Top 10 Minecraft Facts

#10: Infinite world

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Though nothing is endless, Minecraft makes a noble effort of aiming for that goal. The game loads each individual world based on your computer's available RAM, which determines the size of the playable area. However, the game continues to load chunks of land beyond what is playable – thus this “overworld” is theoretically infinite, estimated to be at least seventeen times the surface area of our real-life planet. If you were playing the game before the 1.8 version of the Beta, you could reach the farlands which technically represented the “edge” of the infinite world, but that would mean a 12.5 million trip from your original spawn point.

#9: Big chunks

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Speaking of large things, even the building blocks are massive in scope. Minecraft worlds consist of singular blocks, grouped together into larger chunks called…chunks. This alone sounds relatively impressive, but the exact numbers are astounding; each “chunk” of a world is made up of 65'000 in-game blocks, mostly consisting of the air around you. There’s apparently no such thing as a vacuum in Minecraft, so even the open air is counted as a block.

One mistake can lead to great and terrible things. So it was with the creation of the Creeper, the green hissing monster with a penchant for exploding at the most inconvenient times. The story goes that Notch was developing pigs for the game, but got the dimensions all wrong. The creature was tall and thin, not short and stout, but Notch ran with it. They gave the monster a bizarre face and explosive properties, thus ensuring builders would never have a good night's rest.

#7: April Fools of Thrones

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In the game of fools, you win or you laugh out loud. Possibly both, given how amusing Mojang's fake update for April Fools 2014 turned out to be. If you booted up Minecraft on April 1st, you were treated to an a-Capella rendition of the opening theme from HBO's fantasy series Game of Thrones. Partially in honour of the show's then-impending fourth season and partially a nod to a resource pack by Element Animation, this was one all-around fun Easter egg. Element Pack also provided new sound effects for EVERYTHING in the game, courtesy of their own voices.

#6: The Denmark Replica

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Something might be rotten in Denmark, but this is pretty fresh. As a means of getting youth interested in geography, the Danish Geodata Agency underwent the task of building a 1:1 scale recreation of their entire country in Minecraft. The resulting map took up a full terabyte of data and stretched for about four thousand billion blocks, with special attention paid to buildings in major cities. We don't know how you did it, Denmark, but we're proud that you did.

Move aside, Great Pumpkin – there's a new squash in town. It's no secret that the ghoul-like Endermen are among the most unsettling of Minecraft's creatures, what with their unpleasant sounds and their tendency to linger in the dark. Fortunately there's a solution: stick a pumpkin on your head. Yes, wearing a spare pumpkin as your would a helmet apparently keeps Endermen from turning hostile – saving you oodles of stress in the process.

#4: Microsoft's big purchase

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Success brings buyers, and buyers bring paychecks. This was what defined the Microsoft Corporation's decision in late 2014 to buyout Mojang and the Minecraft IP for a whopping 2.5 billion dollars. Microsoft stated that it sought Minecraft as a means of strengthening its developments in mobile gaming, to say nothing of other opportunities that may come of the purchase. Though there were doubts about the direction Minecraft would take in the deal's aftermath, most agree that game's quality and sense of creativity has remained intact.

Let it never be said that money is wasted on the young. Departing from Mojang after the buyout, co-founder Markus “Notch” Persson sought to distance himself from game development for a while – and several truckloads of that sweet sweet Microsoft money certainly helped. Notch settled in Hollywood, purchasing a 70 million dollar manor - one that was also being considered by Beyonce and Jay-Z – which was the highest price ever paid for a house in Hollywood. Cheers, Notch, you certainly hit the jackpot.

#2: The education of Stockholm

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Video games as education – we finally lived to see the day. The Viktor Rydberg school in Stockholm has established compulsory lessons in Minecraft, aimed at their 13-year old students. The staff believe that by implementing the game into their curriculum, they can better reinforce the importance of ideas such as city planning and environmental awareness. Approximately 180 students are instructed to develop virtual worlds and contribute what details they can think of; electric grids and water supply networks come to mind. It's inspiring to see creativity enforced and embraced so readily. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions: Minecraft popular on Xbox Live Over 60 million copies sold Minceraft Steve's ability to carry 25 thousand metric tons Endermen sounds are reversed & distorted human voices

#1: The influence of Infiniminer

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Minecraft was not born of nothing, but was rather shaped from something basic. Its progenitor was Infiniminer, a small-scale multiplayer PC game about collecting precious metals and building structures with them. Notch has outright admitted the game influenced Minecraft's development, and it shows through the similarities – both are games about mining and placing building blocks, for instance. However, Infiniminer was unique in its competitive design and details like character selection; it made the game distinctive in its own right while still being a cornerstone to Minecraft’s legacy. Do you agree with our list? What’s your favorite fact about Minecraft? For more crafty Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.