Sea of Thieves passes 15 million players since launch

From Xbox Blog: "It’s both thrilling and humbling to share with you that Sea of Thieves has been played by more than fifteen million players since our launch in March 2018.

The way that the game and its community has continued to grow has been amazing to see. It was only in January of this year when we shared that 10 million people had played the game! We’re also humbled that 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."

[Looper]

This game has come a very long way since launch and deserves all the new players. Rare have done a fantastic job of supporting and improving this game.
5 million new players since January is no small feat and they managed it with a lot of good will from the community.

Free monthly content so nobody is locked out.
Free cosmetic drops
Free map expansions
Free Story mode expansions!
And the best darn shanties on the seas!

"We’re also humbled that 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."
Not surprising at all. It's one of the most played games on Xbox Live and Steam

[Mr Pumblechook]

These figures from Microsoft mean Sea of Thieves has had more players than PlayStation 4's biggest first-party exclusive so far, Spider-Man.

However more detailed metrics are required to judge its success because direct sale-for-sale comparisons can't be made as it's included in Xbox Game Pass. What would be useful is knowing how many people have played it for more than an hour. I've downloaded it and tried on my Xbox One X but just had a little look around, it's very pretty. But I haven't gone back to it so it wouldn't truly be accurate to call me a player.

Active players is a better metric but this should be explained exactly what it means. On Xbox Wire it says "Last month – June 2020 – was also the biggest month so far for Sea of Thieves in terms of active players, with more than 3.3M players setting sail." But again this is WORD PLAY. 'Setting sail' only means started the game, it gives no indication of time spent in the game or if the players have returned to play it a second time.

No hate to anyone, but sometimes the PR can use words too creatively that it gives a greater indication of success than there actually is.

[Cmv38]

If you don't understand how numbers are easily manipulated, then yeah, you'd reach this foolish conclusion.

[respekanize91]

yikes......

[timotim]

@CMV
I dont care one way or the other about the Spiderman statement, but these numbers are pretty clear...15 million players since launch...you cant get any clearer than that. Sure...it could mean that one played it for 30 seconds and never again and was counted...but the same goes for any player counts of any game. Nothing about this figure is trying to be manipulative in any way.

[Marquinho]

And it keeps growing. It's been consistently on the Top 3 on Steam since its launch on June 3rd.

I'm very glad to see RARE recovering - the hard way - from the long way of missteps they've done this generation.

[zackeroniii]

basic microsoft PR they've been better with twisting words, being manipulative, and moving goalposts better than they've been releasing any noteworthy exclusive for like the past 2 generations of their consoles. i don't see this changing going in to the XSX

spider man is miles better than sea of thieves tbh

[Hakuoro]

PS4 has multiple games that have >SOLD< more than 15 million copies.

[Thatgrammar]

@Mr Pumblechook

Why is it relevant to compare the sales of Spiderman and Sea Of Thieves? The last of us sold more than 17 million copies as of April 2018, so it could have sold more by now. Thats more than 15, why not compare that? Uncharted 4 sold over 15 million copies as of May 2019. Why not compare it with that? Sea Of Thieves is also on PC and was on game pass which was $1 for a few months when it first launched. The barrier to entry for both of the games was very different. $60 for Spiderman, but $1 or $10 to play Sea of Thieves for a month or $60 for the whole game. Also, Spiderman sold 13 million copies as of July 28, 2019. So how do you know that Spiderman hasn’t had more people play it within the past year? You are comparing year old figures with new figures. That makes no sense. Again, why is it relevant to compare? I am not understanding the logic you used for the criteria of your comparison. Playstation has sold over 100 million PS4s while Microsoft is near 50 million Xbox One consoles. Maybe 50 million PC players are also in Microsofts ecosystem so they level the playing field of potential customers? What are you trying to prove?

[Xb1ps4]

Sea of thieves has a story mode now? Going to have to check it out! I liked the game but I’m not much of a multiplayer guy.. I like some kind of structure and story

[aconnellan]

Yeah it gets pretty regular additions too. They’re called ‘Tall Tales’, it’s worth looking up a guide on where to start each one though, they all have a different starting location you need to go to

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

"Sea of Thieves has sold over 1 million copies to date on Steam since its launch on June 3, 2020"

Impressive, but don't Steam users know that they can play it for 1€ with Game Pass PC? Why buy it for 40 bucks on Steam when you can pay 1€ for Game Pass?

[Soap_Z]

Most of copies are bought by Chinese PC gamers, the price of SoT in steam is around $17 in China region

[aconnellan]

Got a source on that?

