10 Months After Launch, Sea of Thieves is one of Twitch’s Most Popular Games

Following a steady stream of updates over the last year, Sea of Thieves has seen a rapid resurgence of popularity, with an influx of new and returning players, thanks to rocketing up to the top 5 positions on Twitch’s most watched games

[Vasto]

Keep up the good work Rare.

[Kribwalker]

they said from the beginning this was going to be an ever evolving game. and it truly has evolved, and once they bring in the PVP arena, i see the user base going even higher

[gangsta_red]

Not bad for a GaaS game, especially one that gives out free updates. Not really sure when this Game Pass thing is suppose to kick in with games that cater only to that model.

[chiefJohn117]

Destiny!!! That's wtf they were talking about! OMG what a revelation. Thanks Gangstas. What till they hear this *grabs car keys*

[No Way]

Gotta love the haters and disagree, though, for telling them keep up the good work.

Never seen so many "hardcore" gamers.. who want the gaming community to thrive... but yet hate so many games and specifically just because it's on another system.

Posers.

[Livingthedream]

Yup. People love this game. MS didn't release many new games last year, however the games they release keep their gamers engaged for months. SOT,SOD2,FORZA HORIZON. to this day you can still find matches for halo MCC, Halo 5,Gears Ultimate,Gears4,Halo Wars2 they know their fanbase.

[lxeasy]

I guess its time for me to jump back into this game, I've been steadily hearing about all the improvements

[Tedakin]

Been crazy to watch. It's just been going up since the Shrouded Spoils update. It had 140k viewers yesterday, number 2 only to Fortnite. I think the Arena mode could really cause it to blow up cause if there's one thing the game does right it's ship combat on the high seas, and Arena focuses on that.

[kevnb]

Maybe I’ll try it out, is it better with a 1070 or an xbox one x?

[nick13b]

well it does run at 4k at around 60fps on the One X and idk about how it runs on a 1070 but hopefully 4k

[kevnb]

So I guess it just depends what screen and control scheme I want to use, cool. I imagine I can just play on Xbox and continue on pc later. For pc I go with 1440p 144hz with gsync, but a solid 60 FPS 4K on the tv sounds fantastic too.

[Bruh]

On which planet is it running at 60 FPS on the Xbox One X? lmao

[dekke]

@nick13b

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[kevnb]

Alright fine, 30fps solid might be ok with a controller in this game. I’ll give it a shot.

[Kribwalker]

runs super smooth in 4k on the One X. i haven’t played it on a pc, let alone a 1070, so i can’t help you there. But your game progression goes back and forth no problem

[TK-55]

MS does tend to be very good when it comes to optomizing games so the PC version will probably run well. 1070 is a good card so I think it comes down to whether you prefer controller or K&M.

[obidanshinobi]

PC all the way.
The higher frame rate will give you an advantage.
Increased field of view, 90 max on Xbox, not sure what it is on PC but I expect you can widen it. Us humans see 120 degrees so you should set it for that on the PC, again to give yourself an advantage.
Mouse and keyboard works better than the controller too, you will be able to turn quicker and it will make combat faster and better. Sometimes with a controller your movement becomes slow and stodgy when fighting, it's very annoying when your fighting a load of skeletons and for some reason it feels like you're stuck in mud.

So PC definitely, it's a no brainer.

[kevnb]

Ya I usually only play competitive games on pc, but I think this game can also just be relaxing.

[nibblo]

I've been noticing the increased Twitch numbers since the last update. Nice to see Rare still working on these free substantial updates and not just letting it rot. If you play this through Game Pass it is a great deal especially as they continue to improve it.

[Rude-ro]

Ummm, it’s a sponsored stream. Streamers are getting paid to play it.
Glad to see those marketing dollars hard at work.

[Tedakin]

You know this how?

[Rude-ro]

Because I watch streamers.
Because this is not the first time Microsoft has done this.
They do this to create a false “demand” and in return, influencing the younger audience.
Or... you go ahead and pretend all these bigger streamers decided to drop their popular FPS preference and started playing sea of thieves. Ok.

