As Minecraft fans celebrate the game’s 10-year anniversary, a recent blog post from Minecraft creative director Saxs Persson has revealed that 176 million copies of Minecraft have been sold worldwide, across all platforms.
Persson also stated that at least one copy of the game has been sold in nearly every country in the world—including four copies in Antarctica, according to a June 2016 post by developr Mojang. At the time of Mojang’s post, 106.85 million copies had been sold worldwide. Three years later, Minecraft continues to see steady rate of success. Microsoft has estimated that Minecraft sees at least 90 million monthly active players.
Some speculate Minecraft could become the bestselling game of all time, as Game Informer compared Minecraft’s numbers to Tetris. In 2010, The Tetris Company revealed that Tetris had managed to reach 170 million lifetime sales, though we haven’t received any updated figures since then, so it’s unclear if Minecraft has completely surpassed Tetris.
Despite this tremendous success, Microsoft has no plans to make a Minecraft 2 or any kind of direct sequel. According to head of Minecraft Helen Chiang, Microsoft wants to preserve the deep-rooted community that already exists within the original Minecraft, as a sequel could cause a “fracture” within the community. So, Microsoft instead plans to expand the game’s universe with new titles in the franchise—such as AR game Minecraft Earth and dungeon-crawler Minecraft Dungeons, both still in development. Minecraft Earth is slated to release to iOS and Android devices this summer, while Minecraft Dungeons is due to release on PC sometime this year.
The title first debuted on PC in 2009. Microsoft later acquired Minecraft along with Mojang in 2015 for $2.5 billion. Leading up to the 10-year anniversary celebrations, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that the game’s creator, Markus “Notch” Persson, would not be part of the anniversary, following controversial Tweets he’s made. He hasn’t been involved in the franchise since selling it to Microsoft.