Depending on their chosen game mode, players can fight hostile mobs, as well as cooperate with or compete against other players in the same world. Players can discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items, and build structures, earthworks, and machines. In Minecraft, players explore a blocky, procedurally generated, three-dimensional world with virtually infinite terrain. Minecraft has become the best-selling video game in history, with over 300 million copies sold and nearly 140 million monthly active players as of 2023. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being fully released in November 2011, with Notch stepping down and Jens 'Jeb' Bergensten taking over development. The game was created by Markus 'Notch' Persson in the Java programming language. Minecraft is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios and originally released in 2009.
