A very Minecraft Christmas: 453K copies sold across all platforms, says Notch

Christmas was kind to Minecraft developer Mojang this year — the company sold 453,000 copies of the game across all platforms, according to studio head Markus "Notch" Persson.

The number caused Notch to exclaim on Twitter, "Wowzers!" He initially said the sales came on Dec. 24, but quickly sent a follow-up tweet to correct the date to Christmas Day.

As of Dec. 13, approximately 17.5 million copies of Minecraft had been sold, so the Christmas sales numbers bring the game close to, if not above, the 18 million mark.

Minecraft originally launched on Windows PC; it is also available on Android and iOS devices as Minecraft - Pocket Edition and on Xbox Live Arcade as Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition.