Minecraft enters real world with $110m global theme park deal

The global gaming phenomenon Minecraft is coming to the real world for the first time in a global deal to open themed rides, attractions, hotel rooms and retail outlets, starting with the UK and US.

Minecraft has struck a deal with UK-headquartered Merlin Entertainments – Europe’s largest theme park operator and the second biggest globally after Disney – which runs more than 135 attractions in 23 countries including Alton Towers, Legoland, Sea Life, Madame Tussauds and the London Eye.

Under the terms of the deal, Merlin will invest more than £85m ($110m) in the first two attractions. They are due to open in the UK and the US in 2026 and 2027, in either an existing theme park or as new city centre attractions.

Over the longer term the two companies plan to expand the strategic partnership, which is called “Adventures Made Real”, to other countries and territories.

Minecraft is the bestselling video game of all time, with 140 million players each month, in territories as disparate as Antarctica and Vatican City, and there have been more than 1.3tn views of Mincecraft videos YouTube.

“We are everywhere digitally, Merlin is everywhere physically,” said Kayleen Walters, the vice-president, franchise development, for gaming at Microsoft, which acquired the Minecraft maker Mojang for $2.5bn in 2014. “It is about how do we expand Minecraft beyond the game. Mojang and Microsoft are experts on Minecraft and the brand, Merlin are the experts on location-based experiences; it is a shared vision.”

Minecraft is on something of a brand extension boom: a much-delayed film is due for release next April, featuring Hollywood stars including Jason Momoa and Jack Black, and earlier this year Netflix announced plans to release an animated series based on the game.

For Merlin, the Minecraft partnership has the potential to be its biggest deal since it struck a deal with Lego to buy its four Legoland theme parks in 2005.

In recent years, Merlin has been upping its strategy of focusing on deals with “crown jewel” intellectual property owners to drive the popularity of its parks and attractions, in the same way Hollywood studios do with blockbuster franchises.

In 2022, Merlin struck a deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to bring the $2bn Hollywood film franchise Jumanji to its parks, with a range of rides and attractions opening at Chessington in the UK last year.

Earlier this year, Merlin announced an expansion of its Peppa Pig deal to create rides and attractions in Duplo-themed areas at a number of its parks.

“When we look for partners we look for the right people, scale and community,” said Scott O’Neil, the chief executive of Merlin Entertainments. “We are in 23 countries, what brands can play at that level, you have to be one of the biggest brands in the world. We have partnered with the number one toy brand, Lego, the number one toddler brand, Peppa Pig, and now in Minecraft the biggest video game. Bringing Minecraft to life is going to be one of the greatest joys; this is just the beginning; our aspirations are very big.”

Last year, Minecraft became the first single video game to pass 300m sales, well ahead of other top-selling global titles including Grand Theft Auto V (205m), Nintendo’s Wii Sports (83m) and PUBG: Battlegrounds (75m).

Tetris and the Super Mario franchise have sold more copies but Minecraft, which was launched in 2011, is the only single game to have reached that mark.

In 2020, Minecraft moved to make its educational-themed worlds available for free, to help pupils no longer able to attend school because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company, which said it wanted to do its part to “help keep young minds sharp and stimulated”, made 12 digital lessons available, including a game about generating power from renewable energy sources and an interactive lesson about ancient Greece.

In 2015, Minecraft was given to every secondary school in Northern Ireland for free as part of a cultural technology festival, which was government funded, the first time it had been distributed across an entire region.

In 2019, a consortium led by the family that controls the Lego toymaking empire agreed a £6bn takeover of Merlin.

The consortium is 50% owned by Kirkbi, the private investment company of the Kirk Kristiansen family, the inheritors of the Lego fortune. The other 50% is owned by the private equity company Blackstone and CPPIB, the Canadian pension fund.