Minecraft sells 4 million copies

Right in time for Mojang's upcoming Las Vegas-based Minecraft-focused gaming convention, MineCon, the indie developer has announced something that few indie developers ever get to announce: their game has sold over four million copies since release. Mojang's Markus Persson (or, as his friends call him, notch) made the announcement official on Twitter, tweeting, "4milyay."

Not bad for a game that's still in beta (it's set to officially launch this month, dropping the "beta" moniker and going to full-blown 1.0).

Mojang has a lot to be happy about right now. Their first game is selling extremely well, they're about to launch a gaming convention, and it looks like Bethesda is finally leaving them alone about the whole "" thing.

Though some have argued that Minecraft's time in the spotlight is over, this announcement is as good proof as any that the indie hit is here to stay. Checking out their sales data (which is available on their website for anyone to view), the game is still selling thousands of copies every day, filling the bank accounts of Mojang and fueling their future projects, as well as giving them the funds necessary to continue updating Minecraft with new content on a regular basis.

Just three months ago the game had hit three million downloads, meaning that over one million people picked it up since then. That means the incredibly small studio earned over 20 million dollars from the game in the past three months alone, and that's not counting the money Microsoft is paying them to get the game on their system or the sales from merchandise, which we're seeing all over the place at gaming conventions.