: NetEase (SEC EDGAR, 6-K) — NetEase First Quarter 2018 Unaudited Financial Results (17 May 2018); NetEase (SEC EDGAR, 6-K) — NetEase Second Quarter 2018 Unaudited Financial Results (9 Aug 2018); NetEase (SEC EDGAR, 6-K) — NetEase Third Quarter 2018 Unaudited Financial Results (15 Nov 2018); NetEase (SEC EDGAR, 6-K) — NetEase First Quarter 2019 Unaudited Financial Results (16 May 2019); Microsoft / Xbox Wire — Minecraft Franchise Fact Sheet, April 2021 (PDF); Microsoft / Xbox Wire — Minecraft Franchise Fact Sheet, October 2021 (PDF)
Minecraft China is a separate, free-to-play edition run by NetEase under an exclusive licence from Microsoft and Mojang, launched across platforms in 2017. Its registered users grew eightfold in three and a half years. What the number does not say: a registered account is not a player, and none of these accounts is counted in the 425 million copies sold. We found no newer figure in the NetEase filings on EDGAR after 2019, and Microsoft has not given one since October 2021.[27][30][7][8]
Minecraft’s growth before and after Microsoft
10 million
Minecraft players by July 2011, before the full 1.0 release
Over 100,000 players in January 2010 and a million by January 2011. Version 1.0 launched on 18 November 2011.
$2.5 billion
price Microsoft agreed to pay for Mojang, Minecraft’s developer
Announced 15 September 2014; Microsoft expected the deal to break even in FY15 on a GAAP basis.
100 million+
Minecraft downloads on PC alone between 2009 and the 2014 acquisition
Microsoft’s wording is downloads, not copies sold, so it is not part of the sales series.
2 billion+
hours of Minecraft played on Xbox 360 in the two years before the acquisition
Nearly 90%
of paying PC customers had signed in within the previous 12 months
12 million
copies of Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition sold, one of the best-selling Xbox 360 games
Up from 10 million in December 2013, four months earlier.
10,000
tickets sold for MINECON 2015 in London, a Guinness World Record for a single-game convention
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| May 2009 | First public version (later called Java Classic) |
| January 2010 | Over 100,000 players |
| January 2011 | 1 million players |
| November 2011 | Version 1.0 released at MINECON 2011 |
| May 2012 | Xbox 360 Edition launches |
| April 2014 | 12 million copies sold on Xbox 360 |
| September 2014 | Microsoft agrees to buy Mojang for $2.5 billion |
| 2016 | 100 million copies sold; Education Edition launches |
| 2017 | Better Together update and Minecraft Marketplace |
| May 2020 | 200 million copies; Minecraft Dungeons launches |
| December 2021 | 1 trillion views on YouTube |
| October 2023 | 300 million copies sold |
| April 2025 | A Minecraft Movie released |
| September 2026 | 425 million+ copies; Dungeons II launches |
Source: Xbox Wire — The Most Important Moments in Minecraft’s First 15 Years (17 May 2024); Xbox Wire — Minecraft Creeps Past 12 Million Sold on Xbox 360 (4 Apr 2014); Microsoft News Center — Minecraft to join Microsoft (15 Sep 2014); Xbox Wire — Minecraft: Connecting More Players Than Ever Before (18 May 2020); Mojang Studios (minecraft.net) — YouTube celebrates Minecraft community (15 Dec 2021); Mojang Studios (minecraft.net) — Minecraft Live 2023: The Recap (15 Oct 2023); Box Office Mojo (IMDbPro) — A Minecraft Movie — release summary; Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox (X) — “Today at Minecraft LIVE…” post (26 Sep 2026); Mojang Studios (minecraft.net) — Minecraft Live: September 2026 Recap (26 Sep 2026)
When Microsoft bought Mojang in 2014, it was buying a PC hit with more than 100 million downloads and a big Xbox 360 audience. Since passing 100 million in 2016, sales have more than quadrupled, helped by the unified Bedrock edition, which lets players on consoles, phones and Windows play together, and by Minecraft spreading to new platforms.[11][10][7]
Minecraft Marketplace, creators and subscriptions
$350 million+
generated by Minecraft Marketplace creators selling mods, add-ons and other experiences, to date
Cumulative since the Marketplace opened in 2017. Microsoft repeated the figure in October 2021 and has not published a newer one; the “$500 million” on some stats sites has no first-party source we could find.
