Minecraft is a sandbox game created and published by the Swedish company Mojang Studios. It was first released as an early access title in 2009 and officially launched for personal computers in November 2011. The game has since been adapted for many platforms, including mobile devices and video game consoles.
In Minecraft, players explore a randomly created world with endless terrain made up of three-dimensional blocks called voxels. They can gather raw materials, craft tools and items, build structures, fight hostile mobs, and play with or against other players in multiplayer mode. The game’s large community provides many user-created additions, such as modifications, servers, player skins, texture packs, and custom maps, which introduce new features and gameplay options.
Markus "Notch" Persson originally designed Minecraft using the Java programming language. After the game’s full release, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took over its development. In November 2014, Microsoft purchased Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property for US$2.5 billion. Xbox Game Studios now manages the publishing rights for the Bedrock Edition, a cross-platform version that evolved from the Pocket Edition codebase and replaced older console versions. Bedrock Edition is updated at the same time as Mojang’s original Java Edition, though with minor differences.
Minecraft is the best-selling video game in history, with over 350 million copies sold. It has received widespread praise, winning multiple awards and being named one of the greatest video games of all time. Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and annual Minecon events have helped increase its popularity. The Minecraft franchise includes several spin-off games, such as Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends. A film adaptation titled A Minecraft Movie was released in 2025 and became the second highest-grossing video game film of all time.
Gameplay
Minecraft is a 3D sandbox video game with no required goals, allowing players to choose how they play. The game includes an optional achievement system. Players view the game world from a first-person perspective by default, but can also use a third-person view. The world is made up of rough 3D objects, mostly cubes called blocks, which represent materials like dirt, stone, water, and lava. Core gameplay involves picking up and placing these blocks. Blocks are arranged in a grid, and players can move freely. Players can break blocks and move them to build structures. Most blocks are not affected by gravity and stay in place even in the air.
Players can craft many items, such as armor to reduce damage from attacks, weapons like swords or bows to defeat enemies, and tools like pickaxes or shovels to break blocks faster. Some items have different levels of quality based on the materials used, with better items being stronger and more durable. Players can also make helpful blocks, such as furnaces to cook food or smelt ores, and torches to light the way. Items can be traded with villagers using emeralds. The game has an inventory system that limits how many items players can carry. Time in the game follows a day and night cycle, with one full cycle lasting 20 minutes in real time. A material called redstone can be used to create simple machines, circuits, and logic gates, enabling complex systems.
New players receive a randomly chosen default character skin from nine options, such as Steve or Alex, but can create and upload their own skins. Players encounter different types of mobs (mobile entities), including animals, villagers, and hostile creatures. Passive mobs like cows, pigs, and chickens appear during the day and can be hunted for food and materials. Hostile mobs, such as spiders, witches, skeletons, and zombies, appear at night or in dark places. Some hostile mobs, like zombies and skeletons, burn in sunlight if they are not wearing headgear or standing in water. Unique mobs include creepers, which explode when they get close to players, and endermen, which can teleport and move blocks. Some mobs have special versions that appear in specific environments, such as zombies with husk or drowned forms in deserts or oceans.
The Minecraft world is created randomly using a map seed, which can be chosen by the player or generated automatically. The world is divided into biomes, each with unique resources and structures. Worlds are designed to be nearly endless in traditional gameplay, though technical limits exist. Early versions of the game had a glitch called the "Far Lands" far from the center of the world, where terrain looked unusual. This glitch was fixed, and the current limit is a special barrier 30 million blocks away from the center. Vertically, the world has limits: unbreakable bedrock at the bottom and a height limit several hundred blocks above the ground.
Minecraft includes three separate dimensions. The Overworld is the starting dimension, resembling the real world with plains, mountains, forests, oceans, and lava. The Nether is a dark, fiery world accessed through a portal made of obsidian. It has lava, mobs like ghasts and piglins, and structures called Nether Fortresses. The End is a dimension of floating islands in a dark void, guarded by the Ender Dragon. To reach the End, players must find strongholds, craft eyes of ender, and activate an end portal. Defeating the Ender Dragon triggers the game's ending credits and a long story called the End Poem, written by Julian Gough. After the credits, players return to their starting point and can continue playing.
