Sea of Thieves Passes 10 Million Players Since Launch

Xbox is excited and humbled to share that Sea of Thieves has now been played by more than ten million players, reinforcing its status as the most successful new IP from Xbox this generation.

[Jin_Sakai]

Not hard to believe when the game was available on Gamepass for $2 and there wasn’t any great exclusives to play on Xbox One at the time.

[Kribwalker]

or, it could be that it’s turned into quite a good game that has quite a following
https://n4g.com/news/231534...

[Concertoine]

Hopped back into sea of thieves for the first time in a year the other night with some friends. Between the fishing, fort of the damned, the tall tales and arena - its basically a completely different game.

[darthv72]

It's def much more expansive than initially released. And it's only going to keep growing as Rare comes up with more ideas.

[leejohnson222]

Nah

[CaptainHenry916]

I stopped playing it a year ago but it was a steal on gamepass so I'm not complaining. I did lose interest, and the game wasn't that good to begin with. The Kraken doesn't even have a body when you go under the water. I feel like Microsoft is wasting Rare's talent and not taking advantage of their talent. I recommend you play Sea of thieves with your friends and not strangers for a better experience.

[MadLad]

How is MS not taking advantage of their talent .... when they still have creative freedom on what they produce?
You're creating a narrative where MS is like 'MAKE LACKLUSTER CONTENT NOW"!

All that said, I've been hearing Sea of Thieves has turned into a pretty great experience. *shrug*

[CaptainHenry916]

They haven't made a game that's on the same level as Perfect Dark Zero and Goldeneye 007 over a decade🤔

[MadLad]

It's almost as if the creative minds behind the games you listed left the company prior to MS putting out any Rare games or something.

Weird.

[bluefox755]

@TheRealTedCruz I don't think it's the fault of their devs. MS has the money for the best of the best as far as talent goes. I think they have talented devs, I just think they restrict their creative freedom.

[rainslacker]

I played it some over vacation a couple weeks ago at my cousins house. It has improved considerably since it's first release. Didn't hold my interest enough to want to play it regularly, but that was more due to graphic design and overall way the game loop is handled as it's more like an world story where you insert yourself into the lore(like most MMORPGS), which just doesn't interest me anymore.

I do think if it weren't for game pass though it wouldn't have reached these numbers.

[timotim]

@Rain

Well I'm sure its recent sales also played a role in helping to reach this milestone
https://www.gamesindustry.b...

[Dragonscale]

The actual talented people left rare years ago. They are rare in name only nowadays.

[Christopher]

I gotta say, this statement doesn't make much sense to me.

1. Available on Game Pass for $2: yet people are still playing it regularly, so at some point they have to start paying more than $2 for it. And, the fact that people ARE playing it should mean it's worth to play over the many third-party and first-party titles on the service when they play it.

2. There weren't any great exclusives to play, even though on Game Pass they had options to include Gears 5 and The Outer Worlds (I'd mention Crackdown 3 as an option but...). Both games that scored way higher on metacritic (both 80+ games).

3. Yet they are going to play Sea of Thieves over the plethora of third-party titles including Metro Exodus, DMC5, Rocket League, Rime, and other games let alone tons of past year great games.

[Kribwalker]

as well, forza horizon 4 released in that time, and has racked up a huge amount of users too

[rainslacker]

The first one wouldn't make sense if this 10 million players was an ongoing user base, and not just total number of people who have played. OP didn't say anything about ongoing MAU's(or some other metric).

Having played it recently, I can see why people would get addicted to it. It's certainly come a long way since it's release. I won't dispute 2 or 3, but neither of those accounts for ongoing users. They've also given it away with some console bundles, which obviously will help numbers.

Nothing to disparage against with the number of players here, so not trying to say it's a bad milestone.

SpaceRanger below wonders total play time of users. While that'd be hard to ascertain, surely one could look at trophy percentages of progression based and add-on stuff that could help give a more accurate picture. I don't care enough, nor am I familiar enough with the game to do it close to accurately, but if someone really wants to make their case, I think it'd be interesting info.

