Sea of Thieves Sales Top 5 Million on Steam - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 22 December 2021 / 4,918 Views
Developer Rare announced Sea of Thieves has sold more than five million units on Steam.
In celebration of the milestone, Rare will be giving away the All Together Now! Emote for free to everyone who logs into the game by December 29 at 23:59 GMT.
"Even as we finish celebrating the grand milestone of 25 million Sea of Thieves players, we’re already rolling out the barrel again as we surpass five million units sold on Steam!" reads a news post from Rare.
"With Sea of Thieves being our first game developed in-house for PC as well as Xbox, we’re absolutely delighted to see such a huge influx of new pirates starting their adventures since the game made it to Steam in June last year. No matter which platform you play Sea of Thieves on, it would never have had this success without the support of you, the players – so all we can say is thank you!
"We’re overjoyed to see more and more players – regardless of platform, device or where they are in the world – joining us on our pirate odyssey and making the Sea of Thieves an ever more vibrant place. On Steam alone, our thriving community now features over 10,000 discussions, thousands of people seeking others to sail with and close to 500 guides written by you, the players.
"We’re also especially pleased with the growth of spaces like our official Discord server, which is nearing 300,000 members! If you’re ever looking for fellow crewmates to sail with, lore specialists to muse on your theories or simply a place to hang out, these are welcoming spaces for pirates of all stripes."
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.
More Articles
Sounds like this is arguably Rare's most successful game ever. It's also a popular Gamepass title.
Microsoft hasn’t released sales numbers for the other platforms but if you combine the Xbox, Windows Store, and Steam sales for Sea of Thieves I think you probably have a game that has sold 10-15 million copies at least. They have already said that they have had 25 million players total (the 25 million number includes gamepass players)
It makes me wonder where in the hierarchy of Microsoft IP Sea of Thieves is now. It has to be one of their most important IPs now
If it sold 5 million on Steam, then being 10 million+ overall seems very likely. But given they haven't said it, I am a tad skeptical.
Eitherway, it's still selling and many play it via Gamepass. Great to see it went from critical failure to one of MS's biggest hits.
Talking of sales and excluding Minecraft (since it was already a big success before acquisition) I would say it is very likely that Sea of Thieves is their best seller for gen 8.
Agreed, unless Halo:MCC is doing some huge numbers as well.
Steamspy is not a great source, but they estimate between 5 to 10 million people own Halo:MCC on Steam. Lets assume it's just 5 million, it may have done considerably more on Xbox.
Steamspy also estimates Sea of Thieves at 2 to 5 million. So MAYBE MS doesn't want to boast their best selling 8th gen content is ports of 7th gen games. Not unlike Minecraft, old content still selling great.
Gamepass wasn't nearly as big of a deal in the early days of SoT. So, there probably are a lot of sales on XB.
Regardless, its the type of game that keeps people engaged long term. That keeps people subscribed to Gamepass and XBL. And, that is ultimately what MS cares about.
I think its a combo of constantly adding new content and games that keep people engaged. Which is why MS bought many studios produce many types of games.
Yes, for sure. While It has always been optimal to have a fairly steady release schedule, now I'd say that is critical for XB. Doesn't necessarily have to be new games all the time, but it does have to be new content in games that people care about. There has to be a compelling reason to maintain a subscription to game pass. While it's definitely a great deal, $180 per year is a significant step up from $60 a year that people are used to paying for Xbox live.
And when talking about gamepass subscription even adding more content to games is almost as good as releasing new games.
Whats's the campaing mode like?
Sea of Thieves is a great example of what you can accomplish if you (with apologies to Galaxy Quest) "Never give up, never surrender!". The developers kept slogging away at it with updates and new content drops, and made it an unexpectedly huge success.
Sea of Thieves is easily Rare's most successful game!
It's hard to think out of Rare's amazing catalogue of games, especially their N64 days, that their best selling game was Goldeneye at 8 million units. You'd think for how legendary their games were that more units would've sold, but Sea of Thieves is by far their biggest success! Congrats on an epic turnaround.
Congratulations on the legs.
Loved this game, still do. The journey and memories you get playing this game, either good or bad are always fun to look back on. Well done Rare. Looking forward to thier next project.
