Minecraft PC reaches 15M copies sold, total sales approaching 50M

Mojang has now sold 15 million copies of the original edition of Minecraft, creator Markus "Notch" Persson announced today on Twitter.

The Java-based Minecraft alpha debuted on Linux, Mac and Windows PC in May 2009. By the end of the year, Mojang was charging €5 for premium accounts. In mid-January 2011, less than a month after entering beta with a price increase to €15, sales reached 1 million copies. Minecraft is continuing to sell on PC, even after its release on various console and mobile platforms: This past February, sales of the PC version topped 14 million.

Today's announcement brings total sales of Minecraft across all platforms very close to the 50 million mark. Earlier this month, Mojang announced it had sold more than 21 million copies of Minecraft: Pocket Edition on Android and iOS; more than 12 million copies of the Xbox 360 Edition; and more than 1.5 million copies of the PlayStation 3 Edition — making for a sum of at least 49.5 million units. PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and Xbox One versions of Minecraft are still on the way.

"Time to celebrate!" said Persson, posting a photo of a thumbs-up sign next to a can of sugar-free Red Bull.