Minecraft Has Made Around $33 Million In Revenue, Says Creator

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For those of you who love you some Minecraft, you might be shocked to find that there are a whole lot of other people who also love them some Minecraft. In fact, there’s sufficient Minecraft love out there, according to game creator Markus “Notch” Persson, that Minecraft has pulled down about $33 million bucks so far in revenues.

And somewhere, possibly at EA, someone’s head exploded.

Seriously, though, considering that Minecraft has just over 1.8 million purchases to its credit, and in a relatively short time frame, too (the game managed to get a million purchasers back in January, only a month after the beta version came out and about seven months after the original alpha version hit), it’s really nothing less than one of those very rare indie success stories.

Naturally, of course, this doesn’t mean that Notch is currently holding $33 million–he’s quick to point out that there were development costs, taxes, and of course, Paypal fees that all took their bite out of the rather sizable pie that Minecraft baked–but one thing is clear: this game has done spectacularly well for itself.

By way of comparison, about three weeks or so ago, we found out that Grand Theft Auto Four had sold 20 million copies in right around three years. And Minecraft, in just about eight months, has had ten percent of the sales of Grand Theft Auto Four. Let that sink in for a second.

It helps, of course, that most people find Minecraft to be a surprisingly fun sandbox title that gives you substantial control over the world around you, but it also helps that there haven’t been many titles like Minecraft ever released. And in a gaming environment where we see a lot of the same thing over and over again (how many first person shooters have you played in the last couple months?), a note of originality can go a long way. Like $33 million long.