The biggest movie in the world right now sends its characters on a journey through a building-block world full of zombies, talking pigs, and magical artifacts. A Minecraft Movie has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in theaters around the globe since it opened last weekend, not only outperforming expectations by double but smashing them like a bunch of pixelated wooden blocks in the videogame it’s based on. The film, with its PG rating, was aimed at tween boys, and they have responded in droves, filling theaters and turning viewings into cacophonous interactive events.
This huge audience, and audience reaction, underscores the fact that Minecraft is the most popular game in history — and it’s not even close. The game’s 200 million active players, mostly young men and boys, log in daily to virtually “mine” blocks and build creations of their own making, either with friends or solo; it’s sometimes compared to a tricked-out digital version of Legos. Still more Minecraft fans don’t play at all but rather interact with the game by watching other people play in YouTube vlogs or Twitch livestreams. Players can explore and create in the game’s essentially infinite landscape, as well as go on traditional gaming quests to defeat enemies.
Since Minecraft was first released in 2009, it’s become a staple of both gaming and YouTube culture, spawning a massive community of fans and an entire cottage industry of influencers who’ve built their careers playing it. It’s no surprise that its jump to the big screen has been a smash, relying on the Gen Z players who grew up on the game.
So why do people love it so much? What’s with all the literal blockheads? How do you even play Minecraft? Let’s find out.
The huge, simple, fun, and free world of Minecraft
Minecraft is the brainchild of Swedish developer Markus Persson, who launched the game to instant success; its two 2009 test releases drew in thousands, then millions of players. Gamers were compelled by its unique design: rudimentary blocky visuals that manifested in a simplistic landscape of objects like boxy trees and chunky rocks, and characters with big square heads. They found endless possibilities from being able to shape the world however they wanted.
Where most other popular games of the aughts were focused on battle or strategy, Minecraft was about worldbuilding, quite literally. You could construct the landscape to your heart’s content. You didn’t need to know anything about gaming either — you just enter the scene and start digging. This helped attract an especially young fanbase, kids who weren’t too far removed from playing with actual Legos.
Before the official version even launched in 2011, Minecraft had already garnered 16 million players and spawned not one but two fan conventions. Gamers flocked to construct anything and everything,