Minecraft Reaches Massive New Sales Milestone

Minecraft is one of the most popular and commercially successful games in history. Microsoft has now shared a new sales update for the entire franchise–and it’s huge.

Minecraft creative director Saxs Persson said in a blog post that the franchise–which debuted on PC 10 years ago in 2009–has now crossed 176 million copies sold. This counts copies sold across all platforms. The game has sold a copy in nearly every country in the world, Persson added. This includes at least four copies sold in Antarctica.

The game launched on PC, but now it’s available pretty much everywhere you can play games, including console, mobile, and more.

Less than three years ago, in June 2016, developer Mojang announced that Minecraft lifetime sales stood at 106.85 million copies, so sales have continued steadily since then.

Not only have many, many people bought Minecraft, they’re also playing a lot. By Microsoft’s latest count, the game has 91 million monthly players, which is many millions ahead of Fortnite.

Given the huge success of Minecraft, you might think Microsoft would want to release Minecraft 2, but that’s not going to happen soon–or ever. If Microsoft were to make Minecraft 2, the player base might get fractured as some move to the sequel and others stay with the original. While Microsoft could theoretically do that and still make a lot of money, it makes more sense to keep the community together, according to Minecraft boss Helen Chiang.

“We’re trying to keep our community together,” she explained. “That’s why our updates our free. We don’t want to ask [players] to move from Minecraft 1 to Minecraft 2. We want them to just enjoy Minecraft. And there’s other ways that we can expand that are more meaningful and authentic to what we want to be, rather than just releasing another iteration in the way that most other franchises do.”

In other news about games that have sold an unthinkable number of copies, Take-Two just announced that Grand Theft Auto V has sold almost 110 million copies.

Multiple new Minecraft games are in development, including an AR game called Minecraft Earth and a dungeon-crawler style project called Minecraft Dungeons.

Microsoft acquired Minecraft and developer Mojang in 2015 for $2.5 billion. The game’s creator, Markus “Notch” Persson, is no longer involved with the franchise and Microsoft is distancing itself from him in the wake of his controversial opinions.

Game Of Thrones Finale: What Happened To The Starks In The End?

So that’s it. Game of Thrones has come to its end. There’s a new ruler for Westeros, and while a whole bunch of people died along the way, a lot of fan-favorite characters managed to make it through the game of thrones and win, or at least didn’t die.

In Episode 6, “The Iron Throne,” we saw what finally became of the Stark kids after years of them dodging death at the hands of their enemies. Here’s what happened to the Starks in the final moments of the show–as always, there are tons of spoilers for the finale episode from here on out.

Let’s start with Jon Snow. In the aftermath of the destruction of King’s Landing, Jon had to choose whether to serve Daenerys Targaryen as a tyrant queen. Instead of ruling at her side (or taking the risk of letting her kill him and the rest of his family at some later point), Jon assassinated Daenerys, stabbing her in the heart with his dagger.

Grey Worm imprisoned Jon, but he somehow avoided being executed for his crime. Jon didn’t win the throne, however–as a compromise between Sansa Stark and Grey Worm, Tyrion exiled Jon back to the Wall. Right after rejoining the Night’s Watch, Jon teamed up with Tormund, the wildlings, and Ghost (hooray!), and headed North, presumably to live in freedom now that there are no White Walkers to kill everyone.

With no new monarch left for Westeros, the surviving lords and ladies of the kingdom gathered at the King’s Landing dragon pit to choose a new leader. At Tyrion Lannister’s suggestion, they landed on Bran Stark as the new king. Bran can’t father children, though, so the next king of Westeros won’t be his son; instead, the lords and ladies of the country will choose a new monarch when Bran’s rule ends.

Sansa might not have won the throne, but she won a throne. When everyone in the council was voting on a new king, Sansa abstained, instead refusing for the North to rejoin the Seven Kingdoms. That makes Bran the ruler of the Six Kingdoms, with the North remaining independent. Meanwhile, Sansa was named Queen in the North by her bannermen, leaving her with a kingdom of her own.

