Minecraft

Minecraft is a 2011 sandbox game made and published by Mojang Studios. More than 350 million copies of the game have been sold as of 2025. This makes it the best-selling video game of all time. It has been ported to multiple other platforms, including mobile devices and other video game consoles.

In Minecraft, players explore an open world filled with many 3D items. All of these items are made of cubes called "blocks," and all blocks can be placed down and most items can be used. These include basic terrain and resources such as dirt, stone, wood, and sand. There are also items the player can use, such as crafting tables, furnaces, blast furnaces, looms, and stonecutters among others. Players can use these to make new items such as tools and armor, as well as different kinds of blocks. Players can then build structures using these blocks, such as buildings, statues, pixel art, and more.

Originally made by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language, it started being made over the span of two years, from 17 May 2009 to 18 November 2011. Later, Jens "Jeb" Bergensten had control over the game and continuing development following its full release in 2011. In 2014, Minecraft was then purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion. Minecraft has three main versions: Java Edition, Bedrock Edition, and Education Edition. Java Edition is the first version of Minecraft made, but Bedrock Edition is now used more due to it being multi-platform. Bedrock Edition and Education Edition are written in C++, and Java Edition is written in Java. And Legacy Console was for consoles like for the PlayStation or for the Xbox 360.

Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, with over 350 million copies sold and 140 million monthly players. And received very positive reviews. Minecraft has a large community. It has a lot of user-generated content (things made by players) like mods, servers, skins, resource packs, and custom maps, which add new gameplay features and game modes to the base game. And the "Minecraft franchise" includes multiple spin-off games and a movie.

 Gameplay 

At the start of the game, players are put in a random location in the game world. They can begin breaking blocks to collect resources, such as wood, dirt, etc. which can be used later in the game. Players can use resources to make new tools, such as pickaxes, which let the player gather stone in the caves that they find. Different resources require different tools to collect them. For example, diamonds can only be collected with an iron pickaxe, or one of a better quality.

The game world is mostly endless. As players explore it, the game makes new sections of the world using procedural generation. The game generates different kinds of terrain in biomes. Different biomes have different blocks in them. For example, a taiga biome will have lots of spruce trees and snow, whereas a plains biome will have lots of grass. The player can also find different structures in the world, like mountains and villages.

The game has non-player characters called "mobs" (short for mobile entity). There are many mobs in Minecraft. Some are real-life animals, like cows, pigs, and sheep. Some are based on monsters, such as zombies or skeletons. There are also some which do not exist in the real world in any way, and are unique to Minecraft, such as Creepers, Piglins, and Endermen. Each mob has different things it can do. For example, players can kill cows to get leather, which can make items, and beef, which can be cooked to make food. The Creeper, a hostile mob (meaning it tries to attack the player), will move close to the player and then explode, which usually causes enough damage to kill the player.

Minecraft has very few goals. Players can choose how they want to play. They can choose to fight bosses, such as the Wither and the Ender Dragon, or choose to explore the world and build. If the player defeats the Ender Dragon, they can see the credits of the game. Minecraft also has lots of Achievements called "advancements". These can range from simple things like sleeping in a bed for the first time, to complex things like discovering every biome in the game. Both boss fights and advancements are optional.

In addition to the default dimension the player starts in (called the "Overworld"), there are also two other dimensions in Minecraft - the Nether and the End. Both of these can be accessed with special portals. The player can make Nether portals using obsidian and flint and steel, but End portals have to be found in strongholds. While it is not necessary to go to these dimensions, they have many unique items and enemies not found in the Overworld:

The Nether is a dangerous, hell-like world with lava, fire, and unique monsters like Ghasts and Piglins. You can find special blocks and resources there, like Nether Quartz Ore and Nether Brick.

The End is a dark world made of floating islands. The End is the home of the Ender Dragon, a giant boss monster. The Ender Dragon must be fought and defeated in the End. After beating the dragon, the player can choose to go back to the Overworld, or go to the End Islands to find End cities. These tall towers have valuable loot, including rare items and strong enchanted gear like armor and tools, but they are guarded by enemies called Shulkers. You can find Elytra, special wings for gliding, only in End Ships that sometimes appear near End Cities.

