Minecraft is pretty much still alive due to the fact its always replayable.
There is so many redstone creations, so many mods, so many cool things and ideas, the infinite types of generations, the raritys and the odds of stuff and the fact we can still go back to a old old old version like 1.7.10 and enjoy a survival game. every dang world is a whole new place.
Heck i've been going back to 1.5.2 just to enjoy a few good mods