Minecraft may be best-selling video game in history with 176 million copies sold

By Aaron Mamiit Published May 19, 2019

Minecraft, which launched 10 years ago for the PC, has sold more than 176 million copies, which possibly makes it the best-selling video game of all time.

Microsoft announced the milestone in an Xbox Wire post that celebrates Minecraft‘s 10th birthday. Despite being around for a decade, the game’s popularity remains strong, helped by its presence in practically all video game platforms available.

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At more than 176 million copies sold, Minecraft may be the best-selling video game of all time. Tetris is considered its closest rival, but it is difficult to compare the two games due to the different versions of the block-matching puzzler.

According to Windows Central, past iterations of Tetris, not including the free-to-play versions, have sold 70 million copies, which was reported in 2009. Electronic Arts then said that the mobile version reached 100 million copies sold in 2010, before adopting a free-to-play model. There may be some overlap, but even if the two figures are combined, they will come up short to Minecraft‘s reported copies sold.

There are estimates that suggest Tetris has been downloaded more than 500 million times, but with the different spin-offs, it is hard to keep track and make a direct comparison with Minecraft. The better comparison would be the also still wildly popular Grand Theft Auto V, which has sold about 110 million copies after launching in 2013.

In celebration of the milestone, Microsoft also announced Minecraft Earth, a free-to-play augmented reality game for mobile phones that looks to bring the game’s mechanics into the real world. It looks to better utilize AR technology compared to Pokémon Go, while staying true to the world-building experience with the same Bedrock engine used in all other versions of the game.

Minecraft Earth will feature microtransactions, but details on that remain scarce. The developers claim that it will not be a pay-to-win game, but that is also unclear because there will be no player vs. player mode in the mobile game.

The closed beta for Minecraft Earth will launch this summer on both iOS and Android. Microsoft seemingly has more in store for Minecraft‘s 10th birthday though, so fans of the franchise should stay tuned.

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