 Mobs 

Passive mobs, such as cows, pigs, and chickens, can be hunted for food and crafting materials. They spawn in the day, while hostile mobs—including large spiders, witches, creepers, skeletons, endermen, and zombies—spawn during night or in dark places such as caves. Some hostile mobs, such as zombies, skeletons and drowned (underwater versions of zombies), burn under the sun if they have nothing on their head, such as armour. Other creatures in Minecraft include the creeper (an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player) and the enderman (a creature with the ability to teleport as well as pick up and place blocks). There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different conditions; for example, zombies have husk and drowned variants that spawn in deserts and oceans, respectively.

 Game modes 
 Survival mode 
In survival mode, players can gather resources found in the world to make lots of different items. Some of the items players can make include new blocks, tools, and armor. For example, players can turn wood into planks at the start of the game, which lets them make lots of things, like crafting tables and tools. Players can also place down these planks to build things, like houses. and other structures.

Players have a health bar and a hunger bar in this mode. The health bar is shown as 10 hearts, and the hunger bar is shown as 10 steaks. Each heart and steak are worth two health points and two hunger points, respectively. The health bar depletes when players get attacked by monsters, lose all of their air underwater, walk into lava or cacti, fall from a high place, fall into the void, or if their hunger bar is depleted completely. Players can heal by staying still, drinking healing potions, and/or if they have a full hunger bar. Players will lose hunger by walking, sprinting and jumping too much. If they are low on hunger, they will not be able to sprint. They can fill their hunger bar by eating food.

During the night, monsters come out to fight the player, but players can build a house to protect themselves from these monsters. If a player sleeps in a bed, they can skip the night, and go directly to the next day. However, they are unable to sleep if there are monsters near the bed.

Players can only carry a certain number of items at any time, by holding them in their inventory. If the player dies, they drop their items, unless they have turned on Keep Inventory. Players can get their items back if they can find them before they disappear. They can then respawn, which sends them back to their spawn point, or the place they started the game at. Players can change their spawn point using items like beds. For example, a player can put a bed in their house to respawn there, and in the Nether players can use a unique block called a respawn anchor to respawn there.

Players can play Survival Mode in four levels of difficulty: Peaceful, Easy, Normal and Hard. As the difficulty increases, the more damage monster's deal. In addition, certain mobs will gain certain abilities at higher difficulty levels. When a player made a new world, the difficulty is set to normal by default. On peaceful difficulty, no monsters spawn, and the only way players can die is by deaths that are not from mobs, such as falling from a high place, being in fire or lava, drowning, suffocating inside a block, or falling into the void.

 Creative mode 
In creative mode, players can generate an infinite number of items. This is so they can build whatever they want, instead of having to look for resources. They cannot normally die and do not have a health bar or hunger bar. Players can also freely fly to reach places they normally could not. Some items can only be obtained in Creative Mode, and a few can only be accessed with cheat commands, such as the Command Block.

 Multiplayer 
Players can play on the same Minecraft world together by using the multiplayer mode. They can connect to an online server by typing in the server's address (usually an IP address), or by making a game on the local area network (LAN). On Bedrock Edition, Xbox multiplayer can be used. In Minecraft Bedrock Edition, players can also enjoy cross-platform play (crossplay), allowing users on devices such as Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and mobile to play together in the same world.. If the player makes a LAN game, only players on the same network can play. Much like the rest of Minecraft, players can choose what they want to do. For example, they can choose to fight each other, or work together and survive. All game modes can be played in multiplayer. In 2013, Mojang made Minecraft Realms, a service that makes players run multiplayer server easier and safely without having to set up their own server.

 Modding and Marketplace 

Modding that changes the code and it can add additional content, make some changes to features, and make the game run better. Mojang does not provide a loader for modding so the players of the game who are programmers made their own loader. And other content for Minecraft, such as texture packs and custom maps.

In June 2017, Mojang released Pocket Edition, which later became the Bedrock Edition. The update added the "Marketplace", a catalogue of purchasable user-generated content and was made to give Minecraft creators "another way to make a living from the game".

