Minecraft attracts more than 112 million players per month

Minecraft mansion woodland — (Image credit: Mojang)

There's this game called Minecraft and it's really popular. According to Minecraft studio head Helen Chiang, over 112 million people play it per month. That's a third of the population of the United States, and the Australian population is a sixth of that figure. If you had 112 million donuts, and divided them up between 10,000 ibises, each ibis would have 112,000 donuts each. That's too many donuts by anyone's measure.

Chiang revealed the figure in an interview with Business Insider, adding that the game has grown and endured for over ten years because it's something people will always return to, even if they put it down for a few weeks to play something else. It doesn't hurt that Minecraft is now available on virtually every device with a screen, and that Mojang keeps updating the game with stuff like bees and harmony and hope.

Better still, the game is advancing with the times: it's getting ray tracing support soon, and if you're the type to turn their nose up at Minecraft's graphics you may be surprised by how good it looks. That said, not every leap forward comes to fruition: the game's Super Duper Graphics Pack was canceled recently for being "too technically demanding".

And people keep doing the damnedest things in Minecraft, such as creating an in-game Reddit browser, or watching movies on in-game TVs.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.