Minecraft is one of the most popular and successful games in history. Microsoft has recently released the new sales situation for the entire franchise - and it's immense.

The art director of the game, Saxs Persson, said in a blog post that the franchise - which debuted on the PC 10 years ago in 2009 - has now surpassed 176 million copies sold. It counts copies sold on all platforms. The game sold a copy in almost all countries in the world, Persson added. There are at least four copies for the game sold even in Antarctica.

The game was released on PC but is now available on almost any platform, including consoles, mobile devices and more.

Nearly three years ago, in June 2016, developer Mojang announced that total sales were 106.85 million copies, so sales continued to steadily increase since then.

Not only did many people buy Minecraft, but they also play it a lot. After the last count of Microsoft, the game has 91 million players a month, which is a lot of millions in front of Fortnite.

Considering the immense success of the game, you might think that Microsoft would like to launch a stand-alone sequel, but that will not happen too soon - or ever. If Microsoft launched Minecraft 2, the players' base could be fractured as some would move on to the new game and others would remain with the original. While Microsoft could do this theoretically and continue to make good money from it, it is more logical to keep the community together, according to Minecraft Chief Helen Chiang.

Speaking of games that have sold a number of inconceivable copies, Take-Two has just announced that Grand Theft Auto V has sold nearly 110 million copies.

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

Microsoft acquired Minecraft and the Mojang manufacturer's studio in 2015 for $ 2.5 billion. Game creator Markus "Notch" Persson is no longer involved in the franchise, and Microsoft is distancing themselves from his controversial views.