The Minecraft Live 2023 show, developer Mojang's annual livestream celebrating the legendary sandbox game, was held on October 15. There were tons of things for fans to mull over, including the always highly-anticipated mob vote and feature reveals, helping it become the fourth most popular Minecraft event ever.
One of the main talking points at this year's showcase was the unveiling of key features coming to the title as part of next year’s update. It was game director Agnes Larsson and a few Minecraft developers who were given this honor, and they did not disappoint, although it has not been named yet despite a mid-2024 release schedule.
Minecraft Live 2023 ended up hitting 1.06M Peak Viewers, with a majority of this number coming from the game’s YouTube channel. Not surprisingly, this number was reached during the mob vote segment of the broadcast, an activity that has kind of become a tradition within the community, although it has also led to quite a lot of negative chat among fans over the years.
Speaking of the mob vote, it was the armadillo that beat the crab to win the right to become the next mob to be added to the game. Regarding its behavior and other features, this animal will be found in the savannah biome, and if startled, it will curl up into a blocky ball!
The armadillo also drops a scute that players can use to craft a new type of armor called wolf armor, which gives their pet wolf extra protection. Moreover, there is a chance that this armor will be dyeable, like the horse’s, meaning pet wolves can be given fancier looks while slaying other mobs.
Returning to the Minecraft Live 2023 live stream, it also did 1.09M Hours Watched and 818K Average Viewers over an airtime of an hour. With the game turning 15 next year, fans were excited to see what new features and updates would be added for the special occasion, leading to such high numbers
As per the official site's blog, here are some average daily stats of the game as it approaches its 15th birthday:
- Users have crafted 15 million pickaxes
- Players have discovered 6.7 million diamonds
- Gamers have slayed 15 million skeletons
- The game also recently crossed 300 million copies sold
The new trial chamber — a sprawling structure of corridors and rooms that are packed with traps, trial spawners, mobs, loot, and more — is also being added to the game. Additionally, the much-anticipated Star Wars: Path of the Jedi DLC will land in the Minecraft Marketplace on November 7.
Also, the Planet Earth III DLC will come out in 2024 for Minecraft Education and BBC Earth. Minecraft Legends will be getting its second major overhaul, supposedly its biggest one yet, later in the year (December).
Some of the most popular streamers to broadcast this special Minecraft celebration were Bobicraft, philza, and melharucos. In fact, the first name here was the most successful individual channel, with the Spanish YouTuber coming in number one on both metrics (139K HW, 126K PV). He was the only streamer to cross the 100K mark for these stats, reinforcing his position in the Hispanic Minecraft community.
Overall, 92 channels covered this event, with the split being favoring YouTube over Twitch. This was also seen in the fact that the red platform was the outright favored platform, taking up almost 82% of the watch time. English enjoyed a similar one-language show, with Spanish being the only other entry to hit double figures, with the broadcast mostly being popular in Europe and the Arab nations.
Minecraft Live 2023's live stream also helped the game see a positive upswing in its viewership dynamics on the purple site. All its important stats saw a rise on October 15, helping it maintain its place in the top ten most-watched and popular games over the past week.
On YouTube, the game's rise was even more pronounced, especially gaining massively in the peak concurrent viewership column on the broadcast day. This has ensured it was the most successful game on YouTube Gaming over the past week, seeing a mammoth 936% rise in its PV numbers. In fact, the game saw a year-high record in this metric, ironically last hitting higher stats at last year's Minecraft Live.
Coming to its success in terms of all-time rankings for the discipline, Minecraft Live 2023 is now the fourth most popular event ever. Ahead of it are only two Twitch Rivals competitions over the last two years and 2022's corresponding iteration. With its status as the occasion for all things Minecraft, Mojang has been able to clear viewership records with each subsequent edition, with the role of community casting being a major supporting player.
As the game heads into its 15th year, fans have been treated to some amazing news and additions to the game, across editions. The event has also reinforced Minecraft's status as one of the most famous titles ever, and with so many prominent influencers taking to it and making its various competitions successes, it should continue to see bright days.