[MajorLazer]

Source: his ass

[timotim]

Because some gamers like to own their games while others pick and choose which games they play in a subscription and which they buy. I love seeing that gamers are choosing both options depending on what works best for them. It means Xbox can have a healthy dose of options that help make it a success.

[BeRich233]

Gamepass is 5$ on PC.

[Kribwalker]

Crazy. the game definitely has legs, and has become something pretty awesome since launch.

[Battlestar23]

Congrats on 15 million sales. The game is not my cup of tea but I'm happy to see Rare doing so well.

[ssj27]

15 million sales? Haha is free to play for xbox service hece lots of people have played the game.
I have heard is fun so that so helps but if it sold a million or up to 3 i would be amazed .. I'm sure sales are very low. And dlc content seem free . If Microsoft is smart will make it completely free to play and add lots of microtanstration and cash in that way

[DiRtY]

"but if it sold a million or up to 3 i would be amazed .. I'm sure sales are very low."

It sold 1 million on Steam alone.

Other than that:
If a game does well on GamePass, that is great news for Xbox as well.

[Atom666]

Prepare to be amazed! From the article you didn't read:

"Sea of Thieves has sold over 1 million copies to date on Steam since its launch on June 3, 2020."

[rlow1]

Wow, some real jaded people on here. Must think MS payed you to say that.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

Not sales, "Players". It's the usual Microsoft word spin to inflate numbers while not actually telling you how many copies it really sold. Plenty of those "Players" never bought the game and maybe tried it out for 5 minutes on Game Pass.

[TheRealHeisenberg]

I played it for maybe 15 minutes via Game Pass a while back and never went back. With that said, I hope MS truly delivers next gen and shuts all the haters up.

[timotim]

Keep proving the doubters wrong Rare and Microsoft! They though player counts would dry up after a month, yet its still going strong and one of the most played games on Windows 10 and Xbox One. They thought Microsoft would drop it with support, yet free DLC continues to come out. They thought no one would buy it on Steam, yet it sold over a million alone there. The game cant be classified anything but a success.

[Imortus_san]

It looks like MS bad games do sell and they do have active players, just wondering if they are real bad games like most people like to spread.

[DrDeath]

They are.

Feed a dog crap after being starved and he will eat it up without a fuss

[Kavorklestein]

I say if a game is fun and sells at least a million then it should be considered a decent game.

[Imortus_san]

It sold one million on steam on it's first 3 months, it sold much more on xbox.

[Automatic79]

Congratulations RARE. Well done.

[chiefJohn117]

Wow, congrats. Certain fanboys gonna hate this news lol

[Terry_B]

Including many that played the game for 5 minutes ?

[Looper]

Including one million people on Steam. Top 5 most played games on Steam.
Top 5 most played games on Xbox Live every single month.

But sure, it's because of players playing for 5 minutes...that make you feel better?

[Terry_B]

Nah..it does not make me feel better of course, but its a simple fact. The big majority of the "players" got the game via gamespass and did not buy it. That Microsoft brags with those numbers still instead of counting only the sold copies is almost hilarious.

[timotim]

Any game for any platform that uses a stat of how many played doesnt count how much one played...only those who have logged in at all. Heres an example of GTS
https://www.gtplanet.net/gt...

Didnt matter if it was 30 seconds or 300 hours. Hopefully you've learned something.

[yomfweeee]

It matter when a game is free as part of a service versus you have to buy the game. Do you get that?

[timotim]

@Yom
Not sure I'm following. If someone bought GTS and only played it 30 seconds, are you telling me it wouldn't count in a PLAYER stat count??? Are you telling me that someone couldn't have used a guess account or created family accounts that then used the same game, played it for 5 minutes and it counted to the stat in the link? Are you telling me that someone who bought the game couldn't have loaned it to a friend that tried it out for a day or two before giving it back and that friend was counted towards the stat???

[yomfweeee]

You're honestly arguing that the "players played" for subscription games can equally be compared to paid games? So, if Sony had given TLOU2 away for free as part of PS Plus... the number of people who played the game... wouldn't have been any higher?

[timotim]

@yom
"You're honestly arguing that the "players played" for subscription games can equally be compared to paid games?"

Where did I say that? It is YOU who compared them in that way, after not understand the purpose of my post. The GTS article I linked to shows that they are keeping track of players counts. The purpose of me linking to it was to show regardless how much time a player spends on the game, ALL games that track player counts does so simply by ANY unique account thats played the game, not by how much time you put into it. You are getting hung up on how many people played SoT VS GTS, when my post was addressing the amount of time one puts into it and is it still counted in that case. Playing SoT OR GTS for 5 minutes and never again will still be equally counted in both cases...

