Minecraft breaks XBLA sales record, makes money back in one hour

11 May 2012

Trials Evolution didn’t get a lot of hang time at the top – less than one month after RedLynx’s bike crash simulator broke all previous Xbox LIVE Arcade day-one sales, Minecraft’s gone and done it again.

Although Microsoft didn’t cite any actual numbers in the press release, Mojang’s Markus “Notch” Persson blurted out on Twitter that the game had sold enough copies in one hour of launch to recoup its development cost, and that according to the leaderboards, more than 400,000 people were playing the game by the end of its first day on Xbox.

Not necessarily an accurate reflection on sales figures, of course, but even Xbox overlord Major Nelson cited the leaderboard number adding that it “will give you an idea at how well it is doing.”

Assuming 400,000 people had bought the game at 1600 MSP a pop, that would already be a net sum of $8 million. Even after handing Microsoft its share, that’s a whole lot more money for Notch’s money-plated money-castle.

Damn it, why didn’t I come up with Minecraft first?

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  1. Wilko Olles
    11.05.2012 at 13:55

    Tarryn I salute you for coming up with Minecraft first. It’s a fun game.

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