When games are considered classics, they just never really die out. Fans of the game will continue to flock towards it regardless of updates, upgrades, or changes. This is true for games like Minecraft, the classic game has been around since 2009, and it’s been thriving all over the world.
According to Playercounter, between 2.8 million and 3.6 million people have already played Minecraft concurrently across all devices. It is also ranked number 9 on Twitch as the most viewed game. About 122,000 people watched Minecraft gameplay over on Twitch as of 2022.
Despite its simplicity, it’s incredible how this game managed to rack up such good numbers. Next, I’ll go more into detail about the number of players Minecraft currently has.
What’s the Maximum Number of Player Per Day
It’s still early into 2022, but Minecraft’s active player count doesn’t seem to be dwindling by a significant number. While Minecraft experiences a few inactive players every couple of months. The tendency of players to get back into the game is high, and there are new players yearly.
Minecraft has consistently rated well in sales currently. The video game is on the list of most-downloaded applications of Google Play. In addition, it is the most-downloaded paid game app on the Google play store. According to Google Play, the app was downloaded on more than 10 million different devices.
The app also keeps the gameplay interesting. There aren’t many changes in how to play the game, but things like new maps get added every now and then. For example, people started to get active with the game again in the year 2022 because of the Hogwarts map.
The game also gets good exposure due to the number of streams and YouTube game content creators deciding to show the game on their channel. Forbes stated that the game has been watched on YouTube over 201 billion times.
Below is a table of Minecraft’s current active users and the highest number of active users they have gotten within a day for the last 12 months.
| Month | Average Monthly Players | Monthly Gain/Loss | Monthly Gain/Loss % | Peak Players in a Day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last 30 Days | 172,055,419 | -1,449,027 | -0.84% | 15, 837,529 |
| February 2022 | 173,504,226 | -517,113 | -0.30% | 15.970,911 |
| January 2022 | 174,021,559 | -989,911 | -0.57% | 16,018, 510 |
| December 2021 | 175,011,470 | 1,409,253 | 0.81% | 16,109,631 |
| November 2021 | 173,602,216 | 1,002,070 | 0.58% | 15,979,910 |
| October 2021 | 172,600,146 | 5,839,999 | 3.50% | 15,887, 671 |
| September 2021 | 166,760,147 | 2,705,017 | 1.65% | 15,350,105 |
| August 2021 | 164,055,130 | 1,999,986 | 1.23% | 15,101,111 |
| July 2021 | 162,055,144 | 2,149,628 | 1.34% | 14,917,014 |
| June 2021 | 159,905,516 | 8,879,956 | 5.88% | 14,719,143 |
| May 2021 | 151,025, 560 | 6,014,092 | 4.15% | 13,901,752 |
Minecraft Players by Country
Every year Minecraft generates millions of sales. About 200 million copies of Minecraft were sold worldwide over the past year. It seems the pandemic has boosted up sales for video games since people were looking for things to do during the lockdown.
Statista recorded the sales of other years of the video game as well. The first time Minecraft hit its first 100 million units sold was back in 2016. Since then, the sales have been growing steadily worldwide.
The US gaming community is one of the largest in the world. According to Playercounter, 21% of all Minecraft players come from the US. Meanwhile, 6.17% come from Brazil, 5.59% come from Russia, $5.06 from the UK, and 4.60% from Germany.
Minecraft Players by Device
Minecraft can be played on multiple platforms aside from PC. It’s been available for Consoles such as the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Playstation 4, and Xbox One. The Pocket Edition is also widely popular, allowing users to download their games on their mobile devices so they can play.
A lot of people still like the feel of using the game through a console. In the previous study by Gamestat, up to 68% of Minecraft players use the Playstation 4 for their console of choice. Meanwhile, 28% favor using their Playstation 3, and about 4% use a vita to play the game.
In August 2020, Xbox one reported a total of 5.43 million Minecraft copies were sold for their console worldwide. The video game also had over 10 million downloads on different devices using the Google Play App store.
How Many People Have Left Minecraft?
Since the pandemic, it seems Minecraft has been experiencing a growth of players rather than a decline. However, life has started to regularize again despite the world still being under the pandemic. People with day jobs have started reporting to work, and social activities and events are slowly making a comeback. Unfortunately, because of all of us returning to the old normal, there’s been a slight decline in the number of active players.
The decline started in the month of January, probably because of the end of Christmas break and the Holidays. As a result, Minecraft saw about 989,911 players leave the game. By the end of February, another 517,113 users became inactive. Activeplayer reported that the video game lost 1,499,027 players over the last 30 days since the first week of March.
