On May 17th, 2009, Markus Perrson (known to the gaming community as “Notch”) released an early version of a game made only of blocks, first calling it “Cave Game,” and, soon after, naming it “Minecraft: Order of the Stone.” Finally, he shortened the name to simply “Minecraft.”
The game’s full version was released in late 2011 to iOS, Android, and PC, and instantly became popular amongst a younger audience throughout the world. By the following June, it hit ten million players.
Meanwhile, during this time, YouTube was growing as a platform. The very first YouTuber to post a video specifically on Minecraft was back in 2009 by a user named Carlz0r, titled “Let’s Build In Minecraft!” It was eight minutes and thirty-five seconds of walking around and building random structures. From there, more people across the globe started building their channels using Minecraft as their canvas.
During the following years, Minecraft became a sensational part of youth culture. On July 28th, 2012, a beloved Minecraft YouTtuber named DanTDM released his first ever Minecraft video labeled “Minecraft: Pokemobs A Mod #1 ‘The Journey Begins..’”. After this release, DanTDM released more modded Minecraft videos, and others followed that lead, such as Captainsparklez, Ssundee, Stampylonghead, Ethoslab, PopularMMOs, Technoblade, Pewdiepie, iBallisticSquid, and many more throughout the 2010s.
There have been many rises and falls in Minecraft’s popularity throughout the years. But its popularity is nothing to shrug off; it’s grown to the point where we officially have “A Minecraft Movie”, which was released on April 4th, 2025.
The movie brought exactly what was promised to us in the trailers. It’s totally unhinged. Jack Black stars as Steve, who gives us a grand experience walking through the world of Minecraft. Jason Mamoa, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, and Sabastian Hansan, are the supporting cast, which helps further the viewers experience with hilarious dialogue
The movie does change some elements of the original game for the sake of narrative convenience. Take, for example, one of the infamous mobs known as the “Enderman” who players know to avoid eye-contact with, or else they will become hostile and start attacking you. However, in the movie, if you look into the eyes of an Enderman, they will go into a trance and melt your brain.
Even with these changes, I recommend the movie to all Minecraft players. Obviously, if you love Jack Black, then you have to watch it. Bring your friends or loved ones, and enjoy the experience of a unique world that started off with a simple blocky game.