[KeenBean345]

No they aren't at all. Popular streamer Summit1g arguably brought it to life by showing how much fun it can be + hitting big viewership numbers on it. Big streamers are becoming very tired of fortnite due to it's trash updates so they play Sea Of Thieves instead because it's actually fun right now

I'll happily admit I'm wrong though if you provide sources. No recent streams/tweets I could find contained any ad's for SoT, a few for CoD Blackout but that's all

The game has always been played a bit by streamers, just the game is in a great place now and thriving due to fatigue from fortnite

[kevnb]

Fortnite can only be number 1 for so long, just like any other game.

[Tedakin]

Yeah everyone tries to bring this game down no matter what. The game can't succeed on its own merit because it's actually really fun, there has to be conspiracy!

[OffRoadKing]

They're "bored" with Fortnite so they go to Sea of Thieves, um ok.

[BLow]

I'm not saying this guy is right or wrong but....

https://www.microsoft.com/e...

Currently number 30 in the top 50. It seems that more of you are watching than playing. But hey, it's getting more content which is good. If you like then you like it. Keep in mind this is an Xbox Live most played list and SoT is an online only title and it's on Gamepass.

Reminder, I didn't make this list up. It's from Microsoft....

[aconnellan]

For Xbox, right?

I don’t think that accounts for people playing on PC, does it? I could be wrong though.

Which makes sense as I imagine a lot of Summit1G and Dr Disrespect’s fans primarily play on PC given that’s their platform of choice

[Kribwalker]

https://www.trueachievement...

it was number 20 for the week ending on the 20th. That’s no slouch on a chart that sees 57 million MAU

[akbennyewu]

Must find one metric that undermines this article so you can feel a little better?
Good job!

[coolbeans]

Summit1G (i.e. THE carrier of SoT's popularity right now) would be obligated to announce it as a sponsored content for them. He simply took a break from usual stuff, but got addicted with this update & stealing Athena chests.

[Livingthedream]

Question is are people watching it? If they are it doesnt matter if they spend money on streamers right? I

[Kribwalker]

over 100k people on avg

[Livingthedream]

That's decent still good support

[akbennyewu]

Keep trying to knock it

[Teflon02]

People are only playing it because Summit1g made some really popular videos sneaking and messing with people/robbing them. People are jumping on the bandwagon because of Summit. It's going to drop again just now. The content really isn't great even now.

[King_Noctis]

So you are saying the game isn’t popular right now because it actually is a good game?

[OMGitzThatGuy]

Tons of good games don't have active player bases. It is a fact that Summit bought newfound eyes back to the game. It wasn't near top 100 streamed games until he started playing it again and he went from 18k subs to almost 45k in about 2 months. Most new players aren't playing because of some updates, they are playing because he has shown that fun can be made in the game regardless of the still lacking content.

[timotim]

So if Summit was playing another game...BF say...and everyone hopped on that game instead...what would be the difference? Behind ALL popular games on these services are popular streamers. Fortnite definitely has them. League of Legends definitely has them...is this suppose to be a bad thing?

[rainslacker]

People watching the game doesn't mean that people are also playing it. But in this case, I think it's one of the more played games on XBox last I saw.

As far as the twich numbers go, this game actually is watched by a lot of people, but the length of time overall that people watch it is about half of other popular titles, based on Twitch official numbers, and third party tracking sites which measure the time spent watching it, where it clocks in at #11. based on other games around the same as SoT, the numbers suggest that people watch it about half as long as other games on the list, on a per person average.

Not sure why Twitch is any measure of success of a game though. any new game can rise up the ranks pretty fast. Staying power exists for popular games, but something will always take over eventually. It doesn't mean the games which move down the list are now worse, or get played less. It's just that streamers have moved on to other things.

[OffRoadKing]

It proves that people follow the streamers not the games. SOT will have this position until something else comes along the streamers are more interested in and everyone will move on with them.

[timotim]

@Rain

While that number wouldn't be one to one obviously, what it does say is gamers and people in general are interested in the game...both from a viewing and playing perspective. Remember, this didn't just happen overnight...the game has always been among the top on both Twitch and Mixer since launch. Its not only among the most viewed games, but also the most played games over Live as well. When you put those two aspects together, I think it adds up to good engagement for the game. That's the point I was trying to make.

In terms of the length of time being watched less than half vs other popular games (key words), that's not really relevant imo. The overall viewers that are enjoying watching the game and the community around it is what's most important. Even with that stat, its still CONSISTENTLY among the top in engagement. It could be a situation where gamers see how the streamer tackles something, then goes off to try it in the game...any engagement would be considered good engagement...its a system that all feeds back into itself.

