Microsoft’s Minecraft Gets Boost From Homebound Gamers Looking to Socialize
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Minecraft, the virtual world game Microsoft acquired in 2015 , is seeing a boom in play as the Covid-19 pandemic shutters schools and leaves kids stuck at home.
The number of new installations of Minecraft across Xbox One, Windows 10, the Xbox Game Pass subscription, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android rose 25% in April from March, Microsoft said Monday. That brings the total number of people playing Minecraft each month to more than 126 million, Microsoft said. Multiplayer sessions jumped 40%, indicating gamers are using Minecraft’s pixelated world to connect with friends they can’t see in the real one.