Minecraft facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Minecraft
Cover art since 2024
Developer(s)	Mojang Studios
Publisher(s)	Mojang Studios Xbox Game Studios
Designer(s)	Markus Persson Jens Bergensten
Artist(s)	Markus Toivonen Jasper Boerstra Kristoffer Zetterstrand
Composer(s)	C418 Lena Raine Kumi Tanioka Aaron Cherof Amos Roddy Gareth Coker
Series	Minecraft
Platform(s)	Linux macOS Windows Android iOS iPadOS Xbox 360 Raspberry Pi Windows Phone PlayStation 3 Fire OS PlayStation 4 Xbox One PlayStation Vita Wii U tvOS Nintendo Switch New Nintendo 3DS ChromeOS PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X/S
Release date(s)	18 November 2011 Linux, Mac OS X, Windows 17 May 2009 (public alpha) Android 7 October 2011 (public alpha) iOS 17 November 2011 (public alpha) Linux, Mac OS X, Windows WW 18 November 2011 Xbox 360 WW 9 May 2012 Raspberry Pi WW 11 February 2013 PlayStation 3 17 December 2013 EU Fire OS 2 April 2014 (public alpha) PlayStation 4 WW 4 September 2014 Xbox One WW 5 September 2014 PlayStation Vita 14 October 2014 EU Windows Phone 10 December 2014 (public alpha) Windows 10 29 July 2015 (public alpha) Wii U WW 17 December 2015 Android, iOS, Windows 10, Fire OS, Windows Phone, tvOS, Fire TV WW 19 December 2016 Nintendo Switch 11 May 2017 PAL New Nintendo 3DS WW 13 September 2017 ChromeOS WW 8 June 2023 PlayStation 5 WW 22 October 2024 Xbox Series X/S WW 17 June 2025
Genre(s)	Sandbox, survival
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Minecraft is a super popular sandbox game made by Mojang Studios. It first came out on November 18, 2011, for computers. Before that, it was in a testing phase starting in 2009. Since then, it has been released on many different devices, like phones and game consoles.

In Minecraft, players get to explore a huge, three-dimensional world. This world is created randomly, so it's always new! It's made up of blocks, like digital LEGOs. Players can find and collect materials, then use them to craft tools and items. They can also build amazing structures, machines, and even reshape the land.

Depending on how you play, you might fight against unfriendly creatures called mobs. You can also play with friends or against them in multiplayer mode. The game has a huge community that creates lots of extra content. This includes mods (changes to the game), servers (places to play with others), cool player skins, texture packs (which change how things look), and custom maps. All these things add new ways to play!

Minecraft was first created in 2009 by Markus Persson, also known as "Notch." He used the Java programming language. Later, Jens Bergensten, or "Jeb," took over developing the game after its full release in 2011. In 2014, Microsoft bought Mojang and Minecraft for $2.5 billion. Xbox Game Studios now handles the Bedrock Edition, which is a version that works across many different devices. This Bedrock Edition replaced older console versions in 2017. Both Bedrock and the original Java Edition get regular updates, though they have some small differences.

Minecraft is the best-selling video game ever! It has sold over 350 million copies by 2025. In 2021, it had 140 million players each month. The game has won many awards and is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Its popularity grew thanks to social media, funny videos, merchandise, and the yearly Minecon events. People also love to do speedruns, trying to finish the game as fast as possible. Minecraft is even used in schools to teach subjects like chemistry and computer science. The Minecraft world also includes other games like Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Legends. A live-action movie called A Minecraft Movie came out in 2025. It became the second highest-grossing video game movie ever.

How to Play Minecraft

Minecraft is a 3D sandbox video game where you don't have to follow a set story or goals. You have a lot of freedom to play however you like! There are also optional challenges called achievements you can try to complete. You usually play from a first-person view, like you're seeing through your character's eyes. But you can also switch to a third-person view.

The game world is made of rough 3D shapes, mostly cubes, which are called blocks. These blocks represent different materials like dirt, stone, wood, water, and lava. The main idea of the game is to pick up and place these blocks. They are arranged in a grid, and you can move freely around the world. You can "mine" (break) blocks and then place them somewhere else to build things.

