Minecraft sells 10,000 copies a day and on average players are in their late twenties

Minecraft is incredibly popular. Everyone knows that, but four and half years on from its initial full release it continues to sell incredibly well, shifting 10,000 units every day according to IP holders Microsoft, which has also revealed new information about the game's player demographic.

A New York Times feature about the continued, world-conquering success, of Mojang's game reveals the figure. It adds that "according to Microsoft, the average player is between 28 and 29, and women make up nearly 40% of all players."

A large part of the creative, block-based game's ongoing success are the various versions available on pretty much every gaming platform imaginable. Starting out on PC and Mac, the game later came to mobile before its console debut on Xbox 360 in 2012. Versions for PlayStation 3, PS4, PS Vita, Windows Phone and Wii U followed, the latest of which arriving in December 2015.

Microsoft bought Mojang and the Minecraft IP in September 2014 for $2.5 billion (£1.7bn), also relinquishing creator Marcus Persson of his ties to the series. To date Microsoft have essentially left the developer to their own devices, with no apparent change to the series' trajectory.

For now, the game's future is continued iteration through updates, as well as a future in virtual reality (VR) through Oculus Rift and augmented reality (AR) through Microsoft's HoloLens tech. At their E3 press conference in 2015, Microsoft demoed HoloLens with Minecraft – wowing the industry.

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