Minecraft tips for beginners as PewDiePie and other streamers help classic game make a comeback

Twitch channels streaming Minecraft spiked over summer, while YouTube creators have also seen an upswing in views of Minecraft-related videos

Here are some top tips if you haven’t played before, but plan to now

Reading Time:4 minutes

A scene from Minecraft Earth, an augmented-reality experience for your phone currently being worked on by Minecraft developer Mojang. Photo: The Washington Post

Published: 12:30pm, 18 Oct 2019Updated: 12:30pm, 18 Oct 2019

Minecraft is more than a decade old, but it’s doing something you do not often see with video games: it’s making a comeback in popularity.

Over the summer, Minecraft spiked on Twitch, according to a third-party analytics site. Channels streaming the game were bringing in four times the audience compared with just a few months before. Creators on YouTube are riding the same wave, saying they’ve noticed an upswing in the views to their Minecraft-related videos.

There has been a steady drumbeat of attention for the sandbox builder. Mojang, the company behind the game, released two major updates in the past year or so.

It’s also working on two new offshoots of the original game. One is Minecraft Earth, an augmented-reality experience for your phone (think Pokémon Go ) and the other, Minecraft Dungeon, is an RPG similar to Diablo.

A scene from video game Minecraft. Photo: Mojang

Swedish YouTube creator PewDiePie returned to Minecraft in June, bringing with him one of the largest audiences on the platform. He has already posted more than 100 Minecraft-themed videos.