Minecraft is the best selling video game ever made, with more than 300 million copies sold. But it did not start with a big studio or a huge budget. It started as a small experiment by one programmer in Sweden. This is the story of how Minecraft grew, from its first test version to the game millions of people play every day.
2009: Cave Game
Minecraft was created by Markus Persson, known online as Notch. He was a programmer who loved making small games in his free time. He was inspired by games like Infiniminer, where players dig and build in a world made of blocks, and by building and management games he liked.
In May 2009 he shared the very first test version, which was simply called Cave Game. It let you place and break blocks, and not much else. Soon after, it got the name Minecraft, and the first public version, now called Classic, was free to play in a web browser.
2009 and 2010: Indev, Infdev and Alpha
Notch kept updating the game in small steps and shared every change with players. Indev (In Development) added things like a day and night cycle and early survival ideas. Infdev (Infinite Development) brought the most important change of all: worlds that go on almost forever.
In June 2010 Minecraft entered Alpha. Players could now buy the game early at a lower price and get every future update for free. Word spread fast through forums and YouTube videos, and sales grew month after month. Notch was able to quit his day job and work on Minecraft full time.
Mojang is founded
With the game growing so fast, Notch started a company to work on it: Mojang, based in Stockholm, Sweden. He brought in friends and colleagues to help run it and build the game. One of the most important people to join was Jens Bergensten, known as Jeb, who would later take over Minecraft's development.
December 2010: Beta
Minecraft entered Beta in December 2010. Beta added a lot of what we now think of as classic Minecraft, like beds, the Nether getting more content, weather, and many new blocks and items. Each Beta update had a big list of changes, and players waited for each one.
2011: Pocket Edition and the full release
In August 2011 Minecraft came to phones as Minecraft: Pocket Edition. It was very small at first, with only Creative mode, but it would grow into one of the biggest versions of the game.
On 18 November 2011, at MineCon in Las Vegas, Minecraft version 1.0 was released. It added the End, the Ender Dragon, enchanting and brewing. Shortly after, Notch handed the lead role to Jeb, so he could work on other things.
2012 to 2014: Minecraft everywhere
In 2012 Minecraft came to Xbox 360, and soon to PlayStation and other consoles. Each platform had its own version of the game, and they did not always have the same features. Minecraft had become a worldwide hit, with huge YouTube channels and servers built around it.
2014: Microsoft buys Mojang
In September 2014, Microsoft announced it was buying Mojang for 2.5 billion US dollars. Notch and the other founders left the company after the deal. It was one of the biggest moments in gaming history. You can read the full story in how Notch sold Minecraft to Microsoft.
2017: Better Together and Bedrock
For years, the phone, console and Windows 10 versions were separate. In 2017 the Better Together Update joined most of them into one version that can play together across devices. The name "Pocket Edition" was dropped, and this shared version became known as Bedrock Edition, the version this site is all about. See Java vs Bedrock: the differences.
2018 and later: the big updates
From then on, Minecraft got large themed updates: oceans in the Update Aquatic, a brand new Nether, Caves & Cliffs with much taller mountains and deeper caves, the Wild Update with the Warden, Trails & Tales, and Tricky Trials. The full list is in every major Minecraft update.
2024 and 2025: game drops and new looks
Mojang changed how updates come out. Instead of one huge update a year, smaller updates called game drops arrive several times a year. Bedrock also got Vibrant Visuals, a new built-in graphics mode with real-looking light and shadows. And in April 2025, A Minecraft Movie came to cinemas.
Why Minecraft lasted
Minecraft never told players exactly what to do. You can build, explore, fight, farm, make redstone machines, play with friends, or create your own content with add-ons and mods. That freedom, plus constant free updates and a huge community of creators, is why a small test project from 2009 is still one of the most played games in the world today.
