Minecraft is an independent sandbox game created by Markus "Notch" Persson, later developed and published by the Swedish company Mojang, which was sold to Microsoft in 2014 for 2.5 billion dollars. Currently more than 12,000,000 players play Minecraft, and it continues to be a widely popular game played by many people.
History
Markus Persson began creating Minecraft in the summer of 2009 after creating multiple video games includingDwarf Fortress andInfiniminer. After the first weekend that it was made, the game sold forty copies each selling for ten euros. As the game was further updated, a significant increase in sales was seen. By early November 2011, the game sold over four million copies.[1] The game was officially released on the November 18th, 2011.[2] 1.1 was made soon after, receiving apples and 51 languages, three of which were fictional.[3] As of September 2025, the latest version of Minecraft is 1.21.9, also known as 'The Copper Age'
Items
Building Blocks
This is a list of some of the building blocks found in Minecraft.
Stone
Grass Block - A block with dirt at the bottom and then grass at the top. Most of the block is dirt, but the top of the block is grass.
Dirt - Brown dirt.
Cobblestone - Building block, can be made to make different types of Combat tools and Tools. Typically dropped when mining stone using a non-Silk Touch pickaxe.
Planks - Planks are different type of blocks with a type of style. Some planks available areOak Wood Planks, in which these planks come from Oak Wood (trees).Spruce Wood Planks, a dark lined block.Birch Wood Planks, in which come from Birch Wood.
Bedrock - A black and dot covered block. The only time this block can break is during Creative Mode. In the other modes (Survival and Adventure Mode), the block cannot break.
Oak Wood - Chopped down wood from an Oak Tree.
Spruce Wood - Chopped down wood from a Spruce Tree.
Sand - Sand yellow block. This can be smelted into glass. This block is affected by gravity.
Gravel - Similar to sand, this block is affected by gravity. It may sometimes drop flint when mined, which can be used to create Flint and Steel.
Gold Ore - A mineral block, if mined, raw gold will fall out, which can be smelted into gold ingots.
Iron Ore - A mineral block, if mined, raw iron will fall out, which can be smelted into iron ingots.
Coal Ore - A mineral block, if mined, Coal will fall out.
Diamond Ore - A mineral block, if mined, diamonds will fall out.
Jungle Wood - Wood found from trees in the Jungle Biome.
Sponge - Yellow block with black dots. Can be used to remove water and turn into a wet sponge.
Glass - Transparent block.
Lapis Lazuli Ore - A mineral block, if mined, Lapis Lazuli will fall out. This will be used in an enchantment table.
Lapis Lazuli Block - Blue block, used for decorations.
Sandstone - Stone of Sand, bland.
Chiseled Sandstone - A smooth type of Sandstone with theCreeper face.
Smooth Sandstone - Decorative and smoothed style of SandStone.
Wool - A block which comes from sheep, can be changed into various colors, seeMinecraft/Wool for the different types of wool.
Iron Block - A block of iron, can be made into an iron golem. It is crafted from 9 iron ingots.
Slabs - Checkthis page for information on Slabs and the different types of slabs.
Bricks - A red and white stripped block.
Bookshelf - A bookshelf block.
Moss Stone - A bubbly looking block.
Obsidian - A bubbly, black block. This can be mined to create a Nether Portal, with Flint and Steel.
Stairs - There are different types of Stairs, read more info on Minecraft Stairs here:Minecraft/Stairs.
Diamond - A block of Diamond. More valuable than Gold in Minecraft. It can be crafted by using 9 diamond on a crafting table.
Redstone Ore - A mineral block filled with redstone in the block. If mined by a pickaxe, it will drop redstone dust, which can be used to craft redstone-powered items.
Ice - A block of ice, water will come out if melted.
Snow - A block of white snow, can be made into a snow golem with 2 blocks of snow on top of each other an a pumpkin on top.
Clay - A gray like block. It will drop Clay Balls when mined.
Carved Pumpkin - Can be made for a face, such as with the Iron and Snow Golem. Also decorative and can be made into a Jack O-Lantern with a torch inside. Created by using shears on a regular pumpkin.
Pumpkin - can be found wild or found grown in villages, used to make carved pumpkin and pumpkin pie
Watermelon - can be found wild in jungle biome or grown in villages, can be eaten on its own or as glistening watermelon
Hay Bale - used to hold large amounts of wheat, can be fed to llamas
Coral Block - comes in 6 colors (Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Purple, and Pink)
Ancient Debris - red-brown and grey striped block, after smelted it can be combined with gold to make netherite ingots
Loadstone - grey with black cross
Dispenser - grey block with a face like design
Honey Block - a block made of honey comb
Bee Hive - a wild bees home usually found in oak trees near a flower field
Quartz Block - a block made out of nether quartz, found in the Nether.
Sapling - an item dropped when a tree has been chopped. There are various types of sapling, such as oak or birch. Checkthis page for different types of sapling.
Gamemodes
There are four gamemodes in Minecraft, which are:
Adventure
Survival
Creative
Spectator
Hardcore
Note that not all modes are available for all versions. For example, Hardcore mode is only available in Java Edition.[4]