How many people play Minecraft in 2023?

Minecraft emerged from its beta on November 18, 2011. It has since become a worldwide phenomenon and one of the most played games on a regular basis. A title with humble beginnings has taken on life as one of the most indelibly recognizable franchises in the history of modern gaming. To this day, millions continue to log on to craft, mine, survive, and battle.

But how many players actually still play Minecraft here in 2023? Some accounts are likely inactive a decade after the title's full release, but it might be surprising just how many continue to return to the sandbox game again and again.

For any interested fans, this isn't a bad time to examine the game's player count a little more closely.

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Examining how many players still play Minecraft as of October 2023

Over 100 million players continue to play Minecraft according to most sources (Image via Mojang)

Back in March of this year, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer remarked that Minecraft possesses 120 million active players. These numbers certainly fluctuate to some degree depending on external factors, but the player counts tracked by various outlets continue to support Spencer's claim.

According to the metrics tracking site Activeplayer.io, Minecraft saw over 174 million active players in the last 30 days. August and September 2023 also sported over 168 million active players based on the same tracker. Concurrent players in a single day have also held steady at around 10-11 million for the past several months.

200 concurrent players on a modded server (Image via Scratchisthebest/Reddit)

It should be noted that the daily player count is down from the Summer and Winter of 2023, which saw the game rake in over 17 million participants per day. It's unclear as to why this is the case, but daily participation may very well tick up again in the coming days as Minecraft Live 2023 approaches and the 1.21 update is announced.

Moreover, many fans are still young and have school obligations, so it's likely no surprise that daily player counts increase during the Summer and Winter due to school breaks. This is a theory, to be sure, but one that certainly makes some modicum of sense considering the game's massive popularity among younger audiences.

Mojang's focus on expression and creativity continues to pay off for it in 2023 (Image via Playerauctions.com)

Even though the game's player count may fluctuate, having over a hundred million players online each month and roughly 17 million participants each day is a mark that's almost impossible to meet for most games. Even after Mojang and Microsoft's controversial changes to its online EULA that caused issues for multiplayer servers, the game continues to go strong.

Since the beloved sandbox title continues to implement free content updates and makes a plethora of bug fixes, it's highly unlikely that its popularity will decline anytime soon. Anything is possible of course, but a game still sporting over 100 million active users since its full release is almost unheard of.