Since release I've played it maybe 4-5 hours. a few back when it first released, and 2-3 more recently on vacation.

[Christopher]

"The first one wouldn't make sense if this 10 million players was an ongoing user base, and not just total number of people who have played. OP didn't say anything about ongoing MAU's(or some other metric)."

Please don't reduce my argument to just that, though. Much how I address each of their points, my points are an attempt to attack his argument as a whole.If #1 is about limited MAUs, cool, but why are those 10m people playing Sea of Thieves and not the other games that they also say no one has because MS never released any great exclusives even though they obviously have.

[MadLad]

Stop being logical.

[Tedakin]

It's 100 times the game it was at launch. It's a truly amazing game now.

[timotim]

You talk of "at the time" but these numbers prove that the player base has remained consistent as time went on and more gamers played it as they continued to add content.

[leejohnson222]

If you have gamepads surely you'll try anything once

[DaveZero]

It's turned into a very good game with plenty to do. Games don't cost once you buy gamepass and even still many will of owned SOT outright because they don't own gamepass.

[Unspoken]

Glad it has to fit within your beliefs. But, what you say is not factually true as there were other great exclusives to play. FH

[SpaceRanger]

That’s an amazing achievement. I wonder what the average play time was for all those players?🤔

[ziggurcat]

The issue with anyone reporting MAUs is that they basically count anyone who's booted the game, regardless of whether they've played for 5 minutes or 500 hours. That's why it's not really an accurate metric to measure the success of anything no matter who reports that statistic.

[SpaceRanger]

I didn’t see any clarity on that in the article, so it could possibly be that a large portion played only for a handful of minutes. Based on some articles I read about how long it takes to get all achievements, it probably isn’t much time wise.

We’ll never know until MS decides to release that info.

[TGGJustin]

Exactly. I bet a lot of people started the game and quickly got bored of it and never played it again. It's not a game you can really have fun with playing alone at all. I've tried it several times now since it's been out and I still find it to be a complete bore. Not to mention the combat and movement sucks. I also don't see any reason to play it. What are you working towards? New outfits for your character which you never see anyway b/c it's a first person game? Seems silly to me.

[RpgSama]

"has now been played by more than ten million players"

That's not necessarily a great result, they're not copies sold or monthly active players, just people that at one point or another booted the game in these past 2 years.

[leejohnson222]

Exactly it's a bloody nonsense and perfect propoganda tool for the professional marketing reps that for some reason people worship

[Fluttershy77]

probably 1 hour, maybe 2

[SpaceRanger]

Hmm, maybe.

[yomfweeee]

I tried to play it with my son. We spent less than an hour in it. So, those are the kind of people they count. No other statistics.

[SpaceRanger]

Hmm, sounds like a lot of people don’t really spend time on this game. I know quite a few streamers played it for extended periods of time this years, but I guess that’s the minority.

[Gunstar75]

Less than an hour? You didn't even scratch the surface

[yomfweeee]

@gunstar

The game had no tutorial or guidance. It is my understanding they added something in December... but that's 18 months late.

Found nothing to do except stupid terrible combat with some skeletons.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

I'd say 30min - 3hrs. Some may have stuck around, but apparently it was a dire launch for a new ip.

[2pacalypsenow]

Impressive.

Can definitely say I'm one of those.

[Automatic79]

Congratulations to RARE for continue to believe in the magic of this game.

[Eldyraen]

I wonder what they’ll do for the launch of the Series X. They said the team is still going strong after all, and the EverWild team is separate. It just seems a good time for a huge update imo, since they’re still supporting it.

I’d only go back though if they added a narrative mode, or some huge “Land-Ho!” experience where you discovered a huge landmass to explore to add some serious variety.

[Battlestar23]

Congrats to rare it's not often when a game sells 10 million copies physical/digital.

[MasterCornholio]

"We’re excited and humbled to share that Sea of Thieves has now been played by more than ten million players, reinforcing its status as the most successful new IP from Xbox this generation."

