Sat, Mar 24, 2012 | 14:00 GMT
Minecraft hits $80M in sales with over 5M paid downloads
Financials filed by Mojang have revealed since Minecraft’s launch in October 2010, the game has accumulated over $80 million thanks to more than 5 million paid downloads.
The report on the Financial Times also states that over $1 million was made through merchandise licensing with T-shirts and socks the most popular items of the lot.
With over 4 million YouTube videos online showing off user creations in the game, it was only a matter of time before the developer was approached by Hollywood, with ideas of Minecraft-related content on television; however, Carl Manneh, Mojang’s chief executive has said the firm will only do projects outside the realm of gaming “if the right idea comes along.”
“We’ve been approached by a number of high-profile Hollywood producers and asked to do TV shows,” said Manneh. “We may do that. It’s hard when you don’t have any experience and someone comes to throw these ideas around.
“We have so much to focus on with just the game development and growing the business. But if the right idea comes along and the right people that we’d want to work with, we’d say why not?”
Minecraft releases on Xbox 360 May 9.
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Posted in: Financials, Mobile, PC, Sandbox, Xbox 360
Tags: Carl Manneh, Minecraft, Mojang
13 comments
#1
TheWulf
24/03/12, 2:45 pm
Piracy is such a problem on the PC, with all of those PC gamers being unwilling to pay for anything.
/irony
#2
DSB
24/03/12, 2:59 pm
80…. Million…. Dollars.
That’s like half of Swedens GDP. Bigger than the herring AND berry market.
It’s also more than half a billion in Swedish currency.
#3
vogelkacke
24/03/12, 3:15 pm
and that was another episode of “facts nobody cares about”
thanks dsb
#4
TheWulf
24/03/12, 6:27 pm
@2
Heh, might interest you to know that some of the Swedes I know are flipping out over this. I’ve been hearing a lot of “HE’D BETTER BE PAYING TAX ON THAT!” which is entertaining.
I wonder if he is.
#5
DSB
24/03/12, 6:33 pm
@4 I thought it was only lower Scandinavians who were that petty
But there’s no way he isn’t. The company is filed in Sweden, so there’s no way they can get around the revenue service. Especially with this kind of publicity.
The Swedes are like the Germans times two when it comes to everything being neat and tidy.
#6
naveto
24/03/12, 7:13 pm
@2
Sweden’s GDP is well over 300 billion dollars…
#7
DSB
24/03/12, 7:22 pm
@6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm
#8
naveto
24/03/12, 8:01 pm
ah, I thought it might be.
#9
Giskard
24/03/12, 9:59 pm
I bet he’s really liking our 60% tax rate for the wealthy!
Only two things are certain in (swedish) life: meatballs and taxes.
#10
Lord Snow
25/03/12, 2:35 am
24,898,962 registered users, of which 5,352,198 (21.50%) have bought the game.
#11
Sini
25/03/12, 7:18 am
sounds about right, keep in mind minecraft costs only like $15? If it was $59.99 it would be alot smaller than 21%
#12
jacobvandy
25/03/12, 9:11 am
It’s $27 now, but I’m sure the percentage was higher back when it was in alpha and being sold for around $10. Not just because it was cheaper, but because it was more of a grassroots thing.
#13
DSB
25/03/12, 1:39 pm
I’m pretty sure he’s making more money on it now. I’m seeing completely regular folks who never gamed a day in their life buying Minecraft for them and their kids.
The exposure is pretty insane at this point.
They hit 2,5 million sales in June of last year, so I think it’s safe to say that it has accelerated.