Why Is Minecraft Suddenly Popular Again

2019 has had a few constants on the internet then far: "Old Town Road," Keanu Reeves, Area 51, a general sense of unease about our impending ecological disaster. Surprisingly, a 10-year-old video game has also joined the mix — Minecraft, the iconic block builder.

Minecraft, it should exist noted, has quietly been dominating video games this entire time: By Mojang's count back in 2018, over 91 one thousand thousand unique players log in every month across all platforms. (Fortnite, the hottest visible game of 2018, had 78 1000000 unique players during an best high.) But things are irresolute in 2019. Minecraft's authorisation is no longer out of sight from the mainstream. For one thing, it is picking dorsum up on Google searches:

Google

Only, perchance almost notably, seemingly every big YouTube star is championing the game right at present. What's causing the uptick?

The first and near obvious reason is that Minecraft is a condom bet on platforms like YouTube. Right now, many top creators feel that monetization on the platform is volatile, but Minecraft seems to be an advertiser favorite. It makes sense, too: Minecraft isn't tearing, and it's non controversial. Kids dearest it. Of grade influencers are embracing Minecraft over again. But the increased interest can too be traced dorsum to specific creators and changing attitudes as well.

For over a yr, YouTube creator Grandayy — who is known for his Minecraft memes — kept suggesting the thought of a "Minecraft Monday" to Keemstar, a YouTube gossip reporter who has increasingly been holding more video game competitions over the last year. After begging for Keemstar to host it, the YouTube personality finally gave in. Like his Fri Fortnite tournament, Keemstar opted to bring in large names who could attract huge viewerships, such as Fortnite superstar Tyler "Ninja" Blevins. Blevins alone brought in nearly one one thousand thousand viewers on Twitch for that first week. And so, on week 2, at that place was another megaton: Keemstar had convinced YouTube male monarch Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg to participate in the event alongside beauty guru James Charles. All of a sudden, nearly every big proper noun on YouTube and Twitch was playing Mojang's sandbox game. Minecraft became a spectacle once again. According to Keemstar, millions of people tune in to his evidence every week.

Kjellberg alone has been driving huge interest to Minecraft. The Swedish YouTuber started a Minecraft play-through in June, and installments in the series are getting enormous views. (The offset in the serial, for instance, has 21 million views.) A YouTube representative reinforced Kjellberg's influence on Minecraft'south resurgence to Polygon, citing him every bit a specific instance of "new video formats and trends around the game." Game developers have noted in the past that Kjellberg has a powerful result on the visibility of any given game, sometimes improving the sales of a title by orders of magnitude.

But function of what fabricated people turn out for Kjellberg'southward playthrough was that the YouTuber has continually joked about refusing to play Minecraft. Part of Kjellberg's protestation against the game was seeing that high-profile YouTubers were heralding the game back in its heyday despite not actually enjoying it. To wit, Adam "SkyDoesMinecraft" Dahlberg made headlines in 2017 afterwards announcing that he was giving up the game because continuing to make content about information technology felt "false." (He has since gone back to making Minecraft videos in 2019.) And then, for longtime PewDiePie viewers, watching the blond YouTuber go dorsum on his discussion and actually enjoy a game he used to denounce has delighted fans.

Part of why he'southward finally diving into Minecraft in 2019 is that he feels that he is flexible enough to not have the game define his channel. He's playing it for now, because he wants to — not considering it's a trend, or because it's easily monetizeable.

"If Minecraft gets boring, I can just move on to other things," Kjellberg said in the video where he explains why he'due south playing the game correct now.

The combination of being an advertiser-friendly game, Kjellberg's buying of the game, and Minecraft Mon has sent visible shockwaves throughout YouTube. Seemingly anybody, from Jacksepticeye to Lazarbeam have been broadcasting the game on the video platform. It's become a running joke, even, that Fortnite channels are pivoting to Minecraft every bit interest in the battle royale genre seems to be decreasing on social media.

PewDiePie via YouTube

And, to Minecraft's credit, the game has managed to maintain interest through updates and increased ways engage with its world. Augmented-reality game Minecraft Earth, which is currently in beta, seems to be the only thing capable of putting upwardly a fight against Pokémon Go. Minecraft Dungeons, also announced this year, will bring a Diablo-similar feel to a younger audience.

According to the people spearheading this new moving ridge, it actually helps that Minecraft is an sometime game. The people who grew upwards on Minecraft and left it behind as they got older are starting to miss it, influencers say.

"Nine years later those children are older teens or adults and nostalgia has set in," Keemstar told Polygon. "Over the terminal two years, Minecraft has been added to meme civilisation, making it also absurd again."

Grandayy, who has fabricated a proper name for himself making elaborate Minecraft jokes on social media, agrees with this cess. He thinks people are pining for the game based on nostalgia gene, and then are surprised to find that the feel can still experience fresh in 2019.

"To anyone who hasn't played [Minecraft] since 2013, the game today almost feels like a totally different game ... I recollect Minecraft is one of the few games that never truly gets quondam, at least not permanently. Since it's a sandbox and you tin can practice pretty much anything you want in it, it'south more than than just a game, it's almost like a digital toy or digital platform."

Information technology'due south not just that the game has new stuff. Creators on social media continue to reference the game, which helps the game feel relevant even in 2019. I don't fifty-fifty play Minecraft, but I still enjoy watching Grandayy's baroque videos, such equally the one where he parodies Belle Delphine by advertising "Chicken Farm Water" in Minecraft.

"I pretty much never stopped making Minecraft memes and Minecraft note block music," Grandayy told Polygon. Some would even credit Grandayy for helping convince Kjellberg to pick upward the game, though Grandayy himself says many people were pushing for this to happen. Whatever the example, the ripples are everywhere. Only this month, a 2011 remix of an Conductor vocal created by YouTuber CaptainSparklez started trending once more on sites like Genius. Equally of this writing, the video has 184 million lifetime views.

"Generations in the past collected baseball cards, toy cars or Barbies as adults because of nostalgia," Keemstar told Polygon. "In this day of historic period we will run across video games of the past resurrected due to the same matter. Minecraft volition be hot for the next two years before we meet it decline over again."

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Source: https://www.polygon.com/2019/8/1/20727946/minecraft-youtube-popularity-memes-pewdiepie-grandayy-keemstar-minecraft-monday

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