huh, i guess Minecraft still counts its birthday as being from when Notch first released any build of the game, and not the launch of version 1.0 ⁓2½ years later. given how much effort they’ve taken to divorce themselves from Notch, i assumed they’d consider the anniversary to be when Notch surrendered creative authority over the project — which is conveniently that first non‐beta version. seeing 15‐year celebrations made me feel even older than i already am for a minute there.
(ftr i think i started playing around Beta 1.3? which is February 2011, to give some context. though i only occasionally play modpacks now.)