In Survival mode, players collect resources like wood and stone to craft blocks and items. Hostile mobs appear in dark areas, so players must build shelters to survive at night. Players have a health bar that decreases from attacks, falls, drowning, or other events, and a hunger bar that must be refilled by eating food unless playing on peaceful difficulty. If hunger is empty, players starve. Health regenerates when hunger is full or on peaceful difficulty. If health reaches zero, players die, and their items are dropped unless the game is set to keep them. Players respawn at their default location or can change it by sleeping in a bed or using a respawn anchor. Dropped items can be collected before they disappear after 5 minutes. Players earn experience points by killing mobs, mining, smelting ores, breeding animals, or cooking food. Experience can be used to enchant tools, armor, and weapons, making them more powerful or durable.
The game includes two other modes: Hardcore and Adventure. Hardcore mode is like Survival but with difficulty locked to "Hard" and permanent death, requiring players to delete the world or view it as a spectator after dying. Adventure mode, added later, prevents players from directly changing the game world.
Development
Markus "Notch" Persson worked as a game developer at King before creating Minecraft. He stayed at King until March 2009, where he made browser games and learned programming languages. In his free time, he created prototypes for his own games, often inspired by other games. He also participated in online forums for independent developers.
One of his projects was "RubyDung," a game where players build bases. It was inspired by "Dwarf Fortress" but had a 3D perspective like "RollerCoaster Tycoon." He tried adding a first-person view similar to "Dungeon Keeper," but he removed it because the graphics were too pixelated. In March 2009, Persson left King and joined jAlbum while continuing to work on his game prototypes. A game called "Infiniminer," released in April 2009, influenced Persson’s ideas for Minecraft. "Infiniminer" inspired Minecraft’s first-person view, blocky visuals, and block-building features. However, unlike "Infiniminer," Persson wanted Minecraft to include RPG elements.
The first public version of Minecraft was released on TIGSource on 17 May 2009. On 2 December 2011, Persson stopped leading development, and Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took over. On 15 September 2014, Microsoft announced it would buy Mojang, the company that owns Minecraft, for $2.5 billion. Persson had suggested the deal on Twitter after facing criticism for the game’s license agreement. Microsoft contacted Mojang after Persson’s tweet, and other companies like Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts also showed interest. The deal was finalized on 6 November 2014, making Persson one of Forbes’ "World’s Billionaires."
On 16 April 2020, a special version of Minecraft called "Minecraft RTX" was released for Bedrock Edition by Nvidia. It used advanced graphics features like real-time path tracing and DLSS for RTX-enabled GPUs. Players could download special textures to enable these features, but they were not available by default. Early versions had many bugs and issues. In March 2025, a new visual mode called "Vibrant Visuals" was introduced. It added modern graphics like dynamic shadows and volumetric fog without needing RTX hardware. This mode was released in June 2025 as part of the "Chase the Skies" update for Bedrock Edition and is planned for Java Edition later.
Minecraft began in May 2009 when Persson created the first version, called "Cave Game." It had a world made of grass and cobblestone blocks that players could place or remove. The game was renamed Minecraft after being shared on TIGSource. Persson updated it based on player feedback, adding multiplayer and survival mode with monsters. Music by C418 was added during this time. The game entered the "Indev" phase in December 2009, borrowing features from a version called "Survival Test" and adding artwork by Kristoffer Zetterstrand. In February 2010, Persson started a new branch called "Infdev" to test infinite worlds. Minecraft moved to the "Alpha" phase in June 2010, with frequent updates and the introduction of redstone, a material that can send signals to change block behavior. Alpha v1.2.0, released in October 2010, added biomes and the Nether.
Minecraft entered the "Beta" phase in December 2010. Beta 1.0 added throwable eggs and leaf decay. Beta 1.8, released in September 2011, changed world generation, added new terrain features, and introduced creative mode. The first full version, 1.0.0, was released in November 2011, adding the End and the Ender Dragon. Version 1.3, released in August 2012, introduced villager trading and emeralds. Version 1.8, called the "Bountiful Update," was released in September 2014. Major updates paused until February 2016 due to Microsoft’s acquisition of Mojang and Persson’s departure.
The "Combat Update" (version 1.9) in February 2016 added weapon cooldowns, shields, and new End features like elytra for flying. Version 1.13, the "Update Aquatic" in July 2018, changed oceans, added coral reefs, and underwater creatures. The "Caves & Cliffs" update, split into two parts in 2021, introduced copper blocks and expanded world height. Version 1.20, "Trails & Tales," released in June 2023, added archaeology. In 2023, Mojang shifted to smaller, more frequent updates, including new features like trial dungeons and the "pale garden" biome with a new enemy called the Creaking.
