Minecraft

Markus "Notch" Persson started building Minecraft in May 2009 as a side project inspired by Infiniminer. By 2011, it had sold a million copies before even leaving beta. Microsoft acquired Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014 — at the time the most expensive gaming acquisition ever. The game has since sold over 300 million copies, become the best-selling game in history, and generated a cultural footprint that includes a movie, education platform, and an entire generation of kids who learned to code through redstone circuits. From a solo Swedish developer to the biggest game ever made.