What’s Poppin (or not): Minecraft or Roblox?

Sammy Morton and Easton Rawley show off their pets in Minecraft.

Sammy Morton, Staff Reporter

Cube-based sandbox games have been a popular way of gaming for about a decade, with multiple versions made by many different game designers, but two stand out the most to the gaming community: Minecraft and Roblox. Both games have had a lot of influence over how society and children are today.

For many people, when asked which is better – Minecraft or Roblox – it’s a self-evident answer, but I will explain which, in fact, is better and all the reasons why.

These games have been around for years, but they both made a completely different entrance to the world.

Roblox came out in 2006 and for years has just been thought of as that game you escape to when you’re bored in class or the game you’ll play when you have played everything else and don’t know what to do next. It didn’t get globally popular until about 2020 when Covid hit, and everyone was stuck inside. Minecraft blew up in a completely different way. When it came out in 2009, users were hooked immediately, or at least everyone I went to school with and met online. It originally was named “Cave Game” but was then changed to the worldly loved name, Minecraft. Multiple gaming YouTubers started to play and gained a considerable following. All around the world, people of all ages were playing and watching Minecraft. To this day, the game keeps growing in popularity and will continue to do so as more updates come out.

Both games have made a significant impact on society, but once again in very, very different ways. Since Roblox was initially not very popular and mainly played by children, this game has been made fun of quite a bit. Whether it’s the questionable avatars people make, or the people fighting in chat, this game is honestly a meme at this point. Not many people take it very seriously and, like myself, play it when they need a good laugh. On the other hand, Minecraft had a very popular impact the second it came out. YouTubers worldwide started playing the game, and most based their entire channels off of it. This made the game grow even more, inspiring more people to play it and love it just as much as they do. Dantdm, BajanCanadian, and Stampylongnose are just a few of the many people that have inspired millions of people to be who they are today. I talked to my classmate Savannah Epps, and she said, “Ldshadowlady was my favorite YouTuber growing up because she was really comforting and practically raised me when I needed it most.”

So what exactly is it that makes these games so addicting to play?

Well, for starters, on Roblox, there are hundreds of small mini-games to choose from. It is easy to connect and play with your friends and spend hours switching throughout games. It’s also completely free on any device you decide to play on. Minecraft, on the other hand, is not free, but if you ask anyone that plays it, they will tell you how worth paying for it is. There are servers you can connect to with multiple mini-games and things to do, but that’s not why it got so popular in the first place. In Minecraft, you can start a creative world, where you can build for hours and do whatever you want with no worries. Alternatively, you could create a survival world, where you have to gather resources and survive all the days and nights of Minecraft. There will always be something exciting and new to achieve on Minecraft. Whether you want to build a huge city and defend it from monsters or play a few rounds of Skywars or Bedwars, the possibilities with Minecraft are endless.

I think it’s obvious which one I think is better and why you should think the same. Minecraft’s hold on me is impossible to break, and I would be a completely different person without it. Nothing beats the classic Minecraft feel of nostalgia when playing.