With its iconic blocky visual style, intuitive crafting system, rewarding resource acquisition, and many multiplayer game modes to explore, Minecraft revolutionized the sandbox survival genre. Fifteen years later, it’s still going strong.
The game was created by the Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson over a single weekend in May 2009. A month later, Notch founded the Stockholm-based Mojang Studios to develop Minecraft 1.0.0, the official version released for Mac and PC in November 2011. Microsoft announced its acquisition of Minecraft and Mojang Studios in September 2014, after the game had sold 54 million copies and boasted 100 million registered users.
Contrary to the concerns of big-is-bad types, Minecraft‘s charm has only grown since its Big Tech acquisition. Minecraft 26.1—the newest version of the game, released in March—features myriad new blocks, mechanics, mobs, and challenges that preacquisition Minecraft lacked.
