"Chiang's ascension comes at a time when Minecraft is reaching all-time highs in nearly every metric; 144 million copies of the game have been sold across more than a dozen platform, with 74 million players coming back to play the game each month."

https://www.popsugar.com/news/New-Microsoft-Minecraft-Head-Helen-Chiang-Interview-44513067?utm_campaign=mobile_share&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=popsugar

Game keeps doing crazy numbers.

I am looking forward to the oceanic update.

I'm surprised it hasn't reached the 150m yet. We might need to wait for the retail Switch version, the VR versions and the eventual PS5 and NextBox.

Some big numbers there for total sales but the active users is the most impressive stat with over 50% still playing it monthly, 26m more sales needed to take the top spot from Tetris so that will likely happen at some point next year.

Seems these days only indie games can be innovative, unexpected break-through hits.

Minecraft started out as an indie, so it counts. Then we also have Rocket League with over 40 million players and PUBG which is also selling insane amounts of copies.

144 million is great. 74 million in the other hand seem to be too high. I can't believe that one out of two that bought the game still play it monthly, especially since many double dipped on this game.

February last year Minecraft had sold 120 million so it sold 24 million in under a year. Can see it reaching 150 million in the next few months.

No that many, most versions had small fee to upgrade, think it was 5 bucks for consoles. 

Oh I did not know that. I only bought the game once

Indie development has less risk and strings involved, so it's easier to create and try out new concepts. It's not "these days", it has always been this way.

You also shouldn't forget the quantity. There are tens of thousands of creators trying out new things. 99.9% of those projects fail miserably. With so many creators there is bound to be someone with success at some point.