Arya often said she was no lady, so she didn’t hang around in Winterfell with her sister or marry a lord (like Gendry Baratheon). She made good on her idea to find out what’s west of Westeros, which she mentioned back in Season 6. We see her taking a ship to go exploring in her final moments.

While a lot of great houses went extinct through the course of the show (RIP House Tyrell), the Starks only lost a majority of their members. The head of the house, Ned Stark, was beheaded by Joffrey Baratheon back in Season 1. His wife, Catelyn Stark, died at the Red Wedding, along with her eldest son, Robb Stark. And Rickon Stark was killed by Ramsay Bolton during the Battle of the Bastards. But against all odds, the rest of the kids survived.

Of all the great houses of Westeros, the Starks wound up making out better than most of the others. Three of the five kids survived (or four of six if you count Jon, who’s technically a Targaryen), and most of them got what they wanted. Sansa gets to be queen, her desire from Season 1; Arya got the freedom to do what she wants; Bran can use his Three-Eyed Raven powers to make the world a better place; and Jon gets to live among the Freefolk. All in all, not a bad result, especially compared to their enemies.

Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington React to Daenerys’ Fate

Spoiler warning: major spoilers for the Game of Thrones finale ahead.

Daenerys actress Emilia Clarke and Jon Snow actor Kit Harington have reacted to Daenerys’ descent into madness, and her death at the hands of Jon.

In an interview with EW, Clarke revealed that, upon reading the final season’s script, she cried and went for a walk. “I walked out of the house and took my keys and phone and walked back with blisters on my feet. I didn’t come back for five hours. I’m like, ‘How am I going to do this?’” Of Daenerys’ decision to torch King’s Landing, she said she “Absolutely never saw that coming.”

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Game of Thrones: What’s West of Westeros?

Full spoilers ahead for “The iron Throne,” the series finale of Game of Thrones!

Game of Thrones ended with the Starks all going their separate ways following the election of Bran the Broken as the king of the Six Kingdoms (yes, now six), the Iron Throne getting melted down, and Daenerys Targaryen dead. Arya Stark surprised her siblings as they were saying their goodbyes by revealing that she would not return North to Winterfell. Instead, she will venture west of Westeros — a Game of Thrones spinoff we’d all love to see. But what’s west of Westeros anyway? Short answer: no one knows.

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Game of Thrones Series Finale Ending Explained

Warning: full spoilers for the Game of Thrones series finale episode titled “The Iron Throne”!

The final episode of Game of Thrones has come and gone, finally answering many big questions and showing us who lived, who died, and who got a promotion. Here’s a breakdown of all the big events in “The Iron Throne” and where everyone wound up.

The Death of Daenerys Targaryen

With Daenerys going full-on murderous dictator and delivering a passionate speech to her army about how they would continue to “liberate” the entire world, Jon Snow was eventually convinced by an imprisoned Tyrion to end her life. Just as Daenerys was about to sit on the Iron Throne, Jon joined her in the throne room to give her one last kiss and stab her in the heart, killing her almost instantly. Jon was clearly in anguish, showing that he did truly love Daenerys despite what she had become.

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Game of Thrones: Did This Photo Predict the Ending?

Full spoilers for Game of Thrones’ series finale continue below. For more on Game of Thrones, be sure to vote in our poll for your finale reactions and let us know what you thought of the episode in “The Iron Throne” review.

The end was in plain sight from the beginning – as long as you believe that this picture was a premonition and not just some young cast members mucking about at a party.

As pointed out by DreamyArk on Reddit, a picture from 2012 shows Bran sitting on the Iron Throne, flanked by his Stark sisters:

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Game of Thrones Series Finale Callbacks and Easter Eggs

SPOILERS AHEAD for Game of Thrones’ Season 8, Episode 6, “The Iron Throne.”

Game of Thrones’ final episode, “The Iron Throne,” aired tonight and there were a ton of callbacks to previous episodes and Easter Eggs to be found.

