Here's How Much The Creator Of Minecraft Is Really Worth
Minecraft is one of the most popular games of all time. Since its release on May 17, 2009, the game has continued to see massive success. Minecraft revolutionized gaming, and specifically, it revolutionized the conception of the survival genre as a whole. Prior to the release of Minecraft, survival games were largely very different. Many mainstream survival games lacked a crucial element — an element that Minecraft creator Markus Persson implemented into his game.
Minecraft was created with the intent of forcing players to obtain crafting materials so that they could later go on to build structures. This gathering process would later become a focal point of major survival games such as Ark: Survival Evolved, Conan Exiles, and even Fortnite.
Markus Persson is a Swedish video game programmer who is credited for being the creator of Minecraft and a founder of Mojang Studios. But just how much is the creator of Minecraft really worth?
Minecraft was a goldmine
Markus "Notch" Persson rocketed to success with the release of Minecraft. The game sold extremely well and has never really shown any signs of slowing down. According to Forbes, Perrson sold 15 million copies of the game across various consoles before Sept. 2014, when he signed over the game rights to Microsoft for a whopping $2.5 billion dollars.
The Minecraft billionaire is still worth $1.9 billion as of November of 2020 (per Forbes). However, his success was accompanied by an unexpected downside. One year after his deal with Microsoft, Persson would post a series of tweets that protested his newly acquired lifestyle. He said that he felt alone, isolated, and removed from the rest of normal society. Persson was very open about the disadvantages of his success and actually credits his wealth for his feelings of loneliness.
Although Minecraft has done well, money may not always be the key to happiness. At least in the case of Persson, $2.5 billion was apparently not worth the flooding sense of isolation.