- Strategy Breakdowns
- Posts
- šÆ Minecraft: A canvas for creators
šÆ Minecraft: A canvas for creators
The playbook behind the biggest game ever
Read time: 3 minutes 7 seconds

Hey folks ā Tom here
I donāt usually write in first person, but today weāre Iām making an exception.
Today marks 6 months since the first edition of Strategy Breakdowns! Early next year Iāll do a dedicated write-up reflecting on the journey so far: highs, lows, metrics, and of course⦠strategy.
Plus, Iāve got some truly exciting news to share about the future of this project.
Iāll save the details for later, but for now Iāll just say a genuine thank you for reading. Whether you have read just 1 edition, or all 14, Iām grateful youāre here.
Today, Iāve got one thing to share that may be of interest to you:
Iām looking for a writer to join Strategy Breakdowns.
It feels only right to kickstart the search by asking you - a reader of the newsletter.
If you (or someone you know) might be a good fit, let me know by replying to this email, and Iāll be in touch!
Without further ado, a quick thanks to our sponsor for keeping the newsletter free.


My Playbook to Discover Hidden Opportunities
StrategyHub gives you the exact system I used at Atlassian to make high-impact strategic decisions using free online data.
Become your company's go-to 'insights person' by spotting patterns and opportunities that others miss.
āWe need a front-end developer by Tuesday, but itāll take months to find someone in the USā
We use Athyna at Strategy Breakdowns ā and a bunch of our friends do too. If you are looking for your next remote hire, Athyna has you covered. From sales to marketing, ops to engineering.
The secret weapon for ambitious startups. No search fees. No activation fees. Just incredible talent, matched with AI-precision, at lightning speed.
Thank you for supporting our sponsors, who keep this newsletter free.



Chess Move
The what: A TLDR explanation of the strategy
No matter what industry youāre in - you can learn a lot from video game creators:
They pioneered best-practices for product onboarding, activation, and retention.
They were early adopters of digital growth trends like content and community.
They build viral loops and ācustomer delightā into the DNA of their product.
Their customers are super-fans and relentless net promoters.
Thereās a reason āgamificationā is such a common topic in product design huddles.
Today weāre breaking down Minecraft, the best-selling video game in history.
Over 300 million sales.
Nearly 140 million monthly active players.
The strategy behind it all?
The fact that Minecraft is more than just a game.

š” | Strategy Playbook: Donāt just build something to be āusedā or āplayedā. Build something your users can transform, monetise, and create with. |


Breakdown
The how: The strategic playbook boiled down to 3x key takeaways
1. Community-led growth
Minecraftās original creator Markus āNotchā Persson released the earliest alpha version of the game directly to TIGSource forums for free.
Although more of a sandbox than a complete game, players immediately attached to itās unique art-style and loveable feel.
Releasing to a small but passionate community who valued creativity and experimentation fuelled the gameās original organic growth spurt.
Due to Minecraftās satisfying engine, players quickly took to modifying the game.
New items, gameplay mechanics, texture packs, skins, sounds, and worlds were created and shared around the community, transforming Minecraft into a platform for imagination.
Some early mods like The Aether had such extensive maps, storylines, item trees, NPCs, and lore, they felt like an official expansion pack.
Multiplayer servers, mini-games, and mods for in-game economies provided Minecraft worlds with even more community-centric mechanics.
āModsā turned players into creators, and the game, a canvas.

2. User-generated YouTube content
Minecraft was built with several characteristics that gave it inherent suitability for YouTube videos:
Itās randomly generated open-world nature led to infinite content possibilities.
No instructions, levels, missions, or narrative gave each Minecraft creator total creative freedom in a unique world.
Survival and exploration aspects were perfect for episodic progressive adventure content.
Building and creative elements allowed players to construct their own storylines, characters, and worlds.
Several popular video formats emerged:
Letās Play: Hit record ā play for an hour ā upload. Driven by the creatorās personality, with little editing required.
Speedruns: Compete with the YouTube community by achieving certain milestones in the shortest time possible.
Tutorials: Step-by-step guides teaching viewers how to do/make specific things in-game.
Animations: Short movies, skits, and music videos using the Minecraft aesthetic.
YouTube became the exponential force multiplier for Minecraftās marketing, generating over 1 trillion views on videos featuring the game.
Today, there are more Minecraft videos on YouTube than any other game.

3. Expansion into new verticals
Minecraft: Education Edition marked a strategic shift into a b2b market.
Minecraft had an unfair advantage over other edtech and e-learning platforms: Kids already loved it.
Plus, the flexibility and adaptability of the game allowed teachers to mould the game to fit various subjects and teaching styles.
Education Edition provided teachers with resources, lesson plans, and training to integrate game-based learning into their curriculum.
By repositioning Minecraft from a leisure activity to a legitimate educational tool, Education Edition extended Minecraftās Total Addressable Market beyond gamers, to students and teachers.



Rabbit Hole
The where: 3x high-signal resources to learn more
[10 minute read]
Now a digital landmark in video game history, this forum thread has since been visited 1,297,120 times.
Some highlights:
⢠āI'm interested in hearing what you plan to do with this. Will it be multiplayer?ā
⢠āI hope you make something really good of this, dude; i think it has a lot of potential.ā
⢠āWell, when an alpha keeps drawing me back to play it, you know you've got something good. I can't wait to see what this game becomes.ā
[3 minute read]
Fascinating on-the-ground strategic insight from 2013 by an early MineCon attendee.
āAt least half of the sessions were about how players can create and share their Minecraft experiencesā¦
Video Making 101, Building Your YouTube Channel, Podcasting, Growing Your Communityā¦
They are not selling, they are teaching, and their teaching may be the best sales strategy ever.ā
[2 hour 20 minute watch]
The āvideo essayā that inspired this article.
⢠How did Minecraft become so big?
⢠What characteristics defined each era of Minecraft videos?
⢠And did it shape what YouTube is today?
Thatās all for todayās issue, folks!
If you liked todayās edition, youāll love following along on Twitter [@tomaldertweets] and LinkedIn [/in/tom-alder]
Remember, if you (or someone you know) might be interested in writing for Strategy Breakdowns, let me know by replying to this email!
Thanks again for being here.


Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways we can help you:
Our flagship course on how to use free internet data to make better strategic decisions. Contains 5 years of strategy expertise, proven methods, and actionable tactics to accelerate your career with modern-day strategy skills.
We have a growing audience of 55,000+ strategists from top companies like Google, Meta, Atlassian, Stripe, and Netflix. Apply to feature your business in front of Strategy Breakdowns readers.
One of the most common questions we get asked is: āWhat tools do you use to run Strategy Breakdowns?ā So, weāve open-sourced our tech stack to give you an inside-look at exactly what tools weāre using to power each corner of this operation.
Reply