Minecraft is, by virtually every meaningful measure, the world’s biggest video game. Released in 2009, the open-ended sandbox game allows players to build, explore and survive in worlds made with digital blocks. Players take on the role of Steve or Alex, wielding a pickaxe to gather resources, craft tools and construct everything from houses to entire cities.
To date, it has sold more than 350 million copies, making it the best-selling video game of all time. It’s also the first and only game in YouTube history to surpass one trillion views. Despite launching nearly 15 years ago, Minecraft continues to grow, attracting more than 212 million monthly players in 2026 – almost double the 115 million playing in 2020.
The game is a unicorn in an industry with a famously short attention span – Minecraft was the only title from the 2010s to rank among 2025’s 15 best-selling video games. According to Helen Chiang, Head of Minecraft, that staying power comes down to the game’s limitless freedom. “Minecraft taps into a deep evolutionary need of creating,” she explained.
Gen Z is the heart of the franchise’s fanbase, with 15 to 21-year-olds accounting for 43% of players, followed by 22 to 30-year-olds (21%). When Minecraft launched, the oldest Gen Zers were around 12 years old. Today, the average player is 24, a sign that the game has managed the most elusive of franchise feats: growing up alongside its audience.
Much of Minecraft’s enduring relevance stems from an expansive ecosystem of creators, brands and educators, all of whom contribute to the game’s ever-evolving marketplace.
Minecraft Marketplace has paid out more than $500 million (£375 million) to creators since its debut, with over 295 partner organisations now publishing content through Minecraft‘s built-in storefront.
Launched in 2017, the marketplace allows players to purchase creator-made downloadable content (DLC) to customise their gameplay experience, from new environments and adventure maps to skins, mini-games and texture packs. Purchases are made with Minecoins – Minecraft’s virtual currency, which starts at £1.99 for 320 coins – creating a direct revenue stream for creators and studios developing sandbox content for the platform.
Prior to Marketplace’s launch, creators sold unregulated DLC content off-platform. Notably, they still retain ownership of all content listed on Marketplace today and take home roughly 70% of the revenue – a far more generous split than a similar system previously introduced for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which only offered creators a 25% cut for paid modifications in 2015.
A platform for participation
One of the first creators to start producing regular content for Minecraft Marketplace was Stefan Panić. The UK-based creator helms Noxcrew – a fan collective-turned-studio that started out by making adventure maps but has since become an official Marketplace partner with a team of 15 creatives, 224,000 YouTube subscribers and an estimated 52.8 million Minecoins in revenue. Nowadays, Noxcrew sells downloadable licensed worlds and branded experiences and has worked with Disney to create DLC inspired by Frozen. It also co-runs MC Championship, a YouTuber Minecraft tournament founded with Scottish gamer Scott Major.
Canadian creator Tim Gehrig (Jigarbov) founded Jigarbov Productions, which went from a custom map project to a studio producing paid worlds and branded content. One of its most popular products today includes Marketplace Creator Tycoon – a meta role-playing game in which fans can simulate running their own Minecraft Marketplace development studio. Its most prominent partnership to date? A Bluey DLC launched with BBC Studios and Ludo Studio in January, offering young players the chance to explore environments from the animated series.
Cracked Cubes – also based in the UK – is a collective of Minecraft DLC creators that had 100 projects before joining the Marketplace Partner Program. This number has since grown to more than 800. Meanwhile, Razzleberries is led by former animator Mariana Graham. The Swedish collective is responsible for nearly 5% of all content and has made over three million sales with DLC content such as Supplementaries (a modification that adds new functional and decorative blocks to the game) and Architect (an add-on that introduces more than 500 new building components).
As Marketplace’s creator ecosystem has matured, Minecraft has also introduced new ways for creators to monetise their influence. In June, it debuted an affiliate programme designed to give creators a direct stake in Marketplace sales. Partners can earn commission – starting at 5% – by sharing unique links to eligible Marketplace content through videos, QR codes and website banners. Qualifying products include skins, texture packs, mini-games and adventure maps, with persona items, subscriptions and games currently excluded.
Brand collaborations unlocked
With Marketplace embedded directly into Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, brands are plugged directly into the game’s monthly audience of 212 million players. In some cases, these activations feature complementary on and off-platform elements.
Take Adidas’ 2025 launches, which combined free downloadable skins via the Adidas Adventurer Add-On with matching Minecraft-themed athleisure players could wear IRL. Later in the year, it also added Three Stripes City – a “dynamic world featuring lush biomes and mysterious ruins that hide forgotten powers” – to Minecraft Marketplace, along with a clothing collection crafted with the same “spirit of adventure”. Burberry’s Freedom to Go Beyond collaboration combined a Marketplace adventure with a physical fashion capsule collection sold through Burberry stores and online. The campaign included branded in-game characters, environments and cosmetics alongside real-world apparel – see CORQ’s report.
More recently, McDonald’s marked the release of A Minecraft Movie with A Minecraft Movie Meal, which contained codes to unlock Marketplace skins and a McDonald’s-themed add-on pack. It also tapped into the blind box trend with a line of physical Minecraft collectibles, causing a frenzy on TikTok. A video by Taylah Maree revealing the DLC unlocked by each code received 7.5 million views and 792,000 likes, while UK-based gamer Yammy has 765,200 views and 105,300 likes on a TikTok revealing which figures she unwrapped with her meal.
@yammy NEW Minecraft Movie Meal at McDonald’s! Nether Flame sauce, Apple Cake McFlurry, and a surprise toy with a Bedrock skin + card. Let’s see what I got! #MinecraftMeal #McDonalds #MinecraftMovie #GamerFuel #BedrockSkin #Minecraft
The education element
Roughly 20% of Minecraft players are under 15. Minecraft Education is a separate version of the game specifically designed for that demographic, using the creative sandbox to deliver structured learning experiences. For media companies, the initiative means an opportunity to offer downloadable worlds via Minecraft Marketplace that both educate and entertain.
BBC Earth has created multiple DLC worlds inspired by Planet Earth III and Frozen Planet II, with the latter achieving the most single-day downloads in Minecraft history for an educational game. Building on this success, it launched Building With Dinosaurs – a dino-themed build challenge that aims to educate players on palaeontology – in 2025.
Similarly, The Crown Estate launched two worlds (the Offshore Wind Power Challenge and Conservation Quest at Windsor Great Park) on Minecraft Marketplace with the goal of developing green skills in players aged 7 to 14. London’s Charles Booth Maps Project recruited UK-based Minecraft creator studio Blockworks to recreate Victorian London based on Charles Booth’s historic poverty maps, while NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement’s digital worlds inspired by the Artemis missions introduced players to the fundamentals of rocket engineering and space exploration.
As an in-game storefront, Minecraft Marketplace presents opportunities as limitless as the game itself. The real challenge for brands lies in creating something unique enough to stand out. Minecraft players are quick to embrace additions that expand creativity or gameplay – but equally quick to ignore anything that exists purely to leverage the IP.
By Chloë James, insights correspondent for CORQ.
