How many people play Minecraft? — 2024 statistics

Minecraft has 600 million registered users.

(Source: Tweak Town)

• It means that 28.5% of the people in mainland China own the game, or 1 in every 4 people.
• China added 100,000,000 new users in 2020 all by itself, establishing a new growth record for Minecraft. In 2018, “only” 150 million registered users were from China.

People often wonder why China usually has different release dates and why companies wait for their numbers in an abated breath. Here’s your answer: China is a GIGANTIC market for entertainment. If you can strike gold there, you are bound to do well. With its population in the billions, no one would want to miss on that. And to show you how much they are doted on: Minecraft is free to play there with a lot of exclusive content found nowhere else.

Minecraft hit a new record with 141 million monthly active users in 2021.

(Source: Windows Central )

• In 2020, the average number of monthly players was 131 million. For comparison, it was “only” 91 million in 2019.
• Minecraft multiplayer mode has recorded over 1 billion hours logged in.
• In 2019, Chinese players had already collectively spent 400,000 years worth of playing the game.
• During the peak of the pandemic in 2020, the game enjoyed a 25% increase in the number of active users and a surge of 40% in the number of multiplayer sessions.

Minecraft has always observed a steady growth since its launch, but since 2017, the numbers have just kept escalating. 2020 came with a bang, and with all the consequences we know it had on the external and internal world, and of course, Minecraft was there to enjoy it. Well deserved, of course, since it allowed many people not to feel alone. And also to keep busy. The number of daily players is lower now, but the game is still doing exceptionally well. What was left after the craze is that… Minecraft is a titan in the gaming industry.

The average age of a Minecraft player is 24.

(Source: PCGamesN)

• Boys aged 3-12 represent 54% of that group playing Minecraft against 32% for girls.
• In the 6 to 8 bracket, 68% are male and 29% female.
• Minecraft was deemed suitable for kids aged 7 and above.

What is the average age of Minecraft players? Despite the simple graphics and open-ended gameplay, it’s a myth that Minecraft is just for kids. In reality, adults make up the average player base, as confirmed by Mojang, the game’s creators. Sure, there’s a significant number of younger players, but the content and community around Minecraft reveal a broader appeal that extends well into adulthood. Given its popularity among kids, though, Mojang keeps a close watch on the game’s content and player interactions to maintain a safe environment. So, it’s interesting to note that the average age of a Minecraft player isn’t as young as some might assume.

Minecraft key stats

With such success, everyone is curious about topics focused on revenues, profits, the number of downloads, and more information around the game itself.

Minecraft is the second best-selling game in the world with 300 million copies sold.

(Source: Digital Trends)

• May 2020 ended with 200 million copies sold, while the year before (2019), the game ended its fiscal year with 176 million units sold. In 2018, it boasted 154 million copies sold worldwide.
• In Japan, the game has sold over 1 million copies on Switch and more than 400,000 copies on PS4, making it the first Microsoft game to reach 1 million units sold in the country.
• 5.5 million copies were sold on Xbox One over the first six months of 2020, with 3.23 million of those copies originating from the US.

Minecraft surpassed GTA V and Wii Sports, and, unlike the other two, we can still see those numbers growing. Unfortunately, it will take a lot of work to beat the respected ancestor that is Tetris. Minecraft also helped Microsoft finally break a record in Japan, as the company is not the first choice of many Japanese folks when it comes to video games.

Creators using the Minecraft Marketplace earned $350 million in revenue up until now.

(Source: Windows Central)

• Content creators receive 50% of their profit, meaning that developers have earned more than $17 million selling their creations.
• In 2020, 12,000 content creators were active on the Marketplace selling their merchandise.
• When it started in 2017, only 9 creators were allowed and 3 months later, 3 more were added.
• 67% of players actively buy products sold on the Marketplace.
• There are more than 91,000 mods available for free for Minecraft!

Games like Roblox and Minecraft, allowing players to be a natural part of the process, really understood how to stimulate their monetization policy and flow and how invested the community will be. Many players appreciate the extra content, allowing them to customize a lot of things and have access to new adventures and mini-games. In China, the Marketplace is all the rage. Mods are entirely accepted by Mojang, who even worked to make them compatible with the Bedrock Edition. They are free, and you can add as many of them as you want. Like the assets in the Marketplace, they are appreciated and play a big role in Minecraft’s appeal. And considering that you have different repositories out there, God knows how many mods exist precisely.

The game generated $3 billion in lifetime revenue with just the profit made by selling the game, not including in-game transactions.