There's also a special material called redstone. You can use redstone to make simple machines, electrical circuits, and even logic gates. This lets you build very complex systems in the game. The game's physics are not very realistic; most blocks don't fall due to gravity.

An example of Minecraft's randomly created land, showing a village and the default character, Steve.

Players can also craft many different items. For example, you can make armor to protect yourself from attacks. Weapons like swords or axes help you fight monsters and animals. Tools like pickaxes or shovels help you break certain blocks faster. Some items are better if you use stronger materials to craft them. You can also craft helpful blocks like furnaces to cook food or melt ores. Torches give off light. You can even trade items with villagers, who are NPCs, using emeralds. You have an inventory system to carry a limited number of items.

The game world is huge and is created as you explore it. It uses a special code called a map seed to make each world unique. While there are limits to how high or low you can go, the world can be almost endlessly wide. The world is split into different areas called biomes, like deserts, jungles, and snowy lands. You'll find plains, mountains, forests, caves, and bodies of water or lava. The game also has a day and night cycle, with one full cycle lasting 20 real-time minutes.

Some of Minecraft's monsters: a zombie, a spider, an enderman, a creeper, and a skeleton. They can all appear in the Overworld.

When you start, you get a random character skin, like Steve or Alex. But you can also make your own! You'll meet different creatures called mobs. These include animals, villagers, and hostile creatures. Friendly animals like cows, pigs, and chickens can be used for food and crafting. They appear during the day. Hostile mobs, like spiders, witches, skeletons, and zombies, appear at night or in dark places like caves. Some hostile mobs, like zombies and skeletons, burn in the sun if they don't have headgear or aren't in water.

Other unique Minecraft creatures include the creeper, which explodes when it gets close to you. The enderman is a tall creature that can teleport and pick up blocks. There are also different versions of mobs that appear in special conditions. For example, zombies have "husk" versions in deserts and "drowned" versions in oceans.

Exploring Different Dimensions

Minecraft has two other dimensions besides the Overworld, which is the main world where you start. These are the Nether and the End.

The Nether

The Nether is a dimension that looks like a fiery underworld. You get there by building a portal out of obsidian blocks. Newer versions of the game also have broken portals you can fix. The Nether has many unique resources. It's also great for traveling long distances in the Overworld. This is because every block you travel in the Nether is like traveling 8 blocks in the Overworld.

Mobs in the Nether include ghasts, which scream and shoot fireballs. There are also piglins, who are like human-pig creatures, and their zombified versions. Piglins will trade items with you if you give them gold. You can find structures called Nether Fortresses in the Nether. These have unique mobs like wither skeletons and blazes. Blazes drop "blaze rods," which you need to get to the End dimension. The Nether also has "bastion remnants," which are structures that sometimes contain a special item called a netherite upgrade template. This item is needed to make your diamond gear even stronger, turning it into netherite, the toughest material in the game. You can also build an optional boss mob called the Wither, using skulls from wither skeletons and soul sand.

The End

You can reach the End through an end portal. This portal is made of twelve special frames. End portals are found in underground structures in the Overworld called strongholds. To find strongholds, you need to craft "eyes of ender" using ender pearls and blaze powder. You can then throw the eyes of ender, and they will fly in the direction of the stronghold. Once you find the stronghold, you place eyes of ender into each portal frame to activate the end portal.

The End dimension has islands floating in a dark, empty space. A boss enemy called the Ender Dragon guards the biggest island in the middle. When you defeat the dragon, an exit portal appears. Going through this portal shows the game's ending credits and a long poem. After the credits, you are sent back to your starting point in the Overworld and can keep playing forever. You can also explore other parts of the End beyond the main island. These areas might have structures called end cities or ships, where you can find valuable loot.

Different Ways to Play

Survival Mode

The crafting menu in Minecraft, showing how to make a wooden sword and other items in your inventory.

