Since its release on the PC in the spring of 2009, Minecraft, developed by Mojang, has become one of the most popular video games in the world. Attracting both hard-core gamers and casuals alike, the procedurally generated worlds of Minecraft have sold over 33 million copies across all platforms. While there isn’t one specific reason as to why this game has received such popularity, there are trends and demographics available that help to shed light on what those reasons may be. Here, you will find everything you need to know about the player demographics, as well as the the information surrounding exactly how Minecraft seeds and Minecraft servers can help in determining the demographics of Minecraft.

To understand player demographics, you must first understand how this game exists. Everything boils down to the types of Minecraft servers and Minecraft Seeds available to the players. While Mojang has yet to implement a specific system that will allow them to track player demographics, there are separate surveys and studies that point towards what those demographics may be. Though Minecraft seeds may seem complicated at first, they are merely a tool that is utilized so as to allow players to create their worlds and share them across networks with the millions of other players from around the world. Minecraft seeds are basically a random and unique number assigned to each player every time they create a new world. These Minecraft seeds are used to mark the world that they create as theirs. They can then share the Minecraft seed with players and allow them to interact with it as well. These help to pinpoint demographics based on game modes.

Minecraft servers are nearly as important as Minecraft seeds. Servers allow for the general multi-player portion of this game to exist. The online aspect of Minecraft allows for the possibility of at least understanding player demographics. There are a myriad of different types of Minecraft servers. The three most important and popular ones are the Faction PVP, PVP/Survival, and Economy types. These Minecraft servers have always been a key to the success of Minecraft, and have allowed the community surrounding the game to grow exponentially over the past few years. These Minecraft servers allow for the tracking of certain player demographics, such as ratio of male to female players, as well as the specific ages of those that play this game.

Minecraft is, essentially, the gaming version of youtube.com; a social interaction that has exploded onto the gaming scene and has transcended the typical boundaries of gaming. The player demographics within Minecraft can reveal a lot about the popularity of this game. For instance, the largest demographic is that of 15-21 year old’s, which comprise a vast 43% of the player base. the 22-30 year old age bracket consists of just over 21% of the base. Rounding out the top three is the under 15 age bracket, which averages to 20.59%. The lowest player demographics happen to rest with the 61-80 age brackets, which is to be expected. While these numbers may not seem wholly important on their own, it’s essential to understand that they can tell a lot about the types of people the game is aimed towards. These numbers show that, while gamers of all ages play this game, it’s typically played by teenagers, as they comprise over 60% of total players.

While teenagers may be the central demographic, the overall numbers are a bit misleading at face value. The two most important numbers within all of them are the under 15 and over 30 numbers. The fact that over 20% of the Minecraft player base are children and young teenagers should not be ignored, even if the 15-21 percentage is higher. Most video games tend to do well with either children or young adults, but rarely both. This fact displays that it isn’t merely one demographic that this game does well with, but a variety. This is also true with the over 30 age brackets, as nearly 15% of players being over the age of thirty is a superb number for any game. The last reported number of copies sold of this game sit at just over 33 million, which means that nearly five million players are over the age of thirty.

As for which countries play the game the most, North America is in first place, while the UK is in second, with the majority being male gamers, though that percentage has gone down as of late. In 2011, The demographics for male and female players sat at 94% male and 6% female. This stark difference has reportedly gone down in the most recent years, largely due to Minecraft moving to the Xbox 360, which is reported to be the gaming platform with the highest percentages of female gamers.