The first console version of Minecraft was for Xbox 360, developed by 4J Studios and released in May 2012. It had a new crafting system, tutorials, and split-screen multiplayer. Worlds were limited in size. The Xbox One version, released in September 2014, had larger worlds and more players. PlayStation versions followed in December 2013 and September 2014, developed by 4J Studios. A PlayStation Vita version came in October 2014. Nintendo released Minecraft for Wii U in December 2015 and for Switch in May 2017.
Music and sound design
Minecraft’s music and sound effects were created by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, who is also known as C418. To make the game’s sounds, Rosenfeld used special methods called Foley techniques. He explained that learning these methods was a trial-and-error process. He said, “At first, I didn’t know much about Foley. You just try making sounds and eventually say, ‘Oh my God, that’s it! Get the microphone!’ There is no set way to do anything.” When creating the sound for grass blocks, he shared, “To make grass sounds, you don’t walk on real grass and record it, because grass sounds like nothing. Instead, you take a VHS tape, break it apart, and lightly touch the tape.” Rosenfeld’s favorite sound to design was the hissing of spiders. He described the process: “I spent a whole day researching spider sounds. I found that some spiders make small screeching noises. I used a recording of a fire hose, put it into a sampler, and adjusted the pitch until it sounded like a spider.”
Many of Rosenfeld’s sound design choices happened by accident or spontaneously. For example, the creeper’s sound is only a loud fuse-like noise before it explodes. Rosenfeld said, “That was an accident by Markus and me. We used a temporary sound of burning a matchstick. It worked so well that we kept it.” For zombie sounds, he intentionally made them sound funny instead of scary. He said, “I never wanted the zombies to be scary. I made them sound comical, and it worked well.” Rosenfeld also noted that the game’s sound engine was difficult to use. He explained, “If you played two sound files at once, the game would crash. There were many other glitches that were never fixed because the developers focused on the game itself, not the sound engine.”
The background music in Minecraft is instrumental ambient music. To create the music, Rosenfeld used software called Ableton Live and added other tools like synthesizers, including a Moog Voyager, Dave Smith Prophet 08, and a Virus TI. On March 4, 2011, Rosenfeld released a soundtrack called Minecraft – Volume Alpha, which included most of the game’s music and some extra tracks. Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku named the music one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011. On November 9, 2013, he released a second soundtrack, Minecraft – Volume Beta, which included music added in a 2013 “Music Update.” A physical version of Volume Alpha was released in 2015 by Ghostly International, including CDs, black vinyl, and limited-edition transparent green vinyl LPs. In 2020, Ghostly released Volume Beta on CD and vinyl, with special editions like alternate color LPs and lenticular covers.
Rosenfeld’s final work on the game was the 2018 “1.13 Update Aquatic.” His music remained the only music in the game until 2020’s “Nether Update,” which introduced music by Lena Raine. Since then, other composers, including Kumi Tanioka, Samuel Åberg, Aaron Cherof, and Amos Roddy, have contributed. Lena Raine is now the primary composer. Microsoft owns all music except for Rosenfeld’s independently released albums, and their label publishes the other artists’ work. Gareth Coker also composed music for the mini-games in the Legacy Console editions.
In a 2015 interview with Fact, Rosenfeld said he planned to create a third album of music for the game. He confirmed its existence in a 2017 tweet, stating that the work was longer than the first two albums combined, which total over 3 hours and 18 minutes. However, due to licensing issues with Microsoft, the third album was never released. In 2021, Rosenfeld was asked if the third album would still be released. He replied, “I have something—I consider it finished—but things have become complicated, especially as Minecraft is now a big property, so I don’t know.”
Reception
Minecraft has been praised by critics for allowing players to create and explore freely in the game. Reviewers highlighted the game's complex crafting system, which is a key part of its open-ended gameplay. Many publications liked the game's "blocky" graphics, with IGN calling them "instantly memorable." Critics also noted that Minecraft balances exploration and building well. The multiplayer feature was generally well-received, with IGN saying, "adventuring is always better with friends." Jaz McDougall of PC Gamer described Minecraft as "intuitively interesting and contagiously fun, with an unparalleled scope for creativity and memorable experiences." The game has been credited with introducing millions of children to the digital world, as its basic mechanics are similar to computer commands.
