Why and how has Minecraft been a commercial and critical success?


Since Minecraft was developed by Mojang in 2009, there has been many developments and updates to keep players interested even though some updates may be very minor. Minecraft is a block by block game which gives players the opportunity to create their own world and to explore others which people have formed.

The highly admired game gains some popularity from the fact that since 2012 it has been available to play on several different consoles such as Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. This gives the game a better reputation because if people do not have a certain games console they can still play as it is available on a variety of different ones. Also, only one year later the game expanded to an educational game for new players and for schools etc. to help children learn whilst also having fun.

Another reason for the success of this game is that the majority of the audience is children. Due to children being in love with this game and playing it every day, the name ‘Minecraft’ has become a household name across the globe. This means that word of mouth between parents/carers and children gets the game played much more which then gets spread even more and so on. Going back to the educational version, this also would get the game much more success because parents/carers would much rather their children to play something which would educate them and benefit them rather than violent bloody games.

The genre of the game is Sandbox, due to this it has infinite replayability which means it can never be completed and you can play for as long as you want with it staying how you like. This is good and attracts more people because players will never have to end the game and can play until whenever they want to be it 2 weeks or 2 years. Not many games have this feature which then makes it unique and appealing to a wider audience who are used to stopping games when it tells them to stop.

Minecraft is a platform agnostic game which means that it can be played through pretty much every platform e.g. PC, Xbox, PlayStation, iPhones, Android. This is very useful to many people as they can play on the go or play at their friend’s house even if they have a different console. Another format is in print, now you cannot play the game like this but they have books which can highly assist the players of the game as they sell handbooks with tips and tricks in alongside magazines which contain updates on the game, more tips, tutorials and many puzzles. This is so successful because it means that the players don’t always have to be staring at a screen and can use reading as a more educational and old-fashioned way of playing their favourite game.

One more reason as to why it is a success is because it brings people together. For example, it means that players can socialise without actually leaving their bedroom. There are videos on YouTube for people to watch and comment on meaning they are interacting with other players in a safe and fun way. There is a strong social community of Minecraft players on social media platforms where they can share their favourite tips and tricks for various goals which then are shared between people who may need them.

The final reason why Minecraft is the second most popular video game created in history is because it fulfils people when they are enabled to bring order to a world full of chaos and mayhem. They can change and organise the world in whatever way they would like to which means it can be as messy, as organised, as colourful as they want it to be. It gives people the opportunity to make a world completely unique from all others which enables freedom and power over everything in their world. Players are also allowed to make their avatar look however they want from regular people to mermaids again giving them a huge sense of freedom and individuality. This makes it a very popular game among the video game community as very few games allow this.