The development of the 2011 sandbox game Minecraft spans over 16 years and multiple major updates. Originally started in May 2009 by Markus "Notch" Persson as a small personal project, the game quickly became popular on forums, prompting Persson to continue updating it. Over the course of its development, Minecraft's public beta amassed over 4 million sales by 7 November 2011. Minecraft would eventually release on 18 November 2011.