Sea of Thieves Tops 10 Million Players - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 08 January 2020 / 3,820 Views
Microsoft and Rare via Twitter announced the pirate-themed action adventure game, Sea of Thieves, has topped 10 million players. The game is available for the Xbox One and Windows PC, as well as Game Pass.
"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," said Executive Producer at Rare Joe Neate.
"It’s mind-blowing to think of that many people setting sail on the Sea of Thieves, and it’s all been made possible by the support and passion of our fantastic community.
"For everyone at Rare, the Sea of Thieves community represents the very best of what gaming can be. It’s home to players from more than eighty different countries, bringing together gamers on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One and Windows 10 PC and creating countless stories and moments that people can treasure. Seeing these stories shared through social media or other community spaces is something that inspires the team every day. To every person who’s played Sea of Thieves, thank you.
"Our community will be at the centre of our January update – ‘Legends of the Seas’ – which will be available to all players for free from Wednesday January 15. Not only will this update celebrate our community and its stories, it will also feature two limited-edition gifts to mark our 10 million player milestone. Log-in to the game between January 15 and 22 and claim a free custom sail and a special new emote.
"Once again, on behalf of everyone at Rare I’d like to say thank you to everyone who’s been on this journey with us so far. The best news is that we’re just getting started and have big plans for the coming year. See you on the seas!"
Join us in a toast to the 10 million pirates who have ventured onto the Sea of Thieves looking for adventure, glory and a tall tale or two to tell their mates! Cheers to every single one of you, and thank you for joining us on this voyage! 🍻 pic.twitter.com/xXdCKb3Gx7
— Sea of Thieves (@SeaOfThieves) January 8, 2020
Here is an overview of the game:
From acclaimed developer Rare comes a shared-world adventure game that offers the ultimate pirate experience.
Packed to the seams with sailing and exploring, fighting and plundering, riddle solving and treasure hunting, Sea of Thieves has everything you need to live the pirate life you’ve always dreamed about.
Set in a glorious world of exotic islands, hidden treasures and dangers both natural and supernatural, Sea of Thieves immerses you in a new type of multiplayer action. Whether you’re adventuring as a group or sailing solo, you’re bound to encounter other crews – but will they be friends or foes, and how will you respond? Sea of Thieves offers something for everyone, no matter how they like to play:
• A world of exploration – set sail upon a vast, open ocean, venturing into new regions and discovering the secrets of unspoiled islands and sunken ships. Hunt for treasure by following maps and untangling riddles, and learn to expect the unexpected...
• A world of excitement – engage in ship-to-ship battles with cannon, pistol and cutlass, pursuing rival ships through raging storms. Sail in pursuit of deadly bounties or ferry cargo through hostile waters. Clash with the skeletal remains of cursed former pirates and beware undersea menaces that lurk beneath the waves!
• A world we sail together – whether you’re playing alongside friends, matchmaking to find a crew or setting out as a ‘lone wolf’ pirate, you’ll have hilarious, memorable encounters in a world rich with other real players.
• A world of achievement – on your quest to become a pirate legend you’ll amass loot, build a reputation and define a unique personal style with your hard-earned rewards.
It’s an adventure that will grow and evolve over time, with new content arriving regularly to ensure a fresh, exciting experience whenever – and wherever – you choose to set sail. With mounting praise from fans and critics alike, Sea of Thieves is set to be the next unforgettable adventure for players on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC, with enhanced features on Xbox One X.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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People keep asking for sales numbers, which I would like to see as well. But people are paying or paid money to play this on Game Pass, so it becomes difficult to quantify how much revenue it generated.
Rare just claims it currently has millions of active players.
Pretty strong number for a game that struggled at release. It seems that it eventually managed to find it's audience.
A better metric would be how many players does it have monthly. If I download it with GamePass play for a few hours and never go back is their numbers counting those also?
Yes, you are considered someone who played the game. For how long doesnt change that fact. No different to some one purchasing a physical copy and returning it a day later. That still counts as a sale.
Either way, this will be spinned in two way.. 1) Sea of Thieves success came mostly via Game Pass and undersold in stores. 2) Game Pass is only successful due to its $1 dollar deal. Lets forget 10m people were keen enough to give SoTs a try.
Congratulations, but would love to know the sales number.