IGN criticized the complicated steps needed to set up multiplayer servers, calling it a "hassle." Some reviewers also mentioned occasional visual glitches. Despite being released out of beta in 2011, GameSpot said the game felt "unfinished," with some elements appearing "incomplete or rushed."
A review of the alpha version by Scott Munro of the Daily Record called it "already something special" and encouraged readers to buy it. Jim Rossignol of Rock Paper Shotgun recommended the alpha version, calling it "a kind of generative 8-bit Lego Stalker." On 17 September 2010, the gaming webcomic Penny Arcade began a series of comics and news posts about the game's addictiveness. The Xbox 360 version was positively reviewed but received less praise than the PC version. Critics noted the lack of features like mod support but praised the addition of tutorials and in-game tips. The Xbox One Edition was well-received for its large worlds.
The PlayStation 3 Edition received favorable reviews, with controls compared to the Xbox 360 version. The PlayStation 4 edition was the best-received port, offering 36 times larger worlds than the PlayStation 3 version and being nearly identical to the Xbox One edition. The PlayStation Vita Edition had positive reviews but faced technical limitations. The Wii U version was praised but lacked GamePad integration. The 3DS version had mixed reviews due to its high price and technical issues. The Nintendo Switch Edition received fair praise for its larger worlds.
Minecraft: Pocket Edition initially had mixed reviews. Critics appreciated its controls but criticized the lack of content, such as the inability to collect resources or craft items. After updates added more features, Pocket Edition received more positive feedback.
Minecraft sold over a million copies less than a month after starting its beta phase in early 2011, despite no publisher support or advertising. By April 2011, the alpha version had sold 800,000 copies, and the beta version had sold over one million, generating about €23 million in revenue. By March 2012, PC sales reached five million copies, making it the sixth best-selling PC game. By November 2012, PC sales had grown to eight million. In April 2013, PC sales reached 10 million, and Pocket Edition sales independently reached 10 million. As of February 2014, the PC version had sold 14.3 million copies. By October 2014, PC sales surpassed 17 million, making Minecraft the best-selling PC game. In April 2019, PC sales reached 30 million copies.
The Xbox 360 version became profitable on its first day of release in 2012, breaking Xbox Live sales records with 400,000 players online at once. It sold one million copies within a week of its release. By December 2012, the Xbox version had sold 4.48 million copies, with total cross-platform sales reaching 17.5 million. In 2012, Minecraft was the most purchased title on Xbox Live Arcade and the fourth most played title on Xbox Live. As of April 2014, the Xbox 360 version had sold 12 million copies. Minecraft contributed $63 million to Microsoft's first-party revenue in the second quarter of 2015. The PlayStation 3 Edition sold one million copies within five weeks of its release. The PlayStation Vita version increased overall Minecraft sales by 79%, becoming the largest Minecraft launch on a PlayStation platform. In Japan, the PS Vita version sold 100,000 digital copies within two months of its release. By January 2015, 500,000 digital copies had been sold across all PlayStation platforms in Japan. As of 2022, the PS Vita version had sold over 1.65 million physical copies in Japan, making it the best-selling Vita game. Separately, Minecraft: Pocket Edition reached 21 million sales, and the free-to-play Minecraft China version had over 700 million registered accounts by September 2023.
On 25 February 2014, the game reached 100 million registered users across all platforms. By June 2016, total sales reached 100 million units, growing to 154 million copies by October 2018. In May 2019, on the game's 10th anniversary, total sales surpassed 176 million copies, making Minecraft the best-selling video game of all time. By 2023, sales had exceeded 300 million copies, and as of April 2025, the figure was over 350 million. In January 2020, Minecraft was reported as the best-selling new intellectual property of the 2010s in the United Kingdom by units, though Destiny surpassed it in revenue. By September 2019, the game had over 112 million monthly active players. In May 2020, on its 11th anniversary, Mojang announced that Minecraft had sold over 200 million copies, with 126 million monthly active players. By April 2021, monthly active users had risen to 140 million.
In July 2010, PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work. In December 2010, Good Game named it the Best Downloadable Game of 2010. Gamasutra ranked it the eighth best game and the eighth best indie game of the year. Rock, Paper, Shotgun called it the "game of the year." Indie DB awarded it the 2010 Indie of the Year award based on voter choices.
