Minecraft has made Notch a lot of money. A confusingly large amount of money. The genre-defining indie has 10,967,296 registered users, 26.38 per cent of those users have paid for the game, and it's currently selling for €14.95. Apologies for the number overload, but they are hella big numbers after all.
Read on for Notch's views on apartments, groceries, Swedish shame and bank managers.
Using a calculator, we've worked out how much money Notch's studio, Mojang, have made in the past 24 hours. According to the official stats at the time of writing, 9509 users have bought the indie in the past day, generating a cool €142,159.55 / £125,501.15 / $204,436.42.
Notch is trying his best to spend his earnings wisely: "I don't know exactly what to do with it. We bought a fairly expensive apartment and we're renting it. I think that's OK because it's something that affects everyday life, like, long term."
The notoriously friendly developer has also adjusted his supermarket shopping habits as a result of the Minecraft explosion. "It's kind of weird. I've stopped paying attention to how much groceries cost. Which is a weird realisation. I used to know the price, kind of. Then I'd get to the cash register and they'd be like 'this much'. But I don't even pay attention to how much it costs now. I just kind of pay them. That's a bit strange."
I asked Notch if he could picture a time when he's ignoring the price of cars and houses instead of bread and eggs.
"I hope not," admitted the modest developer. "I don't know why though. Why do I hope not? It's like there's some kind of guilt or shame associated with it. It's Swedish. We're a lot like that, us Swedes. And it kind of affects... I feel kind of ashamed when I spend."
Predictably, the unbridled success has made Notch extremely popular with professional money-gatherers.
"My bank really likes me now. They called me and were like, 'We have to have this private banking thing.' People from the office were at it, and two people from private banking were just talking to me. It was vacation time, so there was just one person in the rest of the bank." Notch's presence had basically pulled all the bank staff from their positions.
"It was really weird but... yeah... they want to 'help me manage my money.' Just like banks do."
Notch also mentioned how Minecraft will be evolving in the near future. Permadeath ? Terraria-influenced bosses ? We'll have more exclusive info soon.
