Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me, and apparently for 4.8 million players worldwide as well! In June 2021, Sea of Thieves broke their player record with more than 4.8 million players logging on around the world, and this week, game developer Microsoft Studios and Creative Director Mike Chapman released a formal thank you to all of their buccaneers.

In the wake of record numbers of pirates taking to the seas, Creative Director @ChappersChapman offers a heartfelt thank you on behalf of the team for our community’s response to Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life. Cheers! https://t.co/XKPjJZy7kY pic.twitter.com/NZhtKFC2hf

— Sea of Thieves (@SeaOfThieves) August 17, 2021

“From your reactions on social media to your fan art and stories of exploring the five new Tall Tales, it’s been amazing – and all this excitement resulted in our busiest ever month on the seas, with June seeing 4.8 million active pirates out on the water!”

This record-breaking news comes more than three years after Sea of Thieves’ initial release, which may seem surprising to some. However, it is recent expansions and accessibility that brought Sea of Thieves back into the spotlight. Season 3 of Sea of Thieves, titled “A Pirate’s Life“, was released in June of this year. The new expansion featured characters and storylines from the classic pirate franchise Pirates of the Caribbean, so it’s no wonder that fans of Captain Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones alike hopped back online to experience the world of Pirates of the Caribbean themselves. This coupled with the fact that Sea of Thieves became accessible on the Xbox Game Pass meant that servers would be full of millions upon millions of gold-greedy pirates taking to the seas once again. Creative Director Mike Chapman speaks further about Microsoft Studio’s gratitude and excitement about this news and even hints at more to come in the future.

“We’ve loved watching along and we’ve just loved the speculation and the content being created that we’ve seen. But most of all, hearing your stories and the memories that are created by playing through with your friends or playing with your family, that is absolutely invaluable to us, it means the world to us, it makes all our work completely worthwhile.”

And fans are already getting a glimpse of what’s to come as Sea of Thieves continues to grow. As of today the 2.2.1 patch was released, bringing a treasure trove of new purchasable gear, in-game events, and overall gameplay improvements. For more information about the new patch, check out the patch notes here.

So whether you’re a battle-hardened captain or a new recruit, you can take to the seas and check out what all of the excitement is about! Sea of Thieves is available for purchase on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, or PC via Windows or Steam.