In Survival mode, you must gather natural resources like wood and stone from the environment. You use these to craft blocks and items. Depending on the difficulty setting, monsters will appear in dark areas. This means you need to build a shelter to stay safe at night. You have a health bar that goes down if mobs attack you, you fall, drown, fall into lava, or starve. You also have a hunger bar. You need to eat food regularly to keep it full, unless you are playing on peaceful difficulty. If your hunger bar is empty, you won't heal automatically and your health will slowly go down. Health goes up when your hunger bar is full or constantly on peaceful difficulty.

If you lose all your health, you drop all the items in your inventory, unless you change a game setting. You then reappear at your spawn point. This is usually where you first started, but you can change it by sleeping in a bed or using a respawn anchor. You can get your dropped items back if you reach them before they disappear after 5 minutes. You earn experience points (XP or EXP) by defeating mobs, mining, smelting ores, breeding animals, and cooking food. You can use XP to enchant your tools, armor, and weapons. Enchanted items are usually stronger, last longer, or have special effects.

There are two other game modes based on Survival: Hardcore mode and Adventure mode. Hardcore mode is just like Survival, but the difficulty is locked to "Hard." Also, it has permadeath, meaning you only have one life. If you die, you have to delete the world or just watch it as a spectator. Adventure mode was added later. It stops you from directly changing the world. It's mainly used for custom maps, so map creators can make sure players experience their maps exactly as planned.

Creative Mode

In Creative mode, you have endless amounts of almost all items and resources in the game. You can get them from the inventory menu and place or break them instantly. You can also fly freely around the world. Your character doesn't take any damage and isn't affected by hunger. This mode helps players focus on building and creating huge projects without any interruptions.

Playing with Others

Multiplayer in Minecraft lets many players interact and talk with each other in the same world. You can play together through direct game-to-game connections, local network (LAN) play, split screen (on consoles), and servers. Servers can be hosted by players or by companies. Players can create their own server called a "realm," use a hosting service, or connect directly to another player's game using services like Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, or Nintendo Switch Online. Single-player worlds can also be opened to a local network, letting friends join without a special server setup.

Minecraft multiplayer servers are managed by server operators. They can use commands to change the time of day or teleport players. Operators can also set rules about who can join the server. Multiplayer servers offer many different activities, and some have their own unique rules and customs. The biggest and most popular server is Hypixel, which has had over 14 million unique players visit it. You can also enable Player versus player combat (PvP) to let players fight each other.

Minecraft Realms

In 2013, Mojang announced Minecraft Realms. This is a server hosting service that makes it easy and safe for players to run multiplayer games without setting up their own server. Unlike a regular server, only invited players can join Realms servers, and they don't use IP addresses.

For Minecraft: Java Edition Realms, the owner can invite up to twenty people to play, with up to ten players online at once. For Minecraft Bedrock Realms, owners can invite up to 3,000 people, also with up to ten players online at one time. Java Edition Realms don't support user-made plugins, but you can play custom Minecraft maps. Bedrock Realms support user-made add-ons, resource packs, behavior packs, and custom maps.

In June 2016, support for cross-platform play was added through Realms. This meant players on Windows 10, iOS, and Android could play together. Later, in 2017, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch also got this support. Support for virtual reality devices was also added. On July 31, 2017, Mojang released a test version that allowed cross-platform play. Nintendo Switch support for Realms was released in July 2018.

Changing the Game

A smeltery from the Tinkers' Construct mod.

The modding community is made up of fans and programmers who create extra content for Minecraft. They use different tools to make things like modifications (mods), texture packs, and custom maps. Mods change the game in many ways. They can add new blocks, items, and mobs, or even whole new systems. The modding community has made tons of mods, from ones that improve gameplay (like mini-maps) to ones that add elements from other games.

Mojang has also added official ways to change Minecraft. This includes "resource packs," which change how textures and sounds look and sound. Players can also create their own "maps" (custom world saves) with special rules, challenges, puzzles, or quests. They can then share these maps for others to play. Mojang added "adventure mode" in August 2012 and "command blocks" in October 2012, specifically for custom maps in Java Edition. "Data packs," added in version 1.13 of the Java Edition, allow even more customization, like adding new achievements or changing how worlds are created.

