According to a Nintendonews.com article, the mobile, PC and console versions of Minecraft have collectively sold 54 million copies making it the second best selling game. This game is disgustingly popular with young children and since stuff like MinecraftEdu are happening, this game is going to be the next Math Blasters, except people will play it in and out of school. My old english teacher actually plays the game with her 5 children. It's probably a good bonding exercise for them. Can't wait to see all the "If you had this game, your childhood was awesome" memes in 5 or 8 years.
Lately though I've started to feel that with all the good things that Minecraft has brought to the table like popular culture recognition for the games industry and giving more motivation for older people to actually experience this medium of entertainment, it has also introduced some new and popularized some old very harmful concepts that are hurting the user friendliness of the games industry, which is already in a very weak state. I mean stuff like paying for Early Access and the way how Minecraft popularized Indie games, painting them as "Quality titles made by the people for the people", even though the real meaning is "Rarely quality titles made by the people for a school project", so now console manufacturers are using them as proof that they aren't a bunch of twats looking to make money.