The numbers have been totted up, the players have spoken, and Minecraft has been voted the winner of the coveted Still Playing Award on PC and Console at the Golden Joystick Awards 2024.
It's fair to say that Minecraft has become a global phenomenon and cultural touchstone in the *checks notes* 15 years since it first became available in 2009, becoming the first video game to sell over 300 million copies. Unless you've been living in a cave for all of that time, then it's likely that you'll already be familiar with this building sandbox and what it's capable of.
Minecraft had to overcome 11 competitors to take home the Still Playing Award on PC and Console, defeating online stalwarts including Fortnite, Roblox, and the other Golden Joystick Awards 2024 nominees for this prize:
- Apex Legends
- Counter-Strike 2
- EA Sports FC
- Dota 2
- Fortnite
- GTA Online
- Minecraft (winner)
- Naraka: Bladepoint
- Roblox
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
- Valorant
- Warframe
In our revisited Minecraft review all the way back in 2017 we described it as "A communal imaginarium, a cultural phenomenon, and an epic social experiment" that offers "A big, beautiful welcome mat to the front door of your imagination". That summary still holds true today, with recent building projects including Bloodborne's Yharnam, a real-world infrastructure project for Japan's government, and an entire fantasy kingdom 12 years in the making.
The world of Minecraft is still evolving after all of this time, with the announcement in the last couple of months that the developers are completely revamping how they do updates, eschewing the previous infrequent major patches packed with fresh content for more regular free update "game drops" to add new features as and when they're ready.
With the game being turned into a Netflix animated series, as well as the live-action A Minecraft Movie with Jack Black and Jason Momoa at the helm, you can expect to hear plenty more about Minecraft in 2025.
This co-op farm sim is a whimsical blend of games like Minecraft and Stardew Valley, and I'm obsessed after playing the Steam Next Fest demo
Minecraft's updates may be getting smaller, but the first game drop of the new era seems plenty big with a cool-as-hell mob paying tribute to Doctor Who's best monster
