The history of Minecraft, explained for parents
From its earliest days to the recent blockbuster film, we look at the history of the worlds most popular game
Minecraft is the biggest game in the world. It has sold an estimated 350 million copies and spawned a massive franchise that includes other games, toys and the recently released A Minecraft Movie.
To celebrate the legendary game and help parents understand the ins and outs of Minecraft, we thought we'd put together a brief history of the worlds most popular game.
For more on Minecraft's age-rating and parental controls, check out our Minecraft guide for parents. And if you're looking to better understand Fortnite, check out our Fortnite guide for parents.
When did Minecraft come out?
The first full version of Minecraft, known as the 'Adventure Update', was released on the 18th November 2011. However, this was far from the first version of the game.
Technically, the Adventure Update was version 1.0 and followed an extensive public testing period that began in May 2009.
Without getting too technical, games usually go through long periods of testing where rough versions of the game, usually without a lot of features, are put through the ringer by players in order to make sure the game is as polished as possible.
The very earliest version of Minecraft - back when it was known as 'Cave Game' - was teased back in early 2009 before the first public version, now known as 'Classic', was released. Then Alpha launched in June 2010, followed by the Beta in December of the same year.
These early versions of Minecraft exploded in popularity, with players all over the world testing out this unique, block-based crafting RPG. I was one such player, downloading the Minecraft Alpha on my family's old shared PC and playing the game for hours with my friends (unfortunately, I lost access to most of those old Minecraft worlds a long time ago).
The game launched for consoles in 2012, with the 'Pocket Edition' for phones and tablets launching the year before.
The most well-known version of the game, Bedrock, launched on 20th September 2017, unifying the experience across platforms through what Mojang called the 'Better Together Update'.
Who created Minecraft?
Minecraft was developed by a small team in Sweden, including programmer Jens Peder Bergensten, who went on to form the company Mojang, which still manages the development and updates of the game today.
The game took years to develop and was largely built in public through extensive use of pre-released testing. Minecraft received regular updates which added new block types, crafting recipes and more, with each new version of the game adding even more players.
During this testing period, it became a bit of an in-joke within the Minecraft player community that the game hadn't technically launched yet despite the fact that millions of people, myself included, were already playing it every day.
Who owns Minecraft?
In 2014, Mojang was bought by Microsoft for a staggering $2.5 billion (a bargain considering what the franchise is worth today).
Microsoft has gone on to expand the Minecraft franchise to include new games like Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends, as well as launching the Minecraft Education edition.
The expanded Minecraft franchise
We've already mentioned Minecraft Dungeons and Legends, games that take the core world and mechanics of Minecraft and apply it to other game genres like dungeon crawlers, but the Minecraft franchise has grown far beyond the world of gaming.
Merchandise, including toys that bring Minecraft's blocky tools into the real world and books ranging from crafting guides to novels, has taken over the world (and probably your house, if you're reading this) since the game was launched.
Minecraft and LEGO were a match made in heaven when the legendary toy brand teamed up with Mojang and Microsoft to launch a range of LEGO Minecraft sets. The partnership has since spawned the LEGO Minecraft magazine and a huge range of sets featuring Creepers, Endermen and more (this adorable LEGO Minecraft Fox Lodge set is my personal favourite).
Perhaps the best example of Minecraft's impact, beyond the game, was this year's release of A Minecraft Movie, which exploded like a block of TNT into cinemas back in April.
The film, which inspired some top-draw memes (just search 'Chicken Jockey' on TikTok), was a certified sensation with audiences grossing a massive $900+ million at the box office and becoming this generation's Rocky Horror Picture Show thanks to its particularly rowdy screenings.