It's not sales but it's still an impressive number.

[Battlestar23]

It is sales stop trying to twist this into a different narrative please.

[Ron_Danger]

@battlestar

Your response to this is exactly why so many people can’t stand PR talk.

Reread the headline, reread the article.

Played by =/= sales.

[The Wood]

'It is sales stop trying to twist this into a different narrative please.......'

PR wins

This is one of the reason MS seldom release hard sales data. Any other metric will 'work' and Mau is vague. How long does someone have to play a game for it to be classed as active user for instance??
I hear its a better game now than it was at launch so that's a positive and shows commitment I guess.

[Araragifeels]

It not sales or otherwise, Xbox would have said 10 million copies. There a lot of more players because XboxGamePass.

[LordJamar]

Good for them the game has done nothing but improve and continues to do so it’s a fun game can’t wait for their next game they showed

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

Probably shouldn't have released when it did, caused more harm than good.

[LordJamar]

Maybe and maybe not they handled it very well and listens to the player base and workers pretty fast on it I think
Everything turned out pretty good compared to other live service games

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

Other live service games weren't essentially given away at every opportunity - another ms dud.

[TheGoodestBoi]

I really need to give this a try, there's just so much else on gamepass. Can this be played alone?

[aconnellan]

It’s always online but can be played solo

[Tedakin]

Now is the time to try it. They just added an amazing opening tutorial. I will say, I'm a massive fan, but playing alone isn't very fun at least to me. It's one of the best co-op experiences there is I think though.

[Longadog]

two .. dollars

.... can't beat that

on a serious note, wow, people still actually play this game? drought must really be that bad over the other side

[NeoGamer232]

Actually, I have GamePass and haven't had enough time to get into Sea of Thieves yet...

There are plenty-o-games that are worth playing on GamePass.... Rage 2, DMC5, Prey, Forza Horizon 4, Metros, Gears, Halos, Outer Worlds, Dirt 2.0, etc.

I think the continued growth of Sea of Thieves is more about new players coming onto GamePass then it is a drought thing. Gamers joining GamePass and did not buy Sea of Thieves earlier.

[aconnellan]

Either that or it’s genuinely a good game... why is the latter somehow hard to believe?

[Tedakin]

PS4 seemed to have a bit of a drought itself over the past year. What did it have that was worth owning a PS4 for? Death Stranding, which is coming to PC and a lot of people hated? 95% of games are on both consoles.

[EmperorDalek]

All those games were mediocre, bar Concrete Genie, Retro. Trying to convince people with small Japanese games like Hatsune Miku is just pure number padding. No one cares about those games.

[Longadog]

"No one cares about those games."

- teh irony of this statement coming from one who supports a console that has dominated the bottom this gen

[averagejoe26]

"Death Stranding....a lot of people hated"

Death Stranding received more perfect scores than any other game released in 2019.

It also won more Game of the Year awards than any other game in 2019.

Not to mention, taking home awards for things like best music, best performance, etc. etc.

Try again.

[P_Bomb]

Judgment.

[EmperorDalek]

Yeah, because PS4 had a stellar 2019 for exclusives... Xbox got all the same good games as PS4 last year, plus Gears 5. It's not their fault they actually have decent multiplayer exclusives.

[Longadog]

"Xbox got all the same good games as PS4 last year, plus Gears 5"

when the joke hits you hard that you fail to even realize it

lets just leave it as it is. that funny but true tagline has been spoken one too many times already

[Terry_B]

Numbers that mean nothing if the majority of them (how many actually bought the game?) did not buy it and played it only some minutes or a few hours.

[timotim]

But does mean something if they keep XGP just to play it and has put a fair amount of hours into it.

[timotim]

The little game that could! Congrats to Rare and XGS...well deserved.

[Pancit_Canton]

This game is basically free to play at this point. People probably download it and forgot about it the next day. It's no better than most mobile games.

[timotim]

Yet it continues to be on the most played list on Xbox Live...it continues to be one of the most watched games on Mixer and Twitch.