We’ve gathered what we’ve found below, and we will continue to add them as more are discovered!

Also, be sure to check out our review of “The Iron Throne,” where we said it was “a bittersweet if underwhelming climax to a show that’s been a true cultural obsession. We’ll never see its like again.”

What’s West of Westeros?

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Game Of Thrones Ending: Who Was That Kid At The Council Meeting?

The final episode of Game of Thrones saw the conclusion of eight seasons of stories, some ending tragically while others came out pretty well, all things considered. “The Iron Throne” also saw the return of a few characters who’ve been missing from the show for a while, giving us a look at what happened to them since their last appearance.

A word of warning: there are spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 6, beyond this point!

After Daenerys Targaryen’s sack of King’s Landing, Tyrion Lannister tries to convince Jon Snow that something has to be done about the queen. Jon is finally convinced and when he finds himself alone with Dany, he pledges his loyalty to her one last time–before stabbing her with a dagger, killing her.

Without a monarch to lead the Seven Kingdoms, the surviving lords and ladies of Westeros meet at the dragon pit in King’s Landing to decide who should rule. There are a lot of familiar faces in attendance, including Yara Greyjoy of the Iron Islands, Edmure Tully of Riverrun, Ser Davos, Ser Brienne of Tarth, and Yohn Royce, who led the Knights of the Vale in the Battle of the Bastards. You might have caught sight of another familiar face with Lord Royce: the grown-up Robin Arryn, Lord of the Vale.

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We first met Robin in Season 1 when Catelyn Stark took the captured Tyrion Lannister to the Eyrie to get the help of her sister, Lysa Arryn. Robin was the son of Lysa and Jon Arryn, the former Hand of the King who died before the start of the series. With his father’s death, the young boy became the new Lord of the Vale. When Robin first appeared on the show, his mother was breastfeeding him (despite the fact that he was definitely about eight or 10 years old at the time). He went on to demonstrate how spoiled and awful he was as he demanded that Tyrion be tossed out the Moon Door.

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Robin showed up again in Season 4, when Littlefinger brought Sansa Stark to the Eyrie after spiriting her away from King’s Landing in the wake of Joffrey Baratheon’s death. At that point, he was still spoiled and awful–you might remember the temper tantrum he threw while talking to Sansa, stomping on her snow castle.

According to Lysa, the plan was that Robin was to marry Sansa, but that obviously never happened. Littlefinger threw Lysa out the Moon Door instead, and eventually, he married Sansa to Ramsay Bolton. We last saw Robin in Season 6, being absolutely miserable with a sword. That was when Littlefinger sent Robin to live with Lord Royce, who was charged with training the young lord and turning him into a man.

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Who knows if Robin ever learned anything, but he’s definitely come a long way since Season 6. At the council meeting, we see an adult Robin (actor Lino Facioli, who plays Robin, is 18) who looks a lot less sickly than he did as a kid. One wonders if Sansa thinks she made a mistake bailing on Robin; then again, it’s hard to separate the good-looking young man from the way-too-old-to-be-breastfeeding boy.

Game of Thrones Twitter Reactions: Fans Think Finale Sucked

Warning: Full spoilers follow for Game of Thrones’ series finale, “The Iron Throne.”

Even if we may have been anticipating Daenerys’ inevitable downfall, Game of Thrones’ path forward hasn’t exactly been paved with the most nuanced trajectory, and fans have noticed. Dany may have made a few missteps of judgment in her time, but it certainly still felt like 0 to 100 (read: genocide) in Game of Thrones’ penultimate episode. And now that the show has had its final chance for a wrap-up, many fans have come away feeling dissatisfied. I mean, Bran, really? Let’s take a look at what folks are saying!

IGN’s Readers

“The storytelling just didn’t hold up at the end at all,” IGN reader tariq319 said. “I’m okay with how the story ended, but the way it was being told just left me completely disappointed.” Reader HillAustinD sees the silver lining of it all: “I feel like after last week’s travesty, this was as good as we could have hoped for.”

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