10 People Who Changed The Video Game Industry Forever

10. Markus "Notch" Persson

It’s not every day someone creates something that becomes a part of popular culture, but that’s exactly what Markus “Notch” Persson and his team at Mojang did when they made Minecraft.

Minecraft’s endless sandbox world and near infinite content has had a huge impact on the gaming community thanks to its coverage on social media platforms, most notably YouTube and Twitch.

Persson’s brainchild is special in that it has permeated into popular culture and transcended the status of being just a creative video game, instead sitting as a trademark of its time. Such a huge demographic range (helped immensely by being ported to almost anything with a screen) means that Minecraft exists in many states, reaching millions of people around the world in the form of backpacks, t-shirts, spin-offs, Lego, magazines, and even its own convention. Minecraft’s coincidence with the perfect storm of social media raising its profile has taken everything to a height that few entities, let alone video games, have ever reached.

Awesome fact: Persson’s combined wealth from Minecraft meant he had enough to outbid Jay-Z for a mansion. What a baller.