1 billion
unique pieces of content downloaded directly from the Minecraft Marketplace
Over two-thirds
of Minecraft players customise their game with Marketplace content every week
$7.99 a month
Realms Plus subscription for Bedrock Edition: a private server for up to 10 players, with Marketplace Pass included
Realms for Bedrock is $3.99 a month (you and 2 friends); Realms for Java Edition is $7.99 a month.
$3.99 a month
Marketplace Pass subscription, a rotating library of Marketplace content
| Subscription | Edition | Price per month | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Realms | Bedrock | $3.99 | Private server, you plus 2 players |
| Realms Plus | Bedrock | $7.99 | Private server for 10 players, includes Marketplace Pass |
| Realms for Java | Java | $7.99 | Private Java server |
| Marketplace Pass | Bedrock | $3.99 | Rotating library of Marketplace content |
Source: Mojang Studios (minecraft.net) — Minecraft Realms; Mojang Studios (minecraft.net) — Marketplace Pass
Microsoft presents Minecraft as a platform for paid creators: by April 2021, creators had generated more than $350 million from over a billion downloads of their maps, skins and add-ons, and two-thirds of players used Marketplace content weekly. What the number does not say: “generated” is not the same as what creators kept after Microsoft’s and the platforms’ cut, and it excludes mods, servers and videos sold outside the Marketplace. Microsoft has not updated the figure since 2021.[6][7][8]
Minecraft on YouTube
1 trillion
views of Minecraft content on YouTube, the first time any game reached the mark
Announced by YouTube and Mojang on 15 December 2021. Counts all Minecraft videos, mostly fan-made, not Mojang’s own channels.
201 billion
YouTube views of Minecraft content in 2020, the most-watched game on YouTube that year
The April 2021 fact sheet rounded it to “over 200 billion”.
436 billion
Minecraft video views counted over the game’s first 10 years
Count by the video-analytics firm Tubular, published by Mojang in its 10-year anniversary wrap-up. Different method from YouTube’s own count.
Minecraft was the most-watched game on YouTube in 2019 and 2020, and in December 2021 became the first game whose videos passed a trillion views. The 2019 and 2021 totals come from different counters (Tubular and YouTube itself), so the jump from 436 billion to 1 trillion is not a like-for-like growth rate.[9][17][16][8]
A Minecraft Movie box office
$960.4 million
worldwide box office of A Minecraft Movie (Warner Bros. and Legendary)
$424.1 million in the US and Canada (44.2%) and $536.3 million internationally. Box Office Mojo figure; the studio has not published a final total.
$162.8 million
opening-weekend box office of A Minecraft Movie in the US and Canada, in 4,263 cinemas
$150 million
reported production budget of A Minecraft Movie, before marketing
Nearly $900 million
global box office of A Minecraft Movie five weeks after release, per Warner Bros. Discovery
WBD called it “a global phenomenon” and the top-grossing box office film of 2025 to date; we did not check that ranking against non-Hollywood releases.
Top-grossing
film of the year so far, as Satya Nadella described A Minecraft Movie on Microsoft’s April 2025 call
A Minecraft Movie, released on 4 April 2025, made about $960 million worldwide on a reported $150 million budget, more than six times its production cost. It also helped the game itself: Microsoft said Minecraft had record usage and revenue in April–June 2025, and its next monthly-user figure was an all-time high. Warner Bros. Discovery listed a follow-up to A Minecraft Movie in its film slate in August 2026.[34][3][2][32]
Minecraft Education statistics
40,000+
school systems in 140 countries that use Minecraft Education
Current claim on the Minecraft Education homepage. Minecraft Education launched in November 2016 and turned 10 in 2026.