The Xbox 360 Edition had downloadable content (DLC) you could buy, usually extra character skins. It later got texture packs and "mash-up packs," which combined textures, skins, and changes to sounds, music, and the game's look. The first mash-up pack, based on the Mass Effect series, came out on September 4, 2013. However, unlike Java Edition, the Xbox 360 Edition didn't support player-made mods or custom maps. Nintendo released a special Super Mario resource pack for the Wii U Edition in May 2016. It was later included for free with the Nintendo Switch Edition. Another pack based on Fallout came out in December for consoles and in April 2017 for Windows and mobile.

In April 2018, some harmful software (malware) was found in user-made Minecraft skins for the Java Edition. This malware could try to erase a user's hard drive. Mojang quickly fixed the problem and said the harmful code would only run if the image file itself was opened, not by the game.

Marketplace

In June 2017, Mojang released the "1.1 Discovery Update" for the Pocket Edition, which later became the Bedrock Edition. This update added the "Marketplace." It's a store where you can buy content made by other Minecraft creators. This helps creators earn money from the game. You can buy skins, maps, texture packs, and add-ons using "Minecoins." Minecoins are a digital currency you buy with real money. You can also get access to certain content with a subscription service called "Marketplace Pass." Besides content from independent creators, the Marketplace also has items from Mojang and Microsoft, and official collaborations with other popular brands.

By 2022, the Marketplace had over 1.7 billion content downloads. It made over $500 million in revenue.

How Minecraft Was Made

Minecraft creator Markus Persson, also known as "Notch," at a game conference in 2016.

Before making Minecraft, Markus Persson was a game developer at a company called King. He worked there until March 2009. At King, he mostly made games for web browsers and learned many programming languages. In his free time, he worked on his own game ideas. He often got ideas from other games and was active in online forums for independent game makers.

One of his projects was "RubyDung," a game where you built a base. It was inspired by Dwarf Fortress but looked like RollerCoaster Tycoon with a 3D view. He even tried a first-person view, like in Dungeon Keeper, but thought the graphics were too blocky back then. Around March 2009, Persson left King and joined another company, but he kept working on his game ideas.

Infiniminer, a block-based mining game released in April 2009, gave Persson a new idea for "RubyDung." Infiniminer really influenced how Minecraft looked and played. It brought back the first-person view, the blocky style, and the idea of building with blocks. But Persson wanted Minecraft to also have RPG elements, unlike Infiniminer.

Minecraft lead designer Jens Bergensten in 2012.

The first public test version of Minecraft came out on May 17, 2009. Over the years, Persson regularly released new test versions that added features. These included new tools, mobs, and even whole new dimensions. In 2011, because the game was getting so popular, Persson decided to release the full 1.0 version on November 18, 2011. Soon after, Persson stepped down from leading the development. He handed control to Jens Bergensten.

On September 15, 2014, Microsoft, the company behind Windows and Xbox, announced they were buying Mojang and the Minecraft game for $2.5 billion. Persson had actually suggested the idea on Twitter. He asked a company to buy his share of the game after getting some criticism. According to Persson, Mojang's CEO got a call from a Microsoft executive right after the tweet. Other companies like Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts also showed interest. The deal with Microsoft was finalized on November 6, 2014.

After 2014, Minecraft's main versions usually got big updates once a year. These updates were free for players who owned the game and often focused on a specific theme. For example, version 1.13, the Update Aquatic, added ocean features. Version 1.16, the Nether Update, made big changes to the Nether dimension. However, in late 2024, Mojang changed its update plan. Instead of one big update each year, they decided to release smaller updates more often. They said, "We know that you want new Minecraft content more often." The Bedrock Edition also gets regular updates that match the Java Edition themes. Other versions, like console editions and the Pocket Edition, were either combined into Bedrock or stopped getting updates.

On May 7, 2019, for Minecraft's 10th anniversary, an old 2009 Java Edition version called Minecraft Classic was made free to play online.

On April 16, 2020, a special test version of Minecraft for Bedrock Edition called Minecraft RTX was released by Nvidia. It added advanced graphics features like real-time lighting and reflections. The full release came out on December 8, 2020. These special graphics only work in certain worlds or with specific texture packs.

