Minecraft turns building blocks into the best-selling game ever
A Swedish programmer's procedurally generated world becomes a Microsoft franchise
Quick facts
- Creator
- Markus "Notch" Persson
- Studio
- Mojang
- Original release
- 2009
- Microsoft acquisition
- $2.5 billion, September 2014
What happened
Markus 'Notch' Persson released the first public version of Minecraft through his studio Mojang in 2009, putting players into a procedurally generated, blocky world with almost no set objectives, where they mine raw materials and use them to build anything from simple shelters to elaborate structures, largely setting their own goals as they go. The game's minimal graphics kept it lightweight enough to run on modest hardware while its open-ended construction and survival mechanics drew a global following that spanned young children to serious hobbyist builders. In 2014, Microsoft agreed to acquire Mojang and the Minecraft franchise for 2.5 billion dollars, folding the studio into Microsoft Studios alongside Halo and Forza while Persson and his co-founders departed the company.
Why it matters
Minecraft became the best-selling video game of all time and demonstrated that a game built around open-ended creation rather than a fixed win condition could reach a wider and more varied audience than nearly any traditional franchise, a lesson reflected in the games and platforms that copied its sandbox-building formula afterward.
How we know
Microsoft's own newsroom announcement of the 2014 acquisition states the purchase price and the game's download figures directly from the company; The Strong National Museum of Play's World Video Game Hall of Fame entry independently corroborates Minecraft's original 2009 release by Mojang and its status as a global phenomenon.
Sources
- Microsoft News Center. Minecraft to join Microsoft · Primary source (author-declared)news.microsoft.com · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- The Strong National Museum of Play. Minecraft · Reputable sourcemuseumofplay.org · The domain "museumofplay.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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