Is Minecraft Coming Back?

By: Chris Liu

For the past 2 years, battle royale games like Fortnite or Apex Legends have been rising in popularity. When Fortnite initially released, it had 1 million registered users. As of March 2019, they now have 250 million registered users. But as gaming progresses, there is less hype surrounding the battle royale genre. Just like lava, Minecraft seems to be picking up heat again, as players begin to favor Minecraft over the current battle royale genre. Just don’t touch the lava.

Minecraft was released by Mojang in 2011. Back then, it was a really popular game. The game had a world that was pretty similar to our own world. There were trees, grass, flowers, mountains, caves, animals, and many other things that are like our own world? However, the game also features certain things that are not seen in our world, such as monsters and unique ways to harvest and place materials. Minecraft had 112 million users as of September 14, 2019. Minecraft got over 20 million more users since October 2018. This increased number of users may be due to the help of YouTubers.

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, or known as PewDiePie, is one of the most popular content creators on Youtube right now. He has 101 million subscribers, which makes him the 2nd most subscribed channel, behind T-Series. PewDiePie makes many Let’s Play videos and comedy videos. He started making Minecraft videos starting from July 21, 2019. Ever since, he has been making more Minecraft videos. Lots of famous Youtubers go play Minecraft Monday, which is like the Minecraft Hunger Games. Big-name influential YouTubers from Tyler “ Ninja” Belvins to James Charles to Mr. Beast have played in these games. Minecraft will be adding new things like Minecraft Earth, which is like Pokémon Go, in October. Minecraft will also be adding new monsters and areas to the game. All these Youtube celebrities and new interesting places to go might be a part of the rise of Minecraft, a rise that Fortnite and the other games might not be able to stop.