[Poopmist]

Multiplayer games lately have been in the direction of a barren launch with plenty added later with the likes of Destiny, SOT, and Siege. All were critically considered meh at launch but made dramatic improvements to get high player counts. It's why metacritic is largely irrelevant for MP games. Well except Bleeding Edge which is just straight trash.

[Kavorklestein]

Destiny was NOT considered Meh at launch. Once people found it had no real story, it became MEH after a year or so.
It got so much Hype and people played the crap out of it. Still not a huge fan of it and Activision's Money Hungry DLC ways. But the game is fun when you want to shoot and explore barren landscapes with the same 5 enemy types with copy pasted animations from Halo.

[Pika-pie]

Never heard of it

[ironmonkey]

Still not good enough. Free at the bottom barrel is what it should be at this point.

[gerbintosh]

Meh, this number is not really telling about the popularity of the game. "15 Million players since launch" does that mean 15 million have tried it and then now don't play it? Wasn't this game free on game pass for a while? Provide how many concurrent active players the game has at present and then we can talk about. Until then, this company is just massaging the numbers to look good.

[Hakuoro]

What is the value of that? I am one of those yet all I did was play it a bit to see what it was all about when I had a moth of gamepass one time. I didn't spend money on it or dedicate any time to it.

"players and users" are worthless stats.

[NeoGamer232]

Most stats in gaming are worthless.

Some people think console sales are important. In reality there 10's of millions of people that buy a console for only a few games and don't even play those games often.

Really the only meaningful stats to me are network and game subscription subscribers. Both indicate many people who are actively using their console otherwise they would cancel their subscriptions.

[Ghostbob]

Sea of Thieves is quite a relaxing game if you use a one-man boat and go sailing on the high seas.

[Bnet343]

I got so tired of seeing this game at E3. I am actually really surprised it has succeeded cause it look kind of boring. Just happy Rare is getting it in, hopefully sets them up to create the IPs we want. Like a new Conker. Microsoft dumb silly for not having an exclusive platformer.

[DrDeath]

Game pass... that is all

Bragging about nothing

[Looper]

The 1 million Steam sales since June then?

[Looper]

Nothing?

[Sgt_Slaughter]

If Microsoft could actually give us concrete sales numbers instead of fluff like "Players" then that would be great. I think it's pretty telling that they haven't really done that in years, even for Xbox units sold. If they did, it wouldn't look good at all. This is coming from a person who owns every Xbox console to date (eventually will swap my S for an X for the upgraded Original Xbox and 360 visuals, probably going to be even better with homebrew hacks).

[timotim]

Thats a stat that wouldn't give us the whole picture though. With XGP being a thing...now with xCloud being rolled into it. Sales only gives a fraction of how many players are playing. Worrying about how many sold as a metric for success in Xbox's ecosystem is pointless. Better off watching for other things like support...SoT is still getting supported today...if no one was playing, they would have stopped DLC for the game as it would just be losing money...but the reality is that gamers are still playing, DLC is still being made, they just came off their biggest month ever for the game so its actually gaining traction, and over 1 million sold on Steam alone. Sales numbers only doesnt cover all that.

[Pancit_Canton]

A better question. How many of "PLAYERS" downloaded and deleted the game on the same day?

[Looper]

1 million bought it on Steam since June. 5 million new players since January. More people played it so far this year than the entire 2019. It's one of the most played games on Xbox Live and Steam.

[Picnic]

Would it be ungallant to hope that Rare might make a Sea of Thieves adventure platformer?

[RamRod88]

I got into the game later this year and found myself really enjoying even playing with random people. There is really nothing quite like it. With a lot of multiplayer games, if you get into it late, usually you're way behind everyone else who is level whatever, but with a game like this it doesn't matter at all. All you need is a solid crew and you'll be set for a great time.

[Cmoney007]

SOT = 7/10

It is a good pirate game that could still be better.

[FanboySpotter]

How come when it's some xbox game doing well it's "was it on gamepass? Probably played only 10 minutes and it got counted" but when it's ps games its "wow that many sold? Nice?" Without asking "did they return the game back after trying or actually kept it? Can't tell because it just counts sales.. almost like how xbox counts players on gamepass"

👀 don't worry about how they got to that number just know that people were interested enough to atleast try it out which is the beauty of gamepass and those not wanting to outright buy it before trying.

[sampsonon]

It's a gamepass game. I would like to see numbers if it wasn't on a gamespass.
But gamepass saved it.

I am not into cartoony games.