‘Minecraft’ spawns 1 trillion views on YouTube

Within the 10 years because it exited beta, Minecraft has turn into one of many world’s most beloved and best-selling video games, with 140 million month-to-month distinctive gamers globally. In the present day, Dec. 15, it realizes a brand new achievement, and it’s a giant one: 1 trillion views on YouTube. That’s proper, Minecraft content material on the platform has surpassed a whopping 1,000,000,000,000 views. That’s 12 zeros!

To commemorate the large milestone, YouTube is celebrating with a mob of enjoyable options. There is a Minecraft-themed takeover of the YouTube homepage, and creators are sharing their favourite Minecraft recollections utilizing #MinecraftMuseum over on YouTube’s Instagram. In case you’re taking part in immediately, you possibly can try a free in-game “YouTube Creator” pores and skin pack that includes high Minecraft creators.

YouTube has additionally picked up their proverbial pickaxes to mine greater than a decade of information for insights into the sport’s development. On their spectacular interactive web site, you possibly can calculate your private contribution to these 1 trillion views (mine was a pitiful 0.0000000003 %), discover high content material tendencies by nation, and see the largest Minecraft creator by yr.

Considered one of my favourite takeaways was that the sport has racked up greater than 500 billion views since 2019. That yr, a pure resurgence in gameplay was burgeoned right into a full-blown renaissance due to Keemstar’s common Minecraft Monday match, Dream’s “Minecraft Manhunt” sequence, Pewdiepie’s renewed curiosity in Minecraft Let’s Performs, and curiosity from non-gaming creators like James Charles and Jack Black.

There’s yet one more celebratory gem that gamers and followers ought to try: an animated video that includes high creators and a number of the group’s finest moments. There are Easter eggs abound, so preserve your eyes peeled! YouTube’s Tradition and Traits Insights Lead Earnest Pettie (who confirmed as much as our Zoom carrying a YouTube Gaming sweater, naturally) says his favourite is a reference to CaptainSparklez’s music video parody “Fallen Kingdom.” The parody, which now sits at greater than 145 million views, is an instance of how Minecraft’s sandbox gameplay has turn into an “empty canvas” for creativity on YouTube, the place creators use the sport for every thing from scripted position performs to activism. 

“For some YouTube creators, [Minecraft movies are] an expression of their viewpoint as a comic or as a sport participant,” explains Pettie, “after which you might have people who find themselves celebrating facets of their identification, from Pleasure celebrations to folks observing Ramadan.”

SEE ALSO: My buddy’s ‘Minecraft’ realm was the group I wanted whereas 2020 slid downward

Even after 10 years, the sport retains extensive common enchantment. YouTube says it considers greater than 35,000 of its creators to be a part of the Minecraft group, and that the sport was the most-watched on YouTube in 2020. Minecraft additionally jump-started the careers of YouTube’s most-subscribed particular person creators, Pewdiepie and Mr. Beast, who nonetheless play regularly.

Pettie says that Minecraft’s combo of flexibility and universality is essential to its continued success. “Artistic ingenuity is driving this steady growth of Minecraft viewership,” he says. “This sport is over a decade outdated… the factor that enables it to proceed to be as common because it has been is the creators’ potential to suppose up new methods to maintain it contemporary.”