 Development 

Minecraft was originally made as an experiment to test random generation for caves. Minecraft was inspired by Infiniminer, a game made by Zach Barth. The first version of Minecraft was released for PC players on May 17, 2009, and was called Cave Game. After going through alpha and beta versions, the full version was released on 18 November 2011. A version for Android was released on 7 October 2011, and an iOS version was released on 17 November 2011.

At first, Minecraft was made only by Markus Persson. Other people started to work on it when Persson started an independent video game company called Mojang Specifications. The company was later renamed simply to Mojang. Later in 2011, a version named Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released for iOS and Android devices. This version was later renamed "Bedrock Edition". In 2012, Persson gave Jens "Jeb" Bergensten the job of being the main developer of Minecraft. In 2014, Microsoft bought Mojang for $2.5 billion USD.
Minecraft has also released on many video game consoles. On 9 May 2012, Minecraft came out on the Xbox 360 as a download through the Xbox Live Arcade. It was available for 1600 Microsoft Points ($19.99). In 2013, Minecraft came out as a disc for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. On 10 December 2013, a Windows Phone version was released. Versions for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were released in September 2014. A version for the PlayStation Vita was released on 14 October 2014. The Wii U edition was released on 17 December 2015. In 2017, versions for the Nintendo Switch and the New Nintendo 3DS were released. The Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch were later given the Bedrock Edition, which allowed players of these systems to play together.

 Music 

The composer of Minecraft was the German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, better known under the name C418. The soundtrack is under the genre of "ambient music" with it being inspired be music by Brian Ino and Vangelis, as well as the some sounds from of Stephen Reich. well making the soundtrack he used the Foley technique.

The final update Rosenfeld worked on was 2018's 1.13 Update Aquatic. His music remained the only music in the game until 2020's Nether Update, with pieces from Lena Raine. Since then, other composers have made music for Minecraft including Kumi Tanioka.

Multiple people think this soundtrack is one of the greatest video games soundtracks of all time.

 Versions 
 Java Edition 
Minecraft: Java Edition is the first version of Minecraft, first released in 2009. It can be played on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

 Pocket Edition 
Minecraft: Pocket Edition was a mobile version of Minecraft for phones and tablets. In 2011, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released for the Android market as an early version. It was then released for other devices in October 2011. An iOS version was released in November 2011, and a port was made for Windows Phones after Microsoft bought Mojang. The port focuses on the basic building and the survival parts of the game and does not have all the features of the PC version. On his Twitter account, Jens Bergensten said that the Pocket Edition of Minecraft is in C++ and not Java code, because of iOS not being able to support Java code. However, there is a way to play Java Edition on both Android and iOS devices using unofficial 3rd party launchers.

Minecraft: Pocket Edition was replaced by Bedrock Edition on 19 December 2016.

 Legacy Console Edition and Bedrock Edition 

On 20 September 2017, the Better Together Update introduced Bedrock Edition across Xbox One, Windows 10, VR, and mobile platforms, enabling cross-play between these versions while discontinuing the previous respective legacy versions. Minecraft: Bedrock Edition is a version of Minecraft focused on multiplayer. It can be played on Windows (10 or higher), Chromebook, Xbox One (and newer), PS4 (and newer), Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS and iPadOS. This version is based off the Bedrock codebase engine which uses C++ as it's programming language.

 Education 
Minecraft Education, formerly Minecraft Education Edition, is an edition of the game mostly used for schools. Most features of this edition are in Bedrock Edition, but they need to be turned on before making a world. Minecraft Education is a game-based platform that inspires creative, inclusive learning through play. Explore blocky worlds that unlock new ways to take on any subject or challenge.

In 2011, an educational company named MinecraftEdu was made with the goal of introducing Minecraft into schools. MinecraftEdu works with Mojang to make the game cheap and accessible to schools. The version of Minecraft through MinecraftEdu includes features to allow teachers to see the students' progress inside the game, such as screenshots from students to show that they have finished the lesson. In September 2012, MinecraftEdu said that approximately 250,000 students around the world have access to Minecraft through the company. MinecraftEdu was discontinued and replaced with Education.

 Updates 

Minecraft has had many new updates since it first released. These updates are usually announced before they are released. They add lots of new features into the game, such as new blocks, mobs, and items.

