Markus Persson, the Swedish programmer known in the Minecraft world as Notch, has put his Beverly Hills mansion up for sale for $70 million. That's exactly what he paid for it in December 2014, just a few months after selling Mojang Studios to Microsoft for $2.5 billion. The new listing was announced on October 27, 2026, and quickly made the rounds in real estate media.

A record-setting mansion back on the market

The house on Hillcrest Road in the prestigious Trousdale Estates neighborhood hit the market through Aaron Kirman and Katia De Los Reyes of Christie's International Real Estate Southern California, along with Branden and Rayni Williams of Beverly Hills Estates. When Persson bought the property in 2014, the asking price was $85 million, and the final deal closed at $70 million in just six days, setting a price record at the time for single-family homes in Beverly Hills.

Minecraft's creator outbid the likes of Beyoncé and Jay-Z, who were also interested in the same property. Twelve years later, the owner is coming back with the exact same price tag, which is rare in the high-end real estate segment: homes like this usually lose or gain value over time rather than return to market at an identical price.

A nightclub, a car elevator, and a candy room

The numbers are impressive whether you play Minecraft or not. The house spans roughly 22,300 square feet (about 2,070 m²), with eight bedrooms and fifteen bathrooms, including Toto toilets valued at $5,600 each. The lot covers just under half an acre.

  • an eighteen-seat home theater
  • a car elevator leading down to the underground garage
  • two pools, one of which is directly connected to the primary bedroom
  • a private nightclub with a DJ booth and recording studio, added after Persson moved in
  • a candy room valued at around $200,000

The interiors were designed by Bruce Makowsky, known for furnishing "turnkey" mansions down to the smallest details, like toothbrushes waiting for the new owners. Kirman, commenting on the current ultra-luxury market, said:

"What's most fascinating about the ultra-luxury market is that buyers at this level aren't just looking for a house. They're looking for something that sets them apart and can't easily be replicated."

From code in a garage to a Trousdale Estates mansion

Persson started out as a lone programmer who released the first version of Minecraft in 2009 as a small side project. The game, now available to download as Minecraft Java Edition and in the Bedrock version, grew into the best-selling video game of all time. When Microsoft bought Mojang Studios for $2.5 billion in September 2014, Persson's seventy percent stake in the company made him an overnight billionaire.

The Beverly Hills property was one of the first and most spectacular purchases he made after the deal. Over the following decade, Persson rarely appeared in public in connection with the Minecraft brand, but he remains a recognizable figure in the studio's history, as described in the site's wiki.

Why Notch is moving out

The reason for the sale is simple: according to the agents handling the deal, Persson simply doesn't spend enough time in Los Angeles anymore to justify keeping such a large property. It hasn't been revealed where he plans to move or whether he intends to keep other properties in California.

For the Beverly Hills real estate market, the return of Persson's house to the listings is an event in itself: the $70 million-plus segment has very few potential buyers, and a deal at that level, if it closes at the asking price, would be one of the highest in the county this year.

A symbol of an era that's still going strong

The story of the Trousdale Estates mansion is a reminder of how far the brand that started in a Swedish apartment has come. Minecraft has since passed through several development teams, arrived natively on the Nintendo Switch 2, and now runs on an annual release cycle labeled with numbers like 26.x, all covered regularly in the news section on minecraft.pl. Persson himself has had no formal ties to Mojang or Microsoft for years, but he remains, for many players, the face of the game's early days.

Whether the mansion finds a buyer at the full asking price remains to be seen: properties in this market segment can sit listed for many months, and the final sale price often differs from the asking price.

Sources