Minecraft’s Revenue Is Something to Behold

The phenomenon known as Minecraft has fared pretty well with users. There’s hardly a complaint to be made, and it has something called competitive multiplayer–as in you compete to blow up your friends’ stuff, too. The game has also fared well with the creator Mojang, as Marcus “Notch” Persson said that it’s made “a lot” of money.

How much is a lot? Well, the game sold 800,000 alpha copies at €9.95 and is currently past the 1 million sales mark in beta at €14.95. Combined, that amounts to about €23 million, or just over $33 million. Of course, not all of that money ends up in Mojang’s pockets–Paypal takes a cut and taxes further strip Notch of his millions. But neither dents the overall sum.

Despite this colossal amount, Notch said that he still receives a “normal salary” and tries his hardest to ignore his massive stash. Commenting in a Reddit “ask me anything” thread, he stated, “It all ends up in an account somewhere, and I try not to look at it. I get a normal salary these days for day to day stuff, but there’s a big pile somewhere.”

That “big pile” is only going to increase. Minecraft isn’t even out of beta yet. It’s headed to the Android and iOS platforms later this year, and in the last 24 hours alone, nearly 10,000 people have purchased the game–including my friend (whose prized tree-top condo is going to be a gigantic mound of ash once I’m through with it). Not bad for a guy who left his previous gaming dev job to concentrate more on independent development.