Cultural impact
In September 2019, The Guardian named Minecraft the best video game of the 21st century so far. In November 2019, Polygon called it the "most important game of the decade" in its 2010s "decade in review." In June 2020, Minecraft was added to the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Minecraft is known as one of the first games to use an early access model, where players could buy the game before its full release to help fund its development. This model helped support the growth of indie game development in the early 2010s and made the early access model more common in indie games.
Social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit have helped make Minecraft popular. A study by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania found that one-third of Minecraft players first learned about the game through online videos. In 2010, Minecraft-related videos began to appear on YouTube, often made by commentators. These videos usually include screen recordings of the game and voice-over explanations. Common content includes player creations, guides for completing tasks, and parodies of famous movies, songs, or books. By May 2012, over four million Minecraft-related videos had been uploaded to YouTube. Minecraft became a major part of YouTube's gaming scene during the 2010s. In 2014, it was the second-most searched term on the platform. By 2018, it was still the most popular game on YouTube globally.
Some popular Minecraft commentators worked for Machinima, a now-closed YouTube channel that focused on gaming videos. The Yogscast, a British company, regularly makes Minecraft videos, and their YouTube channel has billions of views. Their event at Minecon 2011 had the highest attendance. Another well-known YouTuber is Jordan Maron, who is known online as CaptainSparklez. He created Minecraft music parodies, including "Revenge," a parody of Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love." Minecraft's popularity on YouTube was described as quiet but strong. In 2019, PewDiePie's videos of playing Minecraft helped increase its popularity on the platform. Long-running YouTube series include "Far Lands or Bust," which aims to reach a glitch called "Far Lands" in an older version of the game by walking there. In December 2021, YouTube announced that Minecraft-related videos on the site had reached over one trillion views.
Minecraft has been included in other video games, such as Torchlight II, Team Fortress 2, Borderlands 2, Choplifter HD, Super Meat Boy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Binding of Isaac, The Stanley Parable, and FTL: Faster Than Light. It is also part of downloadable content for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where Steve, the game's main character, is a playable character with moves based on building, crafting, and redstone. Minecraft has also been referenced in the work of electronic musician Deadmau5 and in the animated TV show South Park. In 2025, a movie based on Minecraft was released. It earned $313 million in its first week, a record for a video game adaptation. Minecraft is considered an important cultural reference for Generation Z, as many members of this generation played the game when they were young. Despite the random way Minecraft worlds are generated, many players compete in speedrunning, where they race to complete the game as quickly as possible. Some speedrunners use tools and programs to improve their times, while others compete using only the default game settings.
In 2011, a Swedish developer suggested using Minecraft to redesign public buildings and parks. He argued that the game made it easier for community members to imagine how new structures would look and function. In 2012, a researcher at MIT said that Minecraft had introduced 40 million people to the basics of computer-aided design (CAD) software. Tools were created to allow designs made in Minecraft to be printed using 3D printers.
Also in 2012, Mojang, the company that makes Minecraft, started the Block by Block project with UN Habitat. The goal was to let people in real communities design changes to their neighborhoods using Minecraft. Mojang's director said the game was the best tool for this work. The project aimed to help improve 300 public spaces by 2016. Mojang worked with the FyreUK community to create the first project in Kibera, an informal settlement in Nairobi.
In April 2014, the Danish Geodata Agency used its maps to build a full-scale version of Denmark in Minecraft. This was possible because Denmark is one of the flattest countries in the world. At the time, Minecraft's maximum height was enough to include Denmark's landscape. The organization Reporters Without Borders used Minecraft to create an "Uncensored Library" on an open server. This library contains news articles from journalists in countries where internet censorship exists, including Egypt, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam. The library's building was created by 24 people over 250 hours.
Minecraft has been used in schools through programs like MinecraftEdu, which was created in 2011 to help schools afford the game. MinecraftEdu allowed teachers to track student progress, and by 2012, about 250,000 students worldwide had access to the program. Mojang later created Minecraft: Education Edition, which includes lesson plans for up to 30 students in a closed environment.
Teachers have used Minecraft to teach subjects like history, language arts, and science. For example, they have built virtual versions of historical landmarks and large models of biological structures like animal cells. The game's redstone blocks let players create virtual machines, such as a hard drive or an 8-bit computer. Some tools were made to use these features to teach programming. In 2014, the British Museum started a project to recreate its building and exhibits in Minecraft with the help of the public. Microsoft and Code.org have also created Minecraft-based activities to teach programming.