Minecraft modders have sold a billion mods, made over $350M since Microsoft bought it

Minecraft Unicorns — (Image credit: Razzleberries / Microsoft)

Microsoft announced its Q3 financial results on Tuesday, reporting a frankly incomprehensible $15.5 billion in net income. Windows revenue is up, and so is the gaming division, unsurprising given the launch of the new Xbox Series X and Series S. More interesting are the figures around Minecraft—specifically, how much money modders, rather than Microsoft itself, have made over the last few years.

"Creators have generated over $350 million from more than one billion downloads of mods, add-ons, and other experiences in Minecraft," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in Microsoft's third quarter earnings call today. That means $350 million in just the last four years—Microsoft launched its official Minecraft marketplace in 2017. That figure doesn't include any mod sales through other channels.

Best of Minecraft

Minecraf 1.18 key art — (Image credit: Mojang)

Minecraft update: What's new?
Minecraft skins: New looks
Minecraft mods: Beyond vanilla
Minecraft shaders: Spotlight
Minecraft seeds: Fresh new worlds
Minecraft texture packs: Pixelated
Minecraft servers: Online worlds
Minecraft commands: All cheats

While Nadella didn't specify, I assume "generated" here means total sales, so modders haven't actually pocketed that much; Microsoft has said in the past it gives more than 50 percent of the revenue to creators, but it does keep a slice for itself.

According to Nadella's remarks on the earnings call, the Minecraft marketplace seems to be a template for success that Microsoft wants to follow with future games. "As games evolve into metaverse economies, we are building new tools to help anyone sell creations on our platforms," he said. "Minecraft had nearly 140 million monthly active users, up 30 percent year over year, making it one of the leading platforms in the creator economy… We’re also seeing a vibrant marketplace emerge in Flight Simulator, with partners now able to sell content directly within the game."

Microsoft's overall gaming revenue increased by $1.2 billion, or 50 percent, in the third quarter.

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).