35 million+
students and teachers licensed to use Minecraft: Education Edition, in 115 countries
Last stated in the October 2021 fact sheet; Microsoft now reports school systems rather than licences.
+150%
year-over-year increase in unique Minecraft: Education Edition players in 2020
Schools closed for COVID-19 and Microsoft made the edition free to educators through June 2020.
300 million+
students in 180 countries who have used Minecraft’s Hour of Code since 2015
Run with Code.org; tutorials in 29 languages. Earlier releases counted sessions instead of students (see the table).
120 million
downloads of education content on the Minecraft Marketplace
The free Minecraft Education Collection, launched in March 2020, had 50 million downloads by May 2020.
23 million
Filipino students offered mobile access to Minecraft: Education Edition in a pilot with the Philippines Department of Education
More than 65,000 students took part in the pilot.
| As of | Figure | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| May 2019 | Nearly 130 million | sessions |
| April 2021 | 150 million | sessions |
| October 2021 | 200 million+ | sessions |
| January 2023 | 200 million | sessions |
| December 2024 | 300 million+ | students in 180 countries |
Microsoft gave “more than 200 million” sessions in October 2021 and “200 million” in January 2023; treat the series as indicative.
Source: Mojang Studios (minecraft.net) — Minecraft 10 Year Anniversary Wrap-Up (23 May 2019); Microsoft / Xbox Wire — Minecraft Franchise Fact Sheet, April 2021 (PDF); Microsoft / Xbox Wire — Minecraft Franchise Fact Sheet, October 2021 (PDF); Minecraft Education — Meet Minecraft Education (17 Jan 2023); Minecraft Education — Celebrating 10 Years of Minecraft Education x Code.org (4 Dec 2024)
Minecraft Education grew sharply when schools closed in 2020: unique players rose 150% and free lessons were downloaded 50 million times in under two months. Microsoft now reports reach by school systems (more than 40,000 in 140 countries) rather than licensed users. What the number does not say: a school system using Minecraft Education may have one class or every student on it.[7][9][23]
Minecraft Dungeons and what comes next
25 million
unique players of Minecraft Dungeons, the 2020 action spin-off
Announced as the game’s final update shipped. Its sequel, Minecraft Dungeons II, launched on 29 September 2026.
10 million
Minecraft Dungeons players nine months after launch
It reached 15 million by February 2022.
5,934,629
times players had defeated Minecraft Dungeons’ final boss, the Arch-Illager
Players had also spent a combined 1,141 years in the game’s camp hub.
Minecraft Dungeons players
Source: Mojang Studios (minecraft.net) — Ten Million Heroes and counting (9 Feb 2021); Mojang Studios (minecraft.net) — Join the Festival of Frost (8 Feb 2022); Mojang Studios (minecraft.net) — Minecraft Dungeons: 25 million players and counting (28 Sep 2023); Microsoft / Xbox Wire — Minecraft Franchise Fact Sheet, April 2021 (PDF)
- Minecraft Dungeons II launched on 29 September 2026 and introduces the Sift, the first new Minecraft dimension in more than 14 years.
- The Sift is coming to Minecraft Java and Bedrock in 2027, as the fourth dimension after the Overworld, the Nether and the End.
- Minecraft World, with the first Minecraft World Hotel, opens at Chessington World of Adventures Resort in London in 2027.
- Minecraft comes to Nintendo Switch 2 on 27 October 2026.
Methodology and caveats
We read every figure on 19 October 2026 from the page or document it is linked to: Microsoft earnings-call transcripts, Microsoft’s Minecraft franchise fact sheets (April and October 2021), Xbox Wire, minecraft.net and Minecraft Education pages, NetEase and Warner Bros. Discovery filings on SEC EDGAR, and Asha Sharma’s post on X. Nothing was copied from other statistics sites.
Sales milestones are given as of the date each was announced. Where Microsoft and Mojang said “more than”, we show the number with a plus sign.