(Source: The Verge)

• Minecraft earned $415 million in revenue in 2020, while profit made on mobile devices amounted to $142.6 million.
• Mojang made $375 million from Minecraft in 2019 and $500 million in 2018.
• The Pocket Edition (now called Bedrock Edition) amassed over $110 million on mobile devices in 2018. Around this period, the United States was the bigger spender with 48% of that total coming from the country. It was then followed by Great Britain (6.6%) and Japan (5%).
• Microsoft bought Minecraft for $2.5 billion. This means that they have only bought the game, not Mojang, the company behind Minecraft.

Microsoft buying Minecraft was a good move for everyone. Mojang enjoys Microsoft’s cloud and technology, allowing them to develop better and faster tools and expand their reach. And in turn, Microsoft sees its revenues for in-app purchases increase exponentially.

Most servers are from the United States with a total of 3,064 (34%).

(Source: Minecraft Statistics)

• Great Britain comes in the second position with 2,259 servers (25.2%) and is followed by Germany and its 885 servers (9.9%).
• Canada is #4 with 329 servers (3.7%) and Russia is the last of the top 5 with 256 servers (2.9%).
• In the top 5 of the most popular servers of all time, all spots are occupied by the United States. Mineplex (#1) sits at the top with over 9 million votes and Extreme Craft (#5) rounds up the top 5 with 2,794,450 votes.

Taiwan and Ukraine are great contenders, but all in all, you can find servers from all over the world (with some countries only showing the one and only). With its high number of servers, the US also makes sure that most of them are active around the clock. They are even snatching most of the spots in the top 10. But the number of votes says it all: they are the crowd’s favorites, with some of them hosting hundreds of thousands of players.

Minecraft usage stats

Time to take a closer look at how the community consumes the game. When looking at Minecraft, it is not difficult to imagine how invested the community is: from gigantic buildings to whole cities, from elaborate mini-games to new skins and accessories for your characters… they have it all. Plus, as seen before, the active side of the community is still huge.

The United States has the highest number of active players on a daily basis at 21%.

(Source: Player Counter)

• It is followed by Brazil (6.17%) and Russia (5.59%).
• Great Britain (5.06%) and Germany (4.60%) round up the bottom of the top 5.
• A map published in 2016 showed that most players used their mobile devices to play the game with an average of 42% in total. Console players were not too far with 35.2% and PC players were last with 22.8%.

The regulars are here (the US and Brazil). In most rankings, whatever they may be about, you will always find Germany, Great Britain, and the US cementing their title as those countries that are really invested in the game. Japan should be here too, but unfortunately, the ratio in terms of the population makes it look like they are less active when it is the opposite.

Minecraft is the #1 Top Paid App All Categories on iPhone and on iPad.

(Source: Sensor Tower)

• It ranks #41 in Top Grossing Games on iPhone and #19 in Top Grossing Games on iPad.
• In Great Britain: the game snatched #2 for Top Paid Games on iPhone, but it #1 on iPad. For the Top Grossing Games on iPhone, it is #51 and #7 on iPad.
• In Japan: Minecraft dominates the Top Paid Games on iPhone AND on iPad. It ranks #41 for Top Grossing Games on iPhone and #19 on iPad.

Here are the three countries where the game has been downloaded the most via iOS. Other than that, Japan confirms its love for Minecraft as they are often found in rankings regarding the game. The franchise is still well-loved, but it looks like Apple users are keener to play on iPad. This is understandable as one would want a bigger screen to enjoy the experience with such a game fully.

Minecraft is the #1 Top Paid Game on the Google Play Store in the Top Paid App and the Top Paid Game (arcade) categories.

(Source: Sensor Tower)

• In Germany: It is also an all-kill in those three categories with the game ranking #1 everywhere.
• In Brazil: Another all-kill for Minecraft!

Not much can be said here as numbers are pretty loud. Minecraft is a golden child for Android users, who tend to establish a trend from one country to another. The game snatches first place in most categories, if not all! 

In 2020, Minecraft was the most-watched topic on Youtube and generated 201 billion views.

(Source: Windows Central)

• The official Minecraft YouTube channel has over 8.89 million subscribers.
• The channel has uploaded 591 videos that have garnered a whopping total of 1,469,126,531 views since December 2010.
• People tend to favor YouTube Gaming (59.8%) to watch Minecraft-related content rather than Twitch (40.2%).

The game is always in the top 5 of the most-watched games when checking the YouTube Gaming main page. It usually shows tens of thousands of people watching live streams or random videos. You have to admit that the community’s content is rather diverse: parodies, tips, explanations, speedruns, etc. There is something for everyone.

Minecraft is ranked #6 on Twitch.