I view it as a measure of success because other gamers since day one has been trying to paint the game as having a dead community. They said no one would be interested in the game past the free 14 day GP trail. Yet, if the game was really as uninteresting as they say, why are people CONTINUING to play and watch streams of the game? We hear its because of popular streamers now...well if the game was really that uninteresting, why would a popular streamer even want to play it to begin with? And even more important...why would up to and over 100K people at any given one time want to watch such a game being streamed? Its because it says something about the game...it says that people LIKE watching said game...that they enjoy it and the community it fosters. No, it doesn't mean that those same people are all players too, but it does say people continue to engage with it and that its popularity is still high.

@OffRoad
Again, if the GAME wasn't compelling, then people wouldn't tune in...period. The numbers of that streamer would drop and that streamer would move onto a different game. Its been over 10 months now and its still going strong with both players and streamers/viewers...of course no game last forever...but for a game that we were told was DOA, I say its doing pretty well.

[jairusmonillas]

It's only because Summit is playing it and obviously getting paid aswell. Everyone knows summit doesn't stick too much on a single game especially this is not even Counter Strike unless he is getting sponsored. lol

[Zeref]

didn't his paid subscribers double ever since he started playing?

and no he is not getting paid , Microsoft already confirmed it and if they were being paid, they are legally required to say they are.

[jairusmonillas]

Nothing new here this Zeref is also getting paid to say pro-ms opinions. lol

[OffRoadKing]

No they are not legally required to do that.

[aconnellan]

There are some pretty strict rules around sponsored social media posts/streams - if this was paid for, we’d know about it.

Plus that’s ridiculous - people playing the game and having fun does not equal them being sponsored/paid to do so. And to suggest that is ridiculous. Is it so hard to believe that they’re playing because they’re having fun?

[No Way]

On a side note - Sony is also helping create a buzz for Sea of Thieves by their recent announcement that they are going to produce a new movie, by the same name! Starring Jack Black, Gerard Butler and Johnny Depp!

Wow! Saying (or, making?) things up without proof or sources IS fun!

[Zeref]

I... want this to happen.

[Poopmist]

I'd watch it

[OMGitzThatGuy]

You must have been around when he almost tanked his channel because of his short addiction to BDO.

[timotim]

Keep bringing new content and gamers will keep playing! I've been saying this since release and I'm happy Rare is doing exactly that.

The game has also seen an uptick on Mixer too. Was #2 behind Fortnite there as well. Congrats Rare and Microsoft on great engagement.

[AK91]

It's quite sad when we judge a quality of a game based on how many Twitch viewers has as opposed to the games themselves.

[timotim]

Not quite understanding. What would be better metrics for you? Sales? We can't go simply off sales for Microsoft's own games because of their services like GP where you have potentially millions of gamers playing a game that doesn't show up in sales lists. Should we use ratings only? The problem there is just because a game doesn't rate high doesn't mean gamers are enjoying the experience, especially for an online only open ended game. What services like Twitch and Mixer shows is how engaged gamers continue to be with a game as time goes on. Watching or playing in this case doesn't really matter...what this does is provide a gage for a games community and it's fanbase. The idea is that the vast majority of people viewing these streams are doing so by choice...because they want to.

[OffRoadKing]

Yes both sales and ratings would be a far better metric but of course when those are both bad for an xbox game the next best thing is how many people are watching it be played. Twitch is a garbage gauge for game quality and interest and all the MS "engaged" buzz wording wont change that. In reality the game itself doesn't really matter as most viewers just follow their favorite streamers from game to game to watch them act like an idiot and donate their hard earned cash to said idiot for some insane reason.

[timotim]

@Offroad

Again...SoT CONTINUES to be one of the most played games over Xbox Live since launch...it CONTINUES to be one of the most viewed games on Twitch and Mixer...that's all the indicator I need to see. Until you can dispute my reasoning behind sales and ratings IN THIS CASE, then you are just talking for the sake of talking...

The success of GP has proven the number of players goes beyond that of its sales. Their are millions of GP subscribers that also adds to any GP game's player count. So no, sales would NOT be a good indicator for a GP title. And while I agree that ratings are a great indicator for a games quality, it does NOT indicate how POPULAR a game is, which was my point. A game could average a 99 on meta, yet if only one person has played it, it wouldn't be very popular would it? Sure, that's an extreme example, but I gave it to show how silly that argument would be. Ratings shows more of a games quality, not its current popularity.