On March 22, 2025, a new visual mode called Vibrant Visuals was announced. It's an optional graphics upgrade similar to Minecraft RTX. It adds modern features like dynamic shadows and volumetric fog without needing special hardware. Vibrant Visuals was released as part of the Chase the Skies update on June 17, 2025, for Bedrock Edition. It is planned to come to Java Edition later.

Different Versions of Minecraft

Java Edition

Cave Game, an early 2009 version of Minecraft.

Work on the original Minecraft—first called Cave Game, and now known as the Java Edition—started around May 10-12, 2009. By May 13, Persson released a test video of an early version. The game was named Minecraft: Order of the Stone the next day, but the title was later shortened to just Minecraft.

Persson finished the basic programming for the game in just one weekend in May 2009. Private testing started on May 16. The first public version was released on May 17, 2009, as a test version. Based on feedback from players, Persson kept updating the game. This first public version later became known as Classic. More test versions, called Survival Test, Indev, and Infdev, came out in 2009 and 2010.

The first big update, called Alpha, was released on June 30, 2010. At that time, Persson still had another job. But as sales of the alpha version grew, he quit to work on Minecraft full-time. Updates were sent out automatically, adding new blocks, items, mobs, and changes to how things like water flow worked. With the money from the game, Persson started Mojang, a video game studio, with his friends Jakob Porser and Carl Manneh.

On December 11, 2010, Persson announced that Minecraft would enter its beta phase on December 20. He promised players that bug fixes and all updates before the full release would be free. As the game developed, Mojang grew and hired more people to work on the project.

The game officially left beta and fully launched on November 18, 2011. On December 1, 2011, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took over as the main designer for Minecraft, replacing Persson.

Pocket Edition

In August 2011, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released as an early test version for the Xperia Play phone. It later came to other Android devices on October 8, 2011. The iOS version for Apple devices followed on November 17, 2011. A version for Windows Phones was released after Microsoft bought Mojang. Unlike Java Edition, Pocket Edition first focused on building and basic survival. It didn't have many features from the computer version. Bergensten confirmed that the Pocket Edition was written in C++ instead of Java, because iOS doesn't support Java.

On December 10, 2014, a version of Pocket Edition was released for Windows Phone 8.1. In July 2015, a version of Pocket Edition for Windows 10 was released as the Windows 10 Edition. This version allowed full cross-play with other Pocket versions. In January 2017, Microsoft said it would no longer update the Windows Phone versions of Pocket Edition. On September 20, 2017, with the "Better Together Update," the Pocket Edition was brought to the Xbox One and renamed the Bedrock Edition.

Bedrock Edition and Console Editions

The console versions of Minecraft started with the Xbox 360 edition. It was made by 4J Studios and released on May 9, 2012. This version added a new crafting system, easier controls, in-game tutorials, split-screen multiplayer, and online play. Unlike the PC version, its worlds were limited by invisible walls. The Xbox 360 version initially looked like older PC versions but received updates to catch up before it was eventually stopped. The Xbox One version came out on September 5, 2014, with bigger worlds and more players.

Minecraft also came to PlayStation consoles. The PlayStation 3 edition was released on December 17, 2013, and the PlayStation 4 edition on September 4, 2014. A PlayStation Vita version followed in October 2014. Like the Xbox versions, 4J Studios developed the PlayStation editions.

Nintendo consoles got Minecraft: Wii U Edition on December 17, 2015. The Nintendo Switch version launched on May 11, 2017. On September 13, 2017, Nintendo announced that Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition, based on the Pocket Edition, was available. This version only works on the New Nintendo 3DS or New Nintendo 2DS XL systems.

On September 20, 2017, the Better Together Update brought Bedrock Edition to Xbox One, Windows 10, VR, and mobile devices. This allowed players on these versions to play together. Bedrock Edition later came to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. The PlayStation 4 got the update in December 2019, allowing cross-platform play for users with a free Xbox Live account. The Bedrock Edition was released for PlayStation 5 on October 22, 2024, and for Xbox Series X/S on June 17, 2025.