Two figures are third-party and marked as such: the 350 million sales total recorded by Guinness World Records, and the box office of A Minecraft Movie from Box Office Mojo.
Monthly active users are as defined by Microsoft, which has not published its definition. Microsoft does not report the figure every quarter, so the chart only shows quarters with a published value.
Prices are US prices on minecraft.net on 19 October 2026, before tax.
- Nearly every figure is Microsoft or Mojang describing its own game. None of them is independently audited, and Microsoft does not report Minecraft revenue.
- Copies sold, registered players, monthly active users and first-time players measure different things and cannot be added together or compared directly.
- Demographic figures (average age, share of children who play, brand awareness) date from 2021 and have not been updated.
- Registered players in China are free accounts on NetEase’s edition and are not part of the copies-sold total.
- YouTube view totals from 2019 and 2021 use different counting methods.
- Marketplace creator earnings are gross amounts generated, not what creators were paid, and the latest first-party figure is from 2021.
How we research and correct our content is set out in our editorial policy.
Minecraft Statistics 2026: FAQ
How many copies has Minecraft sold?
Minecraft has sold more than 425 million copies, according to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma on 26 September 2026. That makes it the best-selling video game of all time. It passed 300 million in October 2023 and 200 million in May 2020.
How many people play Minecraft?
Microsoft reported 155 million monthly active Minecraft users in July–September 2025, an all-time high and the latest figure it has published. Microsoft also says more than 300,000 people play Minecraft for the first time on an average day.
Is Minecraft the best-selling video game ever?
Yes. Guinness World Records lists Minecraft as the best-selling videogame, and says it was the first game to pass 300 million sales, on 15 October 2023. Microsoft put the total at more than 425 million copies in September 2026.
How much did Microsoft pay for Minecraft?
Microsoft agreed to buy Mojang, the studio behind Minecraft, for $2.5 billion in September 2014. At the time Minecraft had more than 100 million downloads on PC alone.
How much did A Minecraft Movie make?
A Minecraft Movie grossed about $960.4 million worldwide after its release on 4 April 2025, according to Box Office Mojo: $424.1 million in the US and Canada and $536.3 million internationally, on a reported $150 million budget.
How much money do Minecraft Marketplace creators make?
Minecraft Marketplace creators had generated more than $350 million selling maps, skins, mods and add-ons by April 2021, from over 1 billion content downloads, according to Microsoft. Microsoft has not published a newer total.
What is the average age of a Minecraft player?
The average Minecraft player in North America and Europe is 27 years old, according to Microsoft’s 2021 franchise fact sheet. More than half of children aged 9 to 11 in those regions also play the game.
How many schools use Minecraft Education?
More than 40,000 school systems in 140 countries use Minecraft Education, according to its website in October 2026. In 2021, Microsoft said more than 35 million students and teachers in 115 countries were licensed to use it.
Cite or reuse these statistics
Every figure in this report is free to reuse in articles, videos, research and AI-written content under CC BY 4.0. The one condition: credit Virtwave with a link to this page, so your readers can check the number and see when it was last updated.
https://www.virtwave.com/industry-news/minecraft-statistics<a href="https://www.virtwave.com/industry-news/minecraft-statistics">Minecraft Statistics 2026 (Virtwave)</a>Haddad, N. (2026). Minecraft Statistics 2026. Virtwave. https://www.virtwave.com/industry-news/minecraft-statisticsSources
- Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox (X)First-party“Today at Minecraft LIVE…” post (26 Sep 2026)Accessed — More than 300,000 people play Minecraft for the first time on an average day; “17+ years and 425M+ copies sold”. Posted 26 Sep 2026, 17:24 UTC.
- MicrosoftFirst-partyFY26 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call transcript (29 Oct 2025)Accessed — Satya Nadella: 155 million monthly active users of Minecraft, an all-time high.
- MicrosoftFirst-partyFY25 Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call transcript (30 Jul 2025)Accessed — Record monthly active usage and revenue for Minecraft in the quarter, largely thanks to the movie.