[aconnellan]

People on Twitch are playing it because the game is fun.

Twitch is more of a popularity gauge as well - and the fact that people claimed SoT was dead shortly after launch (and every month since) is why this is a talking point, because it shows the opposite

[OffRoadKing]

No people on Twitch are playing it to get paid. Twitch is digital panhandling trash.

[rainslacker]

I don't think they are using this to judge the quality of the game, just the popularity of it.

Whether that's good or bad, I won't posit an opinion on at this time. I prefer playing games, not watching them, and I have a great disdain for streamers, because a person watching a game, isn't playing one, and more generally, they serve themselves, and not the industry.

@Tim

"The problem there is just because a game doesn't rate high doesn't mean gamers are enjoying the experience, especially for an online only open ended game"

And high twitch numbers don't mean that gamers are enjoying the experience either. Based on other metrics available, people spend half as much time watching SoT twitch streams as other games on the list, on a per person basis. But either way, if they're watching, they aren't playing, so how can they enjoy the experience? The experience should be enjoyed while playing, but that's an issue with the player, not the streamers.

"What services like Twitch and Mixer shows is how engaged gamers continue to be with a game as time goes on"

No, it shows how many people are watching someone else play the game. There is no evidence of the correlation of number of players vs. number of viewers, and it's going to vary on any given game, at any given time

" Watching or playing in this case doesn't really matter...what this does is provide a gage for a games community and it's fanbase. "

I'd say it matters, because a watcher, isn't necessarily a player. What provides a better gauge for the community and its fan base is the actual community and fanbase in forums, or in the game itself.

"The idea is that the vast majority of people viewing these streams are doing so by choice...because they want to."

No one is claiming they are being forced to watch these streams, but you are making the conclusion that its because they are a part of the community, and it isn't other factors, such as a popular streamer deciding to show it while taking a break from other games. If pewdiepie decides to show off FO76, and it gets millions of hits, do we say that FO76 is insanely popular, or that pewdiepie is insanely popular...and has more viewers than most games ever manage to sell.

[timotim]

Interesting.

I look at games like GTS on PS4...a game which didn't rate very high. In fact, it was the lowest rated in the entire franchise. Yet despite that relatively low rating, it doesn't mean that gamers aren't enjoying the experience. That was my point. "Should we use ratings only" was the question. Again, its not just the high number of people that continue to watch streams of it, its also gamers that continue to make it one of the most played games over Xbox Live that I'm factoring in here. I still don't understand your logic though. SoTs has been very consistent since launch...in fact, one could argue that popularity is rising as time goes on. If people continue to engage with the game, then yes, it means they are enjoying the experience. It doesn't have to be playing only though. Think about a sports team...some people are there at that stadium to play the game, but the vast majority of them are there to WATCH and experience the game. These people are doing so WILLINGLY on a consistent bases. Engagement is what we are talking about...not player vs spectator...what matters is that everyone at that stadium and even more that are watching at home on TV is engaged in the game. This breeds a situation where it all feeds back into itself...players numbers are up because viewing numbers are high...GP and its lower barrier to entry is doing its part...Rare continues to add more content which streamers then put on display and show gamers why they should be playing more...its a system that feeds itself.

[rainslacker]

All I'm saying is that Twitch views don't equate to popularity of a game. Twitch can show that there is interest in the game, or it can be shown by a popular streamer who gets views for other reasons, such as with a popular streamer, or some female weary skimpy clothing, a recently released game that people may be interested in, etc.

I'm not trying to say that the game isn't popular, or that people aren't enjoying the experience, just that the actual conclusions that are being drawn based on the twitch streams may not represent anything.

More representative would be metrics that are available through MS, which show it's still a game that people play, or MS own announcements about player count. For instance, I can conclude that based on the top 5 selling items on PSN store being Fortnite currency for a couple months last year(not sure about now), that there were a lot of people playing it simply due to the correlative nature of in store purchases likely being used by actual players.

Watching a game isn't the same as experiencing it, in my opinion. At least not by the context by which I took your comment. I feel one experiences a game by playing it, and watching is either for informative purposes, or a social past time, depending on various situations. Watching a game is the lazy way to experience it, but I won't judge someone who does it for review purposes or to find out more about it, or those who go looking for tips or walkthroughs of areas.