On December 18, 2018, the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, and Wii U versions of Minecraft received their last update. They are now known as "Legacy Console Editions." On January 15, 2019, the New Nintendo 3DS version also received its final update and was stopped.

Other Versions

Minecraft Education

An educational version of Minecraft, made for schools, launched on November 1, 2016. It's available on many devices like Android, ChromeOS, iPadOS, iOS, MacOS, and Windows. It was built using the Bedrock Edition code. Test versions ran from June 9 to November 1, 2016. The full version was available on macOS and Windows 10 by November. On August 20, 2018, Mojang announced it would come to iPadOS in Autumn 2018. It was released on the App Store on September 6, 2018. On June 26, 2020, a public test version for Education Edition was made available for Chromebooks. The full game was released for Chromebooks on August 7, 2020.

China Edition

On May 20, 2016, China Edition (also called My World) was announced for China. It was released under a special agreement between NetEase and Mojang. The PC version was released for public testing on August 8, 2017. The iOS version came out on September 15, 2017, and the Android version on October 12, 2017. The PC version is based on the original Java Edition, while the mobile versions are based on the Bedrock Edition. This edition is free to play and had over 700 million registered accounts by September 2023.

Minecraft for Windows

This version of Bedrock Edition is only for Microsoft's Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. A test version for Windows 10 launched on July 29, 2015. After about a year and a half, Microsoft fully released it on December 19, 2016. This release, called the "Ender Update," added new features like world templates and add-on packs. On June 7, 2022, the Java and Bedrock Editions of Minecraft were combined into one package for Windows. If you owned one version, you automatically got access to the other. However, both game versions still remained separate.

Other Minecraft Games

Around 2011, before Minecraft's full release, Mojang worked with The Lego Group to create a LEGO-themed Minecraft game called Brickcraft. This game would have changed Minecraft to use LEGO bricks. Markus Persson worked on an early version. Even though LEGO approved the project, it was canceled. This was due to demands from The LEGO Group. LEGO thought about buying Mojang to finish the game, but when Microsoft offered over $2 billion, LEGO decided not to. On June 26, 2025, an early version of Brickcraft from 2012 was shared online.

Virtual Reality

Markus Persson first planned to support the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset for Minecraft. But after Facebook bought Oculus in 2013, he quickly canceled those plans. In 2016, fans made a mod called Minecraft VR that added VR support for Java Edition. Later that year, Microsoft added official Oculus Rift support for Windows 10 Edition. This led to the Minecraft VR mod being stopped due to trademark issues. There's also a version for Gear VR called Minecraft: Gear VR Edition. Windows Mixed Reality support was added in 2017. On September 7, 2020, Mojang Studios announced that the PlayStation 4 Bedrock version would get PlayStation VR support later that month. In September 2024, the Minecraft team announced they would no longer support PlayStation VR. It received its final update in March 2025.

Music and Sounds

Minecraft music composer and sound designer Daniel "C418" Rosenfeld in 2011.

The music and sound effects in Minecraft were made by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, known as C418. To create the sounds, Rosenfeld used many foley techniques. This means making sounds by recording everyday objects. He said it was a lot of trial and error. For example, to make the sound of walking on grass, he found that walking on real grass didn't work. Instead, he used a VHS tape, broke it apart, and lightly touched the tape. He said his favorite sound to design was the hissing of spiders. He used a recording of a fire hose and changed its pitch until it sounded like a strange spider.

Many sounds for the game were created by accident. For the creeper's sound, Rosenfeld remembered, "That was just a complete accident by Markus and me. We just put in a placeholder sound of burning a matchstick. It seemed to work hilariously well, so we kept it." For the zombie sounds, Rosenfeld said, "I actually never wanted the zombies so scary. I intentionally made them sound comical." Rosenfeld also mentioned that the game's sound system was difficult to work with.

The background music in Minecraft is calm, instrumental ambient music. Rosenfeld used special software and synthesizers to compose it. On March 4, 2011, Rosenfeld released a soundtrack called Minecraft – Volume Alpha. It includes most of the game's music and some other tracks. Critics praised the music. On November 9, 2013, Rosenfeld released the second official soundtrack, Minecraft – Volume Beta. This included music added in a 2013 "Music Update." Both albums were later released physically on CDs and vinyl records.

