Minecraft sells one million on yet another platform

Mojang's seminal PC hit Minecraft continues its rampage across every other platform today as it was announced that the game has sold more than one million copies in just five days on Xbox Live Arcade.

"Uhhhh, Microsoft just sent out a press release saying Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has sold a million copies in five days. Wow," wrote Persson on Twitter. "I feel stunned."

What's stunning is that Minecraft on PC sold over one million copies when it was barely out of alpha. (For you laypersons out there, alpha is video game developer speak for "not nearly done yet.") By late 2011, the game had over 16 million registered users. It even managed success on the Android Marketplace, selling over a million copies of Minecraft: Pocket Edition (and we're sure the iOS version wont be far behind.)

The release of Minecraft on Xbox Live Arcade has long been considered a shoe-in success, and it's the most hotly anticipated title ever to be released on XBLA. When it released on May 9, it didn't disappoint, either. The game broke all kinds of XBLA records for player activity and purchases, and it's our guess that it will continue to do so for years to come.

Andrew Groen

Andrew is a freelance video game journalist, writing for sites like Wired and GamesRadar. Andrew has also written a book called EMPIRES OF EVE: A History of the Great Wars of EVE Online.