Minecraft Game Sales Shot Up 35% on Mobile and Consoles after the Movie

Sensor Tower has measured the impact of IP across entertainment platforms, and a good movie improves game sales massively.

The Minecraft movie, which raked in $941 million at the global box office, gave a big boost to Minecraft game sales, according to Sensor Tower. Both mobile and console sales jumped 35% after the film hit theaters in April 2025.

Hollywood’s been leaning hard into video game adaptations lately, with stuff like HBO’s The Last of Us, Prime’s Fallout, and movies like The Super Mario Bros. Movie and A Minecraft Movie winning over fans and critics. It’s not shocking—games are a goldmine for stories. Sensor Tower’s report shows these adaptations aren’t just cashing in at the box office; they’re sending players back to the original games in droves.

The report says when big shows or movies based on games drop, the games themselves get a serious lift—more sales, more players, more in-app purchases, and more cash flow. It’s all about that cross-media magic, where a movie or show hypes up the game it came from.
For example, the Fallout TV show led to a 20% spike in Amazon Prime Video app downloads during its release week, and Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 saw daily active users on PC stay 225% higher for weeks afterward. Amazon also cranked up its U.S. ad spend on desktop video by 20 times to keep the hype going. Similarly, The Last of Us Season 2 premiere in April 2025 pushed Max app downloads and console daily active users up by 40% each.

The Minecraft movie didn’t just bring in new players—it got old ones back, too. Mobile active users rose 9%, and console users spiked 41%, showing the film got longtime fans digging back into the game.

Success depends on how the adaptation’s done and how true it stays to the game. The Last of Us Season 2 drove a 6% bump in daily active users and 40% in downloads, while Fallout’s mobile game saw huge gains because it’s free-to-play and the show told a fresh story. The Last of Us Part II console sales ticked up, but the impact was small since sales were already low. Still, the show’s buzz pushed daily active users for both The Last of Us Part I and Part II up 40%, which could build hype for a future sequel.