Minecraft is very popular. So popular in fact that its total global all-format sales have now exceeded 106 million copies – and the most popular format for the game is mobile.
In a blog update, Minecraft developer Mojang has broken down some of the more impressive stats surrounding the game. Accounting for sales on PC, console, and the Pocket Edition, the game has sold 106,859,714 copies.
Most surprisingly, given the game originated on PC in 2009, the desktop version of the game is now the least popular in all regions except Asia and Asia-Pacific. Minecraft Pocket Edition tops the charts for most users overall, and for most users by region, with the exception of South America.
Europe has the most even spread of Minecraft players across formats though – 36 per cent on mobile, 35 per cent on consoles, and 29 per cent on PC. Globally, console figures combine the game’s release on all platforms, so actual users across Xbox One, PS4, Wii U, and other formats fragment the numbers further.
Credit Mojang
Sales haven’t slowed down, either, despite the fact roughly 1.5 per cent of Earth’s 7 billion-strong population has already bought the game. Minecraft has averaged around 53,000 copies sold each day through 2016 so far.
Mojang puts the player base numbers into perspective by contrasting against actual population figures. If every person who’d bought the game formed one brick-loving country, it would be the 12th most populous on Earth, coming just behind Japan.
“We’d like to offer our heartfelt thanks to every one of you who’s bought Minecraft over the past few years, no matter which platform you play on,” wrote Mojang’s Owen Hill. “We’re constantly in awe of our community and the amazing things you achieve together. You really are the best. <3”
Given Minecraft Pocket Edition is the reigning champ of all things mining and crafty, it’s only fitting that Mojang has announced a wave of improvements coming to the game in its next update. The upcoming 0.15 release (a beta version of which can be signed up for now) upgrades both Pocket and Windows 10 editions of the game, and will integrate Xbox Live achievements on iOS and Android, use less bandwidth for online play, and introduce a whole new user interface for the main menu.
Known as ‘The Friendly Update’ – Mojang promises “mysterious, as-yet-unspecified friendliness” – it will also introduce new block types, more villages, and ridable pigs, while fixing almost a dozen bugs.