Rare’s epic pirating video game, Sea of Thieves has been a serious roll lately. The game pulled in some more players earlier this year, passing the 10 million player mark in the process. However, in just 6 months the game brought in another 5 million, making the new total of those who have played Sea of Thieves a staggering 15 million. Executive Producer Joe Neate stated “more people have played Sea of Thieves in the first six months of 2020 than who played in the whole of 2019, which was more than 2018.”
There are a couple of reasons as to why Sea of Thieves jumped in popularity in such a short time. Firstly, the game got off to a slow start when it initially launched in 2018, not featuring anywhere close to the amount of content that we see in the game today. Secondly, that aforementioned content, which is massive amount by the way, has more than likely made the game that much more accessible and appealing to those looking for a long term title.
However, it’s arguably the third reason that gave the game its incredible jump in players; it finally became available on Steam last month. Normally adding another launcher for PC title isn’t all that big a deal, but for many gamers in the community, this is all they needed to finally take up the mantle of pirating. Steam, the single largest PC online retailer in the world, is home to a plethora of PC community members, and most of them swear by Valves launcher so much that it’s possible that they don’t even use other well-known launchers such as EA’s Origin, GOG’s Galaxy, and most infamously, the Epic Games Store.
Besides Steam, the game is also available on the Microsoft Store, as well as the Xbox One which allows for crossplay. Despite all of the additional content that Rare has put into their IP, it’s still the addicting, swash-buckling, shanty singing pirate game we all fell in love with in 2018. It will be interesting to see what Rare brings in next for the game, but if it’s been anything like they’ve released thus far, then we expect those players numbers to increase exponentially.
Sea of Thieves is available now for the Xbox One and PC through the Microsoft Store and Steam.