Mojang releases smaller development versions called "snapshots" which players can choose to play on Minecraft Launcher. These snapshots have a few new features in them and are released as the developers are working on the new version. This is so players can try out new features before the full version is released. On Bedrock Edition, these are called previews.

 Other media 
 Minecraft: Story Mode 

Minecraft: Story Mode was an interactive animated game/TV series made by Mojang Studios on 13 October 2015. In this, you play as a character who can make choices that impact how the story goes. On 5 December 2018, a Netflix version was added. There is a sequel that was not on Netflix. It is now discontinued and removed from Netflix.

 Minecraft Dungeons 

Minecraft Dungeons is a Dungeon Crawler made by Mojang Studios in 2020. Unlike Minecraft, you cannot jump, mine or build. Instead, you defeat enemies and complete levels to progress. It is no longer receiving content updates.

 Minecraft Earth 

Minecraft Earth is a phone game made by Mojang Studios in 2019. It used augmented reality to let players build in real life. You got blocks and mobs from walking around in real life and finding "tappable". The game was shut on 30 June 2021 due to COVID-19.

 Minecraft Legends 

Minecraft Legends is an action-strategy video game developed by Mojang Studios and Blackbird Interactive in 2023.

 A Minecraft Movie 

A Minecraft Movie is an adventure comedy film, it was made by Warner Bros in collaboration with Portfolio Entertainment and Mojang with Jared Hess as the director and stars Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Sebastian Hansen, Rachel House, and Jennifer Coolidge. It released on April 4, 2025 in North America. It has gained over $826 million dollars.

 Reception 
Minecraft received very positive reviews.

Jaz McDougall and Luis Nava of PC Gamer said that Minecraft is "intuitively interesting and contagiously fun, with an unparalleled scope for creativity and memorable experiences". In 2016, Minecraft was 6th on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list. IGN called the blocky graphics "instantly memorable". In September 2019, The Guardian said that Minecraft as the best video game of the 21st century to date. And in November 2019 Polygon called the game the "most important game of the decade" in its 2010s "decade in review". In December 2019, Forbes gave Minecraft a mention in a list of the best video games of the 2010s, saying that the game is "without a doubt one of the most important games of the last ten years."

As of April 2025, Minecraft has sold over 350 million copies.

 Criticism 
Minecraft also has some criticism. In June 2014, Mojang announced that it would add a end-user license agreement (EULA) which makes servers from giving in-game benefits to players in exchange for donations or payments. The controversy helped Notch's decision to sell Mojang. The "Mob Vote" was an online event by Mojang in which the Minecraft community voted between three original mob with the winning mob was to be implemented in the game. This led to criticism calling it "propaganda". This began a boycott against the mob vote.

 Community 
Minecraft has a very large community, with many fan forums and multiplayer servers such as Hypixel. The Minecraft community is also one of the largest on YouTube, with 1 trillion views on Minecraft videos so far. Many people upload various types of Minecraft content to YouTube, such as parody songs, animations, gameplay, and more. Content made by other players can also be uploaded to platforms such as Forge. Minecraft Live is another YouTube community event that occurs yearly.

At certain points in history, several teams of hackers made hack clients that allowed users to get the location of other players.

Minecraft also has a large Spanish-speaking community. Many players watch and create Minecraft videos in Spanish on YouTube and Twitch. Some well-known Spanish-speaking creators include Vegetta777, ElRichMC, JohnyDeCoder, and KillerCreeper. They make videos such as gameplay, tutorials, and multiplayer content. These videos are watched by Spanish-speaking players in Spain and Latin America.

 Clones 
Following the popularity of Minecraft in 2010, other video games were made with many likeness of Minecraft, and some were being called as being "clones", often due to a direct inspiration from Minecraft. Examples include Ace of Spades, CastleMiner, CraftWorld, FortressCraft, Terraria, BlockWorld 3D, Total Miner and the most recent one, Hytale..

 Minecraft Live 

Minecraft Live, formerly called Minecon, is a livestream and convention about the video game Minecraft. It is held every year.

 Notes 

 References 

 Other websites 


 Minecraft wiki


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