The last update Rosenfeld worked on was the 2018 Update Aquatic. His music was the only music in the game until the 2020 "Nether Update." This update added music from Lena Raine. Since then, other composers have also added music. Microsoft owns all the music except for Rosenfeld's independently released albums.

Rosenfeld had planned to create a third album of music for the game. He confirmed its existence in 2017, saying it was longer than his first two albums combined. However, due to licensing issues with Microsoft, the third album has not been released.

Minecrafts Big Impact

In September 2019, The Guardian newspaper called Minecraft the best video game of the 21st century so far. In November 2019, Polygon said it was the "most important game of the decade" for the 2010s. In December 2019, Forbes also called Minecraft one of the most important games of the last ten years. In June 2020, Minecraft was added to the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

Minecraft is known as one of the first successful games to use an early access model. This means selling the game while it's still being developed to help fund it. As Minecraft helped independent game development grow in the early 2010s, it also made the early access model popular for other indie games.

Jordan Maron, known as "CaptainSparklez," is famous for his Minecraft music parodies.

Social media sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit played a big part in making Minecraft popular. Research showed that one-third of Minecraft players learned about the game from online videos. In 2010, Minecraft videos started becoming very popular on YouTube. These videos often showed gameplay with people talking over them. They included player creations, guides for tasks, and funny versions of popular culture. By May 2012, over four million Minecraft videos had been uploaded to YouTube. The game was a huge part of YouTube's gaming scene throughout the 2010s. In 2014, it was the second most searched term on YouTube. By 2018, it was still YouTube's biggest game worldwide.

Some popular video creators even got jobs at Machinima, a gaming video company. The Yogscast is a British company that makes many Minecraft videos. Their YouTube channel has billions of views. Another well-known YouTube personality is Jordan Maron, also known as CaptainSparklez. He has made many Minecraft music parodies, like "Revenge," which is a parody of Usher's song. Minecraft's popularity on YouTube was described as "quietly dominant." But in 2019, thanks partly to PewDiePie playing the game, Minecraft saw a big increase in popularity on the platform. YouTube later announced on December 14, 2021, that the total views for Minecraft videos on the website had passed one trillion.

Minecraft has been mentioned in other video games, like Torchlight II, Team Fortress 2, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Minecraft is also officially represented in the fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Steve is a playable character with moves based on building, crafting, and redstone. The game was also referenced by electronic music artist deadmau5 in his shows. The game is also heavily mentioned in an episode of the animated TV series South Park. In 2025, the Minecraft Movie was released. It made $313 million in its first week, setting a record for a video game adaptation.

How Minecraft is Used

People have talked a lot about how Minecraft can be used, especially in computer-aided design (CAD) and education. At a conference in 2011, a Swedish developer discussed using the game to redesign public buildings and parks. They said using Minecraft was much easier for communities to understand how new buildings and parks would look. In 2012, an expert from the MIT Media Lab said, "Notch hasn't just built a game. He's tricked 40 million people into learning to use a CAD program." Software has been made to let virtual designs from Minecraft be printed using 3D printers.

In September 2012, Mojang started the Block by Block project with UN Habitat. The goal was to create real-world places in Minecraft. This project lets young people who live in those areas help design changes they want to see. Using Minecraft, communities have helped rebuild areas of concern. Citizens are invited to join Minecraft servers and change their own neighborhoods. Carl Manneh, Mojang's managing director, called the game "the perfect tool to help this process." He added that the partnership would help UN-Habitat improve 300 public spaces by 2016. Mojang hired the Minecraft building community FyreUK to help create the environments in Minecraft. The first test project started in Kibera, a settlement in Nairobi.

A yarn Minecraft sheep.

In April 2014, the Danish Geodata Agency created all of Denmark in full scale in Minecraft using their own map data. This was possible because Denmark is one of the flattest countries.

The non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders used an open Minecraft server to create the Uncensored Library. This is a place within the game where you can find journalism from authors in countries where they have been censored or arrested. The virtual building was created by an international team of 24 people over about 250 hours.

