Over 2m Minecraft books were sold in the UK last year

Books based on video games were worth 14.5m in 2014, a rise of almost 10m year-on-year.

Book tracker Nielsen revealed this massive increase in sales was down to the incredible success of Minecraft books. Minecraft strategy books and annuals made up seven places in the Top Ten books based on games, totalling almost 2m sales.

In fact, the best-selling Minecraft title – The construction book – outsold some of last year’s most successful games, such as Assassin’s Creed Unity and even the Minecraft boxed game.

Nielsen’s top ten books based on video game properties for the UK (for 2014) are:

1. Minecraft: The Official Construction Book (Egmont) – 548,017

2. Minecraft: The Official Combat Handbook (Egmont) – 466,897

3. Minecraft: The Official Redstone Handbook (Egmont) – 406,132

4. Minecraft: The Official Beginner’s Guide (Egmont) – 387,647

5. Minecraft: Blockopedia (Egmont) –80,835

6. Skylanders Official Annual 2015 (Puffin) – 51,310

7. Minecraft: The Official Annual 2014 (Egmont) – 48,399

8. Assassin’s Creed: Unity (Penguin Books) – 26,870

9. Angry Birds: Super Interactive Annual 2015 (Pedigree) – 24,208

10. Build, Discover, Survive! Mastering Minecraft (Brady Publishing) – 22,810