- MicrosoftFirst-partyFY25 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call transcript (30 Apr 2025)Accessed — Minecraft Movie described as the top-grossing film of the year.
- MicrosoftFirst-partyFY24 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call transcript (24 Oct 2023)Accessed — “Minecraft has now surpassed 300 million copies sold.”
- MicrosoftFirst-partyFY21 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call transcript (27 Apr 2021)Accessed — Nearly 140 million MAU, up 30% year over year; creators generated over $350 million from more than one billion downloads.
- Microsoft / Xbox WireFirst-partyMinecraft Franchise Fact Sheet, April 2021 (PDF)Accessed — 238M+ copies; nearly 140M MAU; $350M+ to creators; 1B Marketplace downloads; 400M+ registered in China; 200B+ YouTube views in 2020; average age 27; 90% US awareness; 50%+ of kids 9–11; 35M+ licensed Education users; 150M Hour of Code sessions; 22 platforms; consumer products in 86 countries.
- Microsoft / Xbox WireFirst-partyMinecraft Franchise Fact Sheet, October 2021 (PDF)Accessed — 500M+ registered in China; 140M+ MAU in August 2021; 1B+ multiplayer hours in 2021; two-thirds customise weekly; 201B YouTube views in 2020; 200M+ Hour of Code sessions. The latest fact sheet published.
- Xbox WireFirst-partyMinecraft: Connecting More Players Than Ever Before (18 May 2020)Accessed — 200M+ copies sold; 126 million monthly players; 50M+ downloads of free educational content since 24 March 2020; most-viewed game on YouTube in 2019.
- Xbox WireFirst-partyThe Most Important Moments in Minecraft’s First 15 Years (17 May 2024)Accessed — Year-by-year history: 100,000 players (Jan 2010), 1M (Jan 2011), 10M (Jul 2011), $2.5B acquisition, MINECON 2015 10,000 tickets, 100M copies and 53,000 a day in 2016, 1 trillion YouTube views in 2021.
- Microsoft News CenterFirst-partyMinecraft to join Microsoft (15 Sep 2014)Accessed — $2.5 billion; 100M+ downloads on PC alone; 2B+ hours on Xbox 360 in two years; nearly 90% of paid PC customers signed in within 12 months.
- Xbox WireFirst-partyMinecraft Creeps Past 12 Million Sold on Xbox 360 (4 Apr 2014)Accessed
- Xbox WireFirst-partyThat’s a Lot of Blocks: Minecraft Creeps Past Ten Million on Xbox 360 (13 Dec 2013)Accessed
- Mojang Studios (minecraft.net)First-partyMinecraft Live: September 2026 Recap (26 Sep 2026)Accessed — Dungeons II on 29 September; the Sift, first new dimension in 14+ years, coming to Java and Bedrock in 2027; Minecraft World at Chessington in 2027; Switch 2 on 27 October; Minecraft Education’s 10th birthday.
- Mojang Studios (minecraft.net)First-partyMinecraft Live 2023: The Recap (15 Oct 2023)Accessed — Crossed 300 million copies sold; 30-day averages for Sept–Oct 2023 of 15M pickaxes crafted, 6.7M diamonds found and 15M skeletons slain.
- Mojang Studios (minecraft.net)First-partyYouTube celebrates Minecraft community (15 Dec 2021)Accessed — Minecraft content reaches 1 trillion views on YouTube.
- Mojang Studios (minecraft.net)First-partyMinecraft 10 Year Anniversary Wrap-Up (23 May 2019)Accessed — 436 billion video views over 10 years (counted by Tubular) and nearly 130 million Hour of Code sessions since 2015.
- Mojang Studios (minecraft.net)First-partyMinecraft RealmsAccessed — FAQ prices: Realms for Bedrock $3.99, Realms Plus $7.99, Realms for Java $7.99 a month.
- Mojang Studios (minecraft.net)First-partyMarketplace PassAccessed — $3.99 USD per month.
