True, Candy Crush has even more monthly active players though.

Did Minecraft have impact on game design at all? There are some Minecraft clones yet building with blocks hasn't really made any impact on game design like Souls games have. Minecraft had a far bigger impact outside of gaming, the merchandise is everywhere. In our house as well lol, Minecraft lego sets, foam swords, bed spreads, pillow cases, clothes, posters, books. Minecraft rivals the Mario merchandise.

Minecraft is like a doodle pad, as a game it's not very good. I played it both in survival mode (meh) and sandbox mode. The latter is the way. So even though it's huge, it's hard to call it Game of the year.

Yep it's in a league of its own, not quite a game, Video Toy of the Century!

It's not really about blocks (or quick attempts to cash in on the craze by copying it), it's about the sandbox, exploration, resources, building and crafting. The whole survival/building/crafting craze started with Minecraft, there are bajillions of games out there trying to do variations of it, and I don't see that loosing steam at all. This is what kids are raised on in the last decade, what devs are recognizing as to what those kids want to play the most, and what those kids as future devs will be bringing to the video game development table once they grow up.

Minecraft is once in a generation game changer - but let's not go too deep here in that analysis, there is so much written about it already out there.

You're right. I never really saw it as a survival game or exploration as I find those the weakest points of the game. But it did popularize the survival and crafting genre. So much so it has even led Zelda astray :/

I'm getting old, don't understand the appeal of the survival genre. However my oldest kid loves it, Ark and Rust in particular. Although you could make a case for Civilization being about crafting, building, exploration and survival, which I played non stop in the early 90s.

I do think it is possible for a PC only game to win going forward, but it will be tough.  What I don't see happening at all is two PC games taking the GOTY and runner up spot in the same year again.  That is what makes 2004 unique.

Well, as like to say (and my younger son has allergic reaction to that by now), it all started with original DnD. I order to play DnD, you were advised to buy Avalon Hills Outdoor Survival, which covered tracking through wilderness to reach dungeon (and then back to reach safety of the civilization). But that was only part of the game, not main focus. I still like that very much in my TTRPGs (I never wavehand travel and what it takes to get to somewhere), and in VG RPGs if it's done properly (I really like how Outward does it).

But I'm with you, pure survival games are not my forte, but kids just love them. I'm not saying there aren't any really good one (Subnautica comes to mind), but something like Frostpunk, which is about survival of community appeals more to me than "alone and lost in jungle/desert/whatever".

I don't really see PC exclusive winning for quite some time - LoL is massive, but I don't think enough people care for it around here. Disco Elysium is more than deserving to win, but I really doubt it - even among RPG fans, that one is less known and probably too weird for lot of people.