Minecraft modders peddling wares through the game’s official mod marketplace have made a combined $350 million off of their creations since the Mojang-sanctioned portal went live in 2017.
Microsoft noted as much in its quarterly investor call yesterday, highlighting Minecraft as an example of how the company is creating tools and opportunities that help build out the economic side of the metaverse concept more and more games are getting cozy with.
“As games evolve into metaverse economies, we are building new tools to help anyone sell creations on our platforms,” said Microsoft CEO Sataya Nadella. “Creators have generated over $350 million from more than one billion downloads of mods, add-ons, and other experiences in Minecraft. This is not including activity outside our own marketplace.”
In terms of players and the market for those in-game wares, Nadella also noted that Minecraft now boasts nearly 130 million monthly active players, a 30 percent increase from this point in 2020. That’s up from 126 million MAUs as of May 2020, and 91 million back in May 2019.
On a wider scale, Minecraft was specifically called out in Microsoft’s Q3 2021 financials as the driving force behind unexpectedly strong performance of first-party titles. There’s no mention of specific numbers in that regard, but the nod indicates Minecraft did its part to help see Microsoft’s More Personal Computing segment to $13 billion in Q3 revenue.