Minecraft, Fortnite and Roblox
The three games that became places to hang out: blocks, battle royale and a platform where kids make the games.
Minecraft: the best-selling game ever
Swedish developer Markus "Notch" Persson made Minecraft, and it fully launched in 2011. No real story, just blocks: build anything, survive the night, dig too deep. It became the best-selling video game of all time, and Microsoft bought its maker, Mojang, for $2.5 billion in 2014.
In April 2025, A Minecraft Movie had the biggest opening ever for a video game movie and passed $550 million worldwide in about ten days. One scene, the "chicken jockey", turned screenings into chaos, with audiences yelling the line and throwing popcorn.
Fortnite: the free battle royale
Epic Games launched Fortnite Battle Royale in 2017, and it’s free. A hundred players drop onto an island, a storm shrinks the map, and you build walls to survive. The money comes from skins and dances, and those dances (the Floss, the Orange Justice) took over school hallways.
- Concerts: Travis Scott’s Astronomical event (April 2020) drew more than 12 million players live.
- Collabs: Marvel heroes, Ariana Grande, Eminem, and basically every franchise you can think of as skins.
- The Apple fight: Apple pulled Fortnite from the App Store in 2020 after Epic added its own payment system. After a long court battle, it came back to the US App Store in May 2025.
Roblox: where kids build the games
Roblox isn’t one game. It’s a platform where players make games for each other, paid for in Robux. For a lot of kids it’s the main place they hang out online, and some young creators earn real money. It’s also faced criticism and lawsuits over child safety.
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