Markus "Notch" Persson's independently-developed online sandbox sensation
Minecraft has sold over 320,000 units since its launch over a year ago, according to the game's
official website.
The pixelated world-building game is still in alpha, and Persson continues to develop the title as the player base continues to expand.
Daily sales are currently over 10,000 units a day at €9.95 ($13.62) per download. In late September, sales spiked to nearly 26,000 units in a single day -- sales of around $350,000 total -- following an unplanned free-to-play weekend that was initiated after
Minecraft's servers experienced capacity issues. Paid downloads skyrocketed after players got a taste of the game.
Persson is open with the statistics for
Minecraft, and keeps them in plain view on the game's website. He plans on charging more for
Minecraft once it enters beta.
"I don't really know why it has sold so well," Persson said in a
recent interview with Gamasutra sister site IndieGames.com, as he tried to pinpoint the game's increasing popularity.
He doesn't expect the strong sales to continue forever, but plans on developing the game for the foreseeable future. "The thing I want to do is work on
Minecraft, and as long as I can do that, financially, I'm going to keep working on it." He plans on publicly releasing the game's source code after
Minecraft has run its course.
Persson added that he doesn't "dare guess" at a release date for the beta or the official release for the final game at this point in time. Sweden-based Persson is currently in the process of forming a studio made up of himself and a few other developers.
