Minecraft first came out on 17 May 2009 in its earliest public form, with the full “official” release following on 18 November 2011.

Key dates at a glance

  • First public version (then called “Cave Game” / Classic): 17 May 2009.
  • Alpha phase (survival mode, health, mobs): 28 June 2010.
  • Beta phase: 20 December 2010.
  • Full release (Minecraft 1.0 at Minecon in Las Vegas): 18 November 2011.

So, if you’re asking “when did Minecraft come out?” most people mean either:

  • The first public release : May 2009.
  • The official full release : November 2011.

Short story version

Back in May 2009 , a solo dev named Markus “Notch” Persson quietly dropped a tiny blocky experiment on a forum, letting players build with cubes in a very simple world. That rough little project started getting updates almost nonstop, picking up survival mechanics, monsters, and more features through Alpha and Beta in 2010.

By 18 November 2011 , it was big enough for its own convention, Minecon, where version 1.0 was officially launched and Minecraft “proper” was born. Since then it’s grown into one of the best‑selling games ever, with hundreds of millions of copies sold.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.