(Source: Twitch)

• Over 7 days: the average number of viewers is 87,288, the average number of channels streaming the game is 3,063, the average number of viewers/channel is 28.5 and the average number of hours watched is 14,708,004.
• The peak number of viewers was 974,070 in May 2021 and the peak number of channels was 9,914 in January 2021.
• The game is streamed by 12% more channels during the weekend, and there are 6% more viewers.
• As of December 2021, Minecraft has accumulated a total of 55.8 million hours watched.

Now, those are numbers for a game that is in the Top 10 on Twitch! Minecraft is insanely popular, and starting your stream with it is bound to give you a few viewers. To think that in a week, millions of hours are consumed and when comparing the ratio of viewers/channels, it really does mean that there is always someone streaming and there is always someone watching Minecraft-based content. Of course, the game enjoys even a surge during the weekend when adults have some great free time, and kids do not have to think about homework to submit for the next day. Who are those people who keep asking if Minecraft is dead?

Minecraft spin-offs

Minecraft can be found literally on every console and gaming platform. The content might be a bit altered depending on the device used since they do not all have the same capacity, but the core is still the same. But, the main game (turned full franchise) counts among its ranks, a few spin-offs using different genres and gameplays.

Minecraft Dungeons has now surpassed 10 million players.

(Source: Windows Central)

• The final boss of the game has been defeated 5.9 million times.
• The Redstone Monstrosity has been defeated 7 million times, but 19.5 million attempts were made to do so.
• More than 1.1 billion health potions have been used to heal the players.
• Players have used more than 13 billion items.
• A total of 6,660 years has been spent fighting enemies and players have accumulated 114 years in Camp.

Switching its gears completely, Dungeons is a Diablo-like ARPG and nothing like the main game. It still has its charm, though. The game has been doing well for itself since its release in 2020. Players are highly invested in it, as suggested by the astounding numbers compiled: consistently scoring in the millions. Mojang takes good care of it by adding updates and patches pretty often.

Prior shut down, Minecraft Earth was boasted 18 million installs.

(Source: Pocket Gamer)

• 7.3 million of those were recorded in 2019, while the remaining 10.7 million belong in 2020 as the global lockdowns started.
• During its first month, it was downloaded 2.5 million times.
• The game only earned $498,000 in lifetime revenue over its 2 years of existence.
• Despite generating 6 million of those installs, the United States only spent a total of $305,000 on the game.
• In 2019, Minecraft brought home $242,000 in global revenue and did not fare better in 2020 by racking up only $255,000.

As a location-based game, Minecraft Earth fell on hard times because of the global crisis, not being able to emulate the continuous success of Pokemon GO. Considering that it was not even able to cross the $500,000 threshold, the decision to shut the game down seems logical. This is a shame as the game had started under clear skies and could have been another Minecraft hit.

Minecraft eSports

Mojang and Microsoft do not seem to be interested in eSports, but that did not stop the community from organizing their own independent events. Several small tournaments or events are being held online for the pleasure of Minecraft users around the world.

The largest prize pool in a tournament reached a total of $100K

(Source: eSports Earnings)

• It was the prize money for the Dream vs Technoblade Minecraft Tournament organized by Mr Beast.
• Mr Beast is also the one behind the Minecraft Monday events and their $10,000 prize.
• The total amount of the prize money awarded in Minecraft tournaments amounts to $429,539 with the US earning $239,775 out of that grand total.

The community is doing well to provide exciting tournaments and contests. Mr Beast, the Minecraft YouTuber known for his bottomless pockets, is also an important figure as he keeps organizing huge events that always have prize money involved. But it is not just him: Skeepy held the “Last One to Leave the Server” challenges at one point too. France or Japan even have their own tournaments, and there are Twitch Rivals events for Minecraft.

To sum up

How can you measure the actual value of a game? When it is still around and going strong, after ten years of existence, a sudden craze that pushed everyone to try it for a while and a pandemic that forced people to stay home. The game is so popular and intuitive that four copies were sold in Antarctica. I don’t recall any difficult period for Minecraft: it has been smooth sailing for Mojang from the beginning since their game has been delivering quality content from day 1. Their most significant force is how open the game allows players to shape their own experience.

The social aspect has been well integrated through all the mini-games, dungeons, and maps that players enjoy creating. And some of them are just crazily good! Microsoft made the right decision when they stated that they decided not to touch the studio and its staff: I do think that it would have destroyed its core somehow if they had replaced them with their own people.

Plus, the game is showing versatility. Not only in all the merchandise available (movies, goodies, novels, etc.) but in terms of gameplay. Dungeons is a bona fide RPG and it was done pretty well. Earth would have been a hit if not for COVID-19. Minecraft is even used as learning material in Sweden: teachers explain environmental issues, efficient planning, and coding to their students. Ten years and Minecraft is still not out of breath after all that running, so there is no reason to stop now, right?