The big picture: Minecraft wasn't simply an overnight success for Microsoft. The game was already immensely popular when Microsoft scooped it up and they've continued to steadily invest in the IP over the years to build it into the powerhouse that it is today.
Microsoft's landmark $2.5 billion acquisition of Minecraft creator Mojang (now Mojang Studios) in 2014 was viewed by many to be an ill-advised overstep at the time but over the years, Microsoft has proven that it was in fact one of the wiser acquisitions in recent history.
On Monday, the Redmond tech giant revealed that more than 200 million copies of Minecraft have been sold to date and that 126 million people are playing the game every month.
With the updated stats, Minecraft further extends its lead on the list of best-selling video games of all time. The next closest contender, Grand Theft Auto V, is sitting at 120 million copies sold according to Wikipedia's unofficial count.
Minecraft was the most viewed video game on YouTube in 2019. Just last month, Microsoft teamed with Nvidia to launch a gorgeous ray-traced version of the sandbox builder. And on May 26, Mojang Studios will launch its top-down dungeon crawler - aptly named Minecraft Dungeons - for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass and Nintendo Switch.