We appreciate your colorful theory, but we will take it from here....

[Pancit_Canton]

"Yet it continues to be on the most played list on Xbox Live...it continues to be one of the most watched games on Mixer and Twitch."

Which is not really hard to do on Xbox Live. Who takes up second and third place. Let me guess; State of Decay 2 and Crackdown 3.

[galmi]

n4g just gets more fascinating every day, its like MS are demons lolol

[timotim]

Not sure I follow...its just as hard to pull off on Xbox Live as it is on any network. And Twitch and Mixer doesn't just count Xbox Live games...

[gangsta_red]

"Which is not really hard to do on Xbox Live. Who takes up second and third place. Let me guess; State of Decay 2 and Crackdown 3."

So those are the only games available to play on Xbox Live? The only games to watch on Twitch and Mixer...does common sense really fall the way side when trying desperately hard to downplay?

[EmperorDalek]

Well considering Xbox has more and better multiplayer exclusives... it's actually harder to get on their most played list than the PSN one. Xbox has all the major multiplayer games that PS4 has.

Crackdown 3 multiplayer was dead on arrival, everyone including you knows that. Nothin more than a troll, you are.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Those are some great S̶a̶l̶e̶s̶ numbers. Yes sir.

[gangsta_red]

Because gamers are playing games and accountants are watching sales....which one are you?

[moriarty1889]

how about actual sales??? just another way for ms to,spin numbers. im sorry but its true. yes that sounds great but its not as clear and precise as how many actually bought and supported the game and devs. Gamespass is great for ms to skew numbers and say things like this. Not anywhere near actual sales or concrete evidence the game made money. A $2 sub to try the game by people does not come anywhere near what could have been made if they actually pushed sales as opposed to playing a game on the cheap but not buying it. Kind of like a demo and nothing more.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Yes. Like a demo. But they are paying for it. Strange world. As They say, "I can't wait to try it."

When they could have tried them already by buying them. Even waited for a sale if they wished.

They are definitely using it as a number spinning generator.

We never see Sony use PS Now to boost metric numbers that use games that are in and out of the service to look good. Wouldn't make sense to say how many played a game.

[moriarty1889]

exactly. 100% truth.

[Tedakin]

I love how whenever there's any sort of positive MS story there has to be an attempt to put it down. People can't just say "Oh, good for you, Rare. Congrats." It's a lovely game that Rare has put it's heart into. So congrats, Rare.

[froy402]

Sea of thieves doesn't peak my interest but I do have much respect for Rare they brought me great joy as a child, hope the best for them.

[Emme]

Considering only about 1.5% of the players ever achieved Legend rank...

[FallenAngel1984]

It doesn’t feel right that this divisive title is the one new IP that Microsoft seems to be holding up in the highest regard for this entire generation. Doesn’t seem like something that could considered a flagship series for the Xbox brand

[EmperorDalek]

Lol look at all the hate in these comments. PS4 cultists just can't seem to get over the fact this game was a success. Considering all they supposedly play is PS4 exclusives, they must have had a rather boring 2019... so I guess they need to take their frustrations out on something.

[sizeofyou]

NMSesque...

[Artemidorus]

I keep hearing to return and this is a different game to when it first started.

[P_Bomb]

I don’t have an X1 but if I did I’d have GamePass and if I had GamePass I’d try SoT. Why not?

[waverider]

If this game wasnt in any kind of service, 10 millions would be amazing for microsoft, because they would have done something like 600 millions bucks or more....

[milohighclub]

I'm one, played for 10 mins then shut it off cos it was wank.

[joeynox]

How could anyone say "well it's on game pass so duh" as an argument for the game having 10milliom players? That's like writing off league of legends or fortnite for having the playerbase they h e when they are free. I think 10million for SOT is a great accomplishment. It was once a fully priced game and even now gamepass being able to get 10 million to play it means alot.

[uGLYmE]

This has that “number of games shipped, not sold” feeling. Like when COD brags about how many bullets have been fired.