Minecraft has sold 300m copies, but is it the best selling game or the 2nd best? – WGB, Home of AWESOME Reviews

Minecraft developer Mojang announced the other week that Minecraft had surpassed a whopping 300 million copies sold. It’s a huge number for the Microsoft owned game, and its popularity seemingly keeps growing. It has become a household name since the first version became available in 2009. At the time, Minecraft was wholly owned by Mojang which was founded by Markus Persson, better known as Notch. Markus went on to sell Mojang and Minecraft to Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 due to the company and game becoming larger and larger.

The newly announced sales numbers are a big jump from the last reported sales data in April 2021 when Mojang confirmed that Minecraft had sold 238 million copies. That means over the past couple of years its sold just over 60 million copies across Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, PC, Android and Apple. Neither Mojang or Microsoft have offered a detailed breakdown of sales, but I think its safe to assume that at least some of the sales have come from people owning more than one copy of the game. Being able to carry progression across platforms means someone who owns it on console can also grab the mobile version for when they are out and about.

According to Wikipedia and many people this comfortably makes Minecraft the best selling game of all time, a substantial 125 million copies above Grand Theft Auto V which sits in second place on the charts. It’s difficult to say exactly what has made Minecraft so incredibly successful. While it’s undoubtedly popular with children, the stats reveal that the average age of Minecraft players is 24. Perhaps its simply because Minecraft taps into our love of exploration and creation, or because its so approachable and yet surprisingly deep.

Of course, it does help that Minecraft is readily available on almost every platform. These days you can pick it up Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, PC and mobile.

However, there is a fun little debate about the numbers. You see, the official Tetris website claims that Tetris has sold over 520 million copies since it first launched in 1985. That would easily make it the best selling game of all time. But as people have rightfully pointed out, there have been a lot of different versions of Tetris featuring substantially different graphics, mechanics and more. That makes Tetris a franchise with multiple entries rather than a singular game like Minecraft.

Indeed, Wikipedia lists the 2006 Tetris Mobile, published by EA, as being in 3rd place with 100 million copies sold, while the 1989 Tetris for the Gameboy sits at 11th with 48 million copies sold.

So, if we look at the numbers by franchise is Tetris at the top of the leaderboard? Nope. It comes in second to Nintendo’s iconic plumber. The Mario franchise has sold over 830 million copies, an incredible number that’s probably going to jump up by a few more million now that Super Mario Bros. Wonder has launched. Of all the Mario games that have been published to date, its Mario Kart 8 that still reigns supreme with nearly 64 million copies sold, the vast majority being on the Switch.

Tetris can at least claim the honour of beating Pokemon which boasts around 480 million sales. It’s not much of a lead though, and with new Pokemon games coming out every year it seems like Tetris is going to lose its second place. There’s also the looming Call of Duty juggernaut which consistently sells tens of millions every year.

Taking everything into account, I think it’s very clear that Minecraft is the single best selling game of all time. While Tetris is a huge part of gaming’s history, its sales stem from multiple different versions, many of which are very different.

But, one thing which Tetris holds over its rivals is its importance: it’s still often hailed as the perfect videogame. Its minimalist design is so incredibly easy to understand that anyone can play it, and yet its difficult to master. Stare at the screen long enough and your brain will enter into something magical that’s typically referred to as the Tetris Effect, a weird sense of zen where the correct moves require no thought at all. It’s a state of mind that has been written about countless times, like this fantastic article from Tech Radar.

Perhaps, then, Tetris and Minecraft aren’t so different after all. They are both simple but complex, relaxing but thrilling.