- Mojang Studios (minecraft.net)First-partyMinecraft Dungeons: 25 million players and counting (28 Sep 2023)Accessed
- Mojang Studios (minecraft.net)First-partyTen Million Heroes and counting (9 Feb 2021)Accessed — 10 million players; Arch-Illager defeated 5,934,629 times; 1,141 years spent in camp.
- Mojang Studios (minecraft.net)First-partyJoin the Festival of Frost (8 Feb 2022)Accessed — Minecraft Dungeons reaches 15 million players.
- Minecraft EducationFirst-partyMinecraft Education homepageAccessed — More than 40,000 school systems across 140 countries.
- Minecraft EducationFirst-partyCelebrating 10 Years of Minecraft Education x Code.org (4 Dec 2024)Accessed — Over 300 million students in 180 countries since 2015; tutorials in 29 languages.
- Minecraft EducationFirst-partyMeet Minecraft Education (17 Jan 2023)Accessed — 115 countries; 200 million Hour of Code sessions; half a million students in build challenges and esports; 120 million downloads of Education content.
- Minecraft EducationFirst-partyMobile, Multiplayer, and More: Welcome to the newest update! (9 Aug 2022)Accessed — Philippines pilot for 23 million students; more than 65,000 participated.
- NetEase (SEC EDGAR, 6-K)First-partyNetEase First Quarter 2018 Unaudited Financial Results (17 May 2018)Accessed — NetEase operates Minecraft China under licence. “Accumulated over 60 million registered Minecraft users in China.”
- NetEase (SEC EDGAR, 6-K)First-partyNetEase Second Quarter 2018 Unaudited Financial Results (9 Aug 2018)Accessed — More than 100 million registered users.
- NetEase (SEC EDGAR, 6-K)First-partyNetEase Third Quarter 2018 Unaudited Financial Results (15 Nov 2018)Accessed — More than 150 million registered users.
- NetEase (SEC EDGAR, 6-K)First-partyNetEase First Quarter 2019 Unaudited Financial Results (16 May 2019)Accessed — More than 200 million registered users.
- Warner Bros. Discovery (SEC EDGAR, 8-K)First-partyQ1 2025 Shareholder Letter (8 May 2025)Accessed — A Minecraft Movie had grossed nearly $900 million in global box office; “the top grossing box office film of 2025 to date”.
- Warner Bros. Discovery (SEC EDGAR, 8-K)First-party2Q26 Shareholder Letter (6 Aug 2026)Accessed — Lists “a follow-up to A Minecraft Movie” in the upcoming film slate.
- Guinness World RecordsBest-selling videogameAccessed — Over 350 million units, “as confirmed by the developers Mojang in the official Minecraft Annual 2026, listed in April 2025”; first game past 300 million, on 15 October 2023.
- Box Office Mojo (IMDbPro)A Minecraft Movie — release summaryAccessed — Domestic $424,087,780; international $536,300,000; worldwide $960,387,780; opening $162,753,003 in 4,263 theaters; budget $150,000,000; released 4 April 2025.
Who compiled this report
Data & Market Research Lead, Virtwave · Built and maintains this calculator
Noor runs market research for Virtwave, tracking gift card volumes, redemption patterns and fraud trends across the 80+ countries we deliver to. She compiles our data reports from primary government sources (FTC, central banks) and the major market-research houses, and cross-checks every figure against our own transaction data before publication.
Senior Gaming Commerce Editor, Virtwave · Checks every figure before an update
Rayyan covers console and PC gaming wallets for Virtwave, with deep specialism in PlayStation Network, Xbox, Razer Gold and Steam. He has been writing about digital gaming commerce since 2020.
Virtwave sells game keys and gift cards, including Steam wallet codes. No platform or publisher paid for, reviewed or approved this report.
Update history
Published 19 Oct 2026: with Asha Sharma’s Minecraft Live post (425M+ copies, 300,000 first-time players a day), Microsoft earnings calls from FY21 to FY26, the 2021 Minecraft franchise fact sheets, Xbox Wire, minecraft.net and Minecraft Education pages, NetEase and Warner Bros. Discovery filings, Guinness World Records and Box Office Mojo.