Yes that seem to have been the case for the year, at least these games seem to be finding success.
Yep I would like for they to at least during the first year release the numbers for XSX, and if it do well that they keep giving numbers even if they stay behind PS5 and NS.
@Don and @trunkswd
MS cannot give accurate numbers anymorr, its not the same as the OG Xbox and 360 era. Giving numbers out with services, Streaming, multi device availability and digital media growing, it will only under sell the game. I would be quite suprised if MS give physical game sales next gen. This is a more accurate way of telling people how many gamers have played the game.
MS can't give numbers on sales? Do you really want us to believe this?
Well they can but why would they want to? For example, If a game has 5m concurrent players active playing there game and the game only sold 2m phyical copies from stores, why would they announce the game only sold 2m copies, not only does it under sell there game, its not accurate. Remember GamePass has gamers basically renting the game so how do you include the renters in this figure?
No one is asking MS to give the physical sales of the game only (and yes MS can do even though you said they can't), we are asking for total SALES, real SALES, people that bought the game. So if they sold 2M on stores and 1M digital we are asking that 3M, not that 10M people eventually played the game.
How do they include the gamers playing SoTs via GamePass? Those people havnt brought the game digitally or physically yet are playing the game full time? We can assume a fair portion of SoT players are most likely GP members.. so giving digital and Physical numbers wont be accurate to the actual amount of players playing the game.
That is why we are asking for the sold number, if they want to give sold, MAU and how many played at any time let them do it. Still we are asking for something very feasible and relevant that you are trying to make it sound like an attack against the game.
You may not be attacking the game but why do they need to give sold figures? Isnt the amount of players playing the game more important than whats sold in store? Like i said before, i will be suprised if MS give out sales figures in the future. Its just not how there eco system works now days.
Nope, the number of copies sold total is more relevant to VGChartz than how many people played the game. Otherwise we would be asking Sony for how many people downloaded each game on PS+ and say it doesn't matter the sales because people that played the game on PS+ had to pay for PS+ so it is as good as buying it.
MS doesn't give numbers for sales since they started lagging a lot against PS4, but I won't enter that debate with you again because you do total denial.
And about attacking the game, you posted in this very thread about it.
Not giving out sales figures has nothing to do with lagging behind because they use to give out sales figures with games that weren't selling well last gen. The fact you denie the new eco system and system they have with the X1 where digital and renting media is more there focus point. Physical sales is not accurate for us anymore. A game could heavily undersell in-store yet have 6m players playing it, why would they share a portion of the games sales? It makes no sense for a buiness. Telling us how many people played there game is an actual figure they can monitor.
For the 10th time, we aren't asking for physical sales, we are asking for sales number. That includes digital. Subscription isn't software sales though.
Are you really going to say that since 2014 their strategy was already Gamepass and Xcloud? Because they don't share numbers of sales much earlier than this supposed transition.
Don, its not hard to understand Xbox's new business model. They wont give you digital and physical sales anymore because there business model isn't about those sales, not when you have a huge portion of your MAUs using the rental service. If they did tell you the sales only figures, it will be misleading to the actual player base that the game has currently. Hence why they wont do it. SoTs has 10m accounts made in game which means in its lifetime, 10m gamers tried out SoTs. Take that as you will.
Also services like Xcloud and GamePass are planned many years in advance, nothing to do with Sony or Nintendo. Remember Power of the Cloud? They touted that before the X1 launched. That's Xcloud, that's there Streaming service, its Azure Cloud, something even Sony will be using next gen. This was always the destiny for Xbox. And I am glad they wont give out figures anymore because its useless numbers which only breeds console wars and means nothing.
With 8m gamepass subscriptions, that means atleast 2m people bought the game.
Unless accounts with more characters, counts as differnt pirates.
Is 8M the total number of everyone that ever made a Gamepass account or current subs? Because with the 1USD deals there could have been a lot of people that subscribed, played this game and isn't currently a sub.
Anyway if we ignore any spin and go just for what they said, the game have done well financially so it is good news.
I would think actual sales are probably more like 3 million or higher. It has also remained the second best selling game on the Microsoft Store, just behind Minecraft.
I doubt Game Pass has 8 million active subscribers, that would probably be enough to cover the expenses of 1st party content for a year.
I agree its also unlikely most Game Pass users tried Sea of Theives.
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