"SoTs has been very consistent since launch...in fact, one could argue that popularity is rising as time goes on"

One could argue anything really. But by what metric are you basing this argument on? I personally don't argue the popularity of the game itself anymore, because if people enjoy it, so be it, doesn't affect me either way.

" If people continue to engage with the game, then yes, it means they are enjoying the experience"

I didn't say otherwise. I just questions the correlation between people watching a twitch stream, and the engagement of the game itself, pointing out that views of a stream, aren't always directly correlative to actual player engagement within the game itself.

All that being said, I haven't seen any mention that the game is on the decline, so I am willing to believe that the game is either popular enough to sustain itself, or it's popularity is growing. Outside of other official information that involves actual player counts though, I have no way to say otherwise, or to try and bring the game down because of lack of evidence.

[timotim]

Incorrect.

Watching a game isn't the same as playing a game. This is true. They are two different experiences. However, Watching a game and playing a game is both experiencing that game. Using the analogy of the sports team again...all the fans watching two teams play each other is in fact experiencing the game. The emotions, the highs and the lows, the excitement. Theirs even a difference between someone watching it in person VS someone watching it at home through a TV...but its still a level of experience...a level of engagement. Sure, the person actually playing it will have the most intense experience out of all, but make no mistake that everyone involved is experiencing it. Microsoft doesn't care at the end of the day where one falls into those different levels at any given time because it all adds up to a healthy community. Watchers will become players before going back to watching...some will only play while others only watch...but the popularity continues to hopefully grow as more have experience with it.

[rainslacker]

Then the part about experiencing the game I took under a different context. Yes, one can experience the game, or at least what it has to offer, but they can't experience it in the way it should be experienced...which is of course playing it.

But I still stand by Twitch isn't a measure of how many people are playing or a games popularity. However, on the latter, more popular games, or at least games with more attention at any given time(hype), do tend to have more players.

[Sm00thNinja]

It has completely undergone the No Man's Sky treatment I am addicted to sailing the high seas

[OMGitzThatGuy]

Except NMS still didn't have legs.

[Sm00thNinja]

I dunno I like no man's sky bought it on PS4 and Xbox

[Godmars290]

Wasn't the game always intended for streaming? Wouldn't user numbers be a more telling indicator of how well its doing since GaaS negates sale numbers?

[gangsta_red]

https://www.trueachievement...

Being charted in the top 20 would definitely indicate some good numbers right?

[Godmars290]

No. On a chart like that #1 could have 1 million users while #2-5 100k and #6 400.

And then again a "user" could be anyone who logs onto a game for hours or just a few minutes. Just like 57 million Xbox users could all have rented movies, been on Netflix, and not touched a game. Even back in the day when sales numbers were readily tossed out no system ever had one game that sold 100% of its install base.

Nintendo, Zelda and likely Mario, aside of course.

[Kribwalker]

it was the 20th most played on xbox live last week, and xbox live has a 57 million monthly active user base, so i’m sure that’s gonna be a decent amount of people still playing

I agree red

[Swiftfox]

Had a little peek over at twitch. Of the 117k viewers, 101k viewers are being supplied by only 4 streamers. Only two streamers are responsible for 88K of those 101k viewers. Those two streamers are Summit1g and TimtheTanman--two of the most popular variety streamers on Twitch. Call me crazy, but I don't feel this is a good way to judge a game's popularity. What's more popular? Four people playing a game where there are 100k viewers or 200 people playing the game with 100k viewers?

The only thing the viewer count of this game proves is how popular Summit and TimtheTanman are.

[Italiano1234567]

So does that mean more people are watching it then playing it. My problem is it took over 5 years to make a bare bones game. Why wasnt alot of this stuff in it to begin with when it came out.

[ALMGNOON]

all thanks to Summit1g

[obidanshinobi]

I jumped back in last week to check out the new stuff, played solo as I wanted to explore the new area.
It's alright, still not enough content in the game, got bored after about an hour and turned it off.
Still only skeletons to fight on land, why just skeletons? Why not npc pirates or navy sailors to fight too? Why do the controls feel so sluggish still when I'm fighting?
So much potential wasted, still feels like an early access game.

[akbennyewu]

How dare an article with a positive opinion of an Xbox game exist on this site!