Despite its unpredictable nature, Minecraft speedrunning is popular. Players try to finish the game as fast as possible, from starting a new world to defeating the Ender Dragon. Some speedrunners use mods or special programs, while others play the game more simply.

Minecraft in Education

Minecraft being played in a school setting.

Minecraft has also been used in schools. In 2011, an organization called MinecraftEdu was formed to bring Minecraft into classrooms. They work with Mojang to make the game affordable for schools. The MinecraftEdu version has special features that let teachers see student progress. For example, teachers can get screenshots from students to show they finished a lesson. In September 2012, MinecraftEdu said that about 250,000 students worldwide had access to Minecraft through their company.

Many educational activities using the game have been created to teach students different subjects. These include history, language arts, and science. For example, one teacher built a world with famous historical landmarks for students to explore. Another teacher created a huge animal cell in Minecraft that students could explore to learn how cells work. Great Ormond Street Hospital has been recreated in Minecraft. It was suggested that patients could use it to explore the hospital virtually before visiting in real life. Minecraft can also help with computer-aided design. It offers a way for people to work together on designs.

With the addition of redstone blocks, which act like electrical circuits, players have built working virtual computers inside Minecraft. These creations include a working hard drive and an 8-bit virtual computer. There's even a smaller version of Minecraft that can be played and built entirely in Survival mode without any outside changes. In one case, a mod was made to teach younger players how to program using a virtual computer within a Minecraft world.

Another computer-like feature in Minecraft is the command block. This block is only available in Creative mode and can change how the game works. Examples of things made with command blocks include an emulator for the Atari 2600 and a version of Pokémon Red Version.

In September 2014, the British Museum in London announced plans to recreate its building and all its exhibits in Minecraft. They worked with the public on this project. Microsoft and the non-profit organization Code.org teamed up to offer Minecraft-based games, puzzles, and tutorials to help children learn how to program. By March 2018, Microsoft and Code.org reported that over 85 million children had used their tutorials.

In 2025, a temporary exhibition called "Minerals in Minecraft" is being held at the Musée de Minéralogie in Paris.

Games Like Minecraft

After Minecraft became very popular in 2010, other video games were criticized for being too similar. Some were called "clones" because they were directly inspired by Minecraft or looked very similar. Examples include Ace of Spades, CastleMiner, FortressCraft, and Terraria. One game designer, David Frampton, said his 2D game failed partly because its pixel art looked too much like Minecraft.

A fan-made version of the alpha Minecraft for the Nintendo DS, called DScraft, was released. It was noted for how similar it was to the original game, even with the DS's limitations. When Microsoft bought Mojang and Minecraft, many developers announced new clone games specifically for Nintendo consoles. This was because Nintendo was the only major platform that didn't officially have Minecraft at the time. These clone games included UCraft, Cube Life: Island Survival, and Discovery. However, players' fears were not realized, as official Minecraft releases eventually came to Nintendo consoles.

Markus Persson made another similar game, Minicraft, for a game competition in 2011. In 2025, Persson announced he was thinking about making a new game that would be like a follow-up to Minecraft. He later said he was "100% serious" and had "basically announced Minecraft 2." However, within days, Persson canceled the plans after talking to his team.

In November 2024, artificial intelligence companies released Oasis. This is an AI-generated version of Minecraft made to show what AI can do. Every part of the game is created by AI in real time. The model doesn't save world data, which can lead to "hallucinations" where items or blocks appear that weren't there before.

Minecon and Other Events

Minecon was an annual official fan convention for Minecraft. The first big Minecon was held in November 2011 in Las Vegas. The event included the official launch of Minecraft, speeches by creators like Persson, building and costume contests, Minecraft-themed classes, exhibits, merchandise, and chances to meet Mojang employees and famous Minecraft community members. In 2016, Minecon was held in person for the last time. In the following years, there were annual "Minecon Earth" livestreams online, later renamed "Minecraft Live." These livestreams included votes for new mobs or biomes and announcements of new game updates. In 2025, "Minecraft Live" became an event held twice a year, as part of Minecraft's new update schedule.

See also

In Spanish: Minecraft para niños