Last year, the game had the most player growth in the month of June, adding 8,879,956 more active players than the previous month. Although the previous monthly gain of players the video game accumulated was on the month of December last year, the video game managed to gain about 1,409,254 more users over the previous month.
| Month | Player Gain/Loss | Percentage of Player Gain/Loss |
|---|---|---|
| Last 30 days | -1,449,027 | -0.84% |
| February 2022 | -517,113 | -0.30% |
| January 2022 | -989,911 | -0.57% |
| December 2021 | 1,409,254 | 0.81% |
| November 2021 | 1,002,070 | 0.58% |
| October 2021 | 5,839,999 | 3.50% |
| September 2021 | 2,705,017 | 1.65% |
| August 2021 | 1,999,986 | 1.23% |
| July 2021 | 2,149,628 | 1.34% |
| June 2021 | 8,879,956 | 5.88% |
| May 2021 | 6,014,092 | 4.15% |
How Much Money Has Minecraft Made?
There hasn’t been a released study for how Minecraft is doing for the year 2022, and we’re still waiting for the complete total revenue of the game for 2021 to be released. But here are some of the data that have been made public.
While the total revenue of Minecraft for the year 2021 has yet to be released, Statista has already released the revenue for the mobile version of Minecraft. The video game is apparently a huge success even in the mobile gaming community. In 2015, the video game generated about $81.68 million in profit. Fast forward to 2019, the game hit its first $100 million, with total revenue of $111 million.
By the time the Mobile game hit in 2020, the company had gained $142 million in revenue on the game. Finally, in 2021, which is the last reported year for revenue, Minecraft mobile generated $160.69 million in revenue. So, despite the decline of active players, I’m still hopeful that this game can still generate more revenue for the years to come.
Meanwhile, the last total revenue for Minecraft on all platforms was recorded in the year 2020. According to the last report, the video game had a total revenue that amounted to $415 million. While the exact number is not revealed for the year 2021, we can bet the number will increase.
| Year | Revenue |
|---|---|
| 2012 | $211 Million |
| 2013 | $326 Million |
| 2014 | $165 Million |
| 2015 | $350 Million |
| 2016 | $420 Million |
| 2017 | $370 Million |
| 2018 | $500 Million |
| 2019 | $375 Million |
| 2020 | $415 Million |
| 2021 | Not yet known |
| 2022 | Not yet known |
Other Interesting Facts About Minecraft
The game Minecraft was both developed and published in 2011 by Mojang Studios, meaning the game has existed for over a decade. Since the game’s release, it has become one of the most favored 3D sandbox games of all time. While the game has attracted most people in their mid-20s, about 68% of boys between the ages of 6 and 8 years old are reported to play Minecraft.
Also, despite Minecraft doing okay in the market even before, the rights to the game were still sold to Microsoft. Microsoft managed to acquire ownership of the game for $2.5 Billion in the year 2014. It was a great investment by Microsoft since the game has been doing well in charts and sales.
Microsoft makes sure to generate income through other mods and add-ons in the game. According to their third quarter in the fiscal year of 2021, these in-game purchases were downloaded by players for over 1 billion times. This move added to over $350 million Minecraft sales across the globe.
With its first 3 months under Microsoft, the game managed to earn over $1 million through selling in-game merchandise on the official marketplace. In addition, content creators partnered with the game can also offer maps, texture packs, and character skins for a player.
If people thought the most-watched game on YouTube was Among Us in 2020, they are wrong. Minecraft is actually the most viewed game on Youtube in the year 2020. Accordingly, the game has been seen over 201 billion times on the video platform. In addition, Roblox, a game that is constantly compared to Minecraft, has also landed as the second most viewed game on YouTube.
Meanwhile, in 2022 the game is in the Top 13 most viewed games over at Twitch, having over 60.4 million hours viewed in January. So the game is not only being enjoyed being played, but fans of the game have been anticipating their favorite streamers and content creators to play it.
The game is popular since it is open to almost all ages. In fact, the game is even recommended for kids ages 8 and up because it is believed to help them explore their creativity. The game is also not overly violent and has easy to teach and learn the commands.
Parents don’t have to be too worried over getting this game for their children. In fact, the game has an integrated educational component, where the game is actually used to teach lessons.
It’s safe to say that Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the video game industry. Despite the recent decline of active users, the game has a long way from actually dying. With all its extensions and modes, this sandbox game is easily a timeless classic that can be enjoyed by all ages.
Where Can I Get Minecraft?
It’s possible to purchase the Java Edition from Mojan’s website for $26.95. Meanwhile, a Windows 10 version is available in the Microsoft Store for $29.99.
You can also play the classic version of the game online for free. Playing it this way doesn’t require you to install or download the game. This treat was given to us by Minecraft’s 10th year of celebration.