Minecraft stays strong after 10 years with 112 million players per month

By Aaron Mamiit September 16, 2019

Minecraft, which celebrated its 10th birthday earlier this year, remains a dominant force in the video game industry with more than 112 million players per month.

The figure represents an increase of more than 20 million players since Microsoft’s last update in October 2018, which is an impressive feat considering the game’s age and its roots as a work-in-progress project by a single man, Markus “Notch” Persson.

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Making the total number of monthly players even more significant is that Minecraft is not a free-to-play game, unlike today’s standard-bearers such as Fortnite and Apex Legends. The players who were added over the span of less than a year bought the game in one of the many consoles, computers, and mobile devices where it is available, whether as a physical purchase or as a digital download.

Microsoft acquired Minecraft in 2014 for $2.5 billion, a surprising move at the time, but one that now looks like a steal five years after. On its 10th birthday, Microsoft said that Minecraft has sold more than 176 million copies, which may make it the best-selling video game of all time.

“What we find is that it’s a game that players keep coming back to,” Minecraft studio head Helen Chiang told Business Insider in an interview. “It may not always be the one that’s in the forefront, because there are a lot of great games that continue to come out, but it’s one that they love to return to,” she added.

The evergreen nature of Minecraft, which players can just pick up and play no matter the time that has passed since the last session, has largely contributed to the game’s popularity, in addition to its wide availability. Its blocky graphics and simple mechanics make its accessible for players on budget devices, while the game’s capabilities are only limited by the player’s imagination.

Minecraft is not going away any time soon, and may even have another player boost on the horizon with Minecraft Earth, which will bring the building blocks to real life. The augmented reality game’s Android beta recently launched to join the iOS beta, in preparation for a wider public release that is expected within the year.

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Aaron received an NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was four years old, and he has been fascinated…

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The best Minecraft mods

Screenshot of a giant blocky volcano in Minecraft.

Since its release in 2011, more than 200 million copies of Minecraft have sold, and its continued popularity on YouTube over the years will only add to that record-breaking number. Despite the high number of popular Minecraft clones, youngsters and veteran gamers alike keep coming back to the original, in part because of how easy it is to find Minecraft mods that add a fresh spin on a classic experience.

We've sifted through heaps of weird and silly mods to find the best UI improvements, visual filters, new gameplay mechanics, and cool ideas that will keep Minecraft from becoming stale.

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The best Minecraft seeds for 2023

how to find a village in minecraft

When you spawn into a Minecraft world, it uses a seed number to generate … well, everything. This seed is the core code that builds the world and decides your spawn point in it. The cool part is that if you find a world you really like, you can copy, save, and share the seed. The result is a growing collection of very useful or interesting seeds that are perfect for players who want something new -- but not entirely random -- to explore. Down below are some of our favorites!

Note: These seeds are designed to work with the Minecraft Java edition. There’s no guarantee they will work with other versions of the game. However, you can sometimes switch to the Bedrock version using seeds up to 2147483649 and then subtracting or adding 4294967296 to Java seeds higher than 2147483649. Seeds higher than 4294967296 and negative seeds won’t work in Bedrock. We know; it’s weird, which is why it’s best to use the Java version whenever possible for this trick.
All-biome world
Seed: 1083719637794

Gaming

All mounts in Minecraft Legends and how to get them

Four players stand together in the 4v4 PvP mode of Minecraft Legends.

In yet another genre-mixup following Minecraft Dungeons, Minecraft Legends brings the open-world survival and building game to the RTS genre. Unlike most traditional RTS games, where you control the action from a detached, overhead perspective, this game keeps you in the action by giving you a character to control on the field itself. To keep the action fast-paced, and make sure you can easily control and order your mobs around, giving your character a mount is essential. Just like in the original game that inspired it, there are multiple creatures you can use as mounts, and they all behave and function differently. While the world in Minecraft Legends isn't randomly generated, it can still feel overwhelming trying to find what you're looking for. Here are all the mounts you can ride in Minecraft Legends, what they do, and where to find them.
How to get every mount in Minecraft Legends

There are four different mounts you can tame and ride throughout your quest in Minecraft Legends. These include the horse, bird, beetle, and tiger. All you have to do to ride a new one is find it and press Swap Mount when near it, but finding them is the tricky part. Here's where each of them resides in the world, plus what makes them special.
Where to find the horse
You won't have to go looking for the horse since you begin the game with one. This is the classic mount and is made for getting you around the map much faster than on foot. The horse's special ability is being able to sprint indefinitely at a high speed.
Where to find the bird
A bird may not sound like a creature you could ride, and yet here we are. These rainbow-colored birds are quite small, but not hard to find in the Jagged Peaks biome. Keep an eye on your map for a clue as to when you're close to one since they will automatically be marked for you. Once you've mounted a bird, you will be able to jump higher than any other mount, plus slowly glide from any height by holding the jump button.
Where to find the beetle
Perhaps an even stranger choice for a mount, the beetle is much bigger than their real-life counterparts. These insects are native to the Jungle biomes, so venture into the trees to snag one. The Beetle has two special attributes, the first it shares with the bird which is being able to glide by holding jump in the air. The beetle's unique skill is that it can climb up any surface. So, while slow, it is very versatile and strategic.
Where to find the tiger
Now we're talking! If you want to play He-Man and ride your very own tiger, get yourself on a safari to the Dry Savanna biome to track one down. The tiger has the most simple ability, which is that it is simply the fastest mount you can get. However, this speed does come with a downside. Unlike the Horse, the Tiger doesn't have infinite stamina, so you will need to slow down eventually.