Sea of Thieves attracted 4.8 million players in record month, Rare claims

Sea of Thieves attracted a record number of monthly players in July 2021, according to its developer Rare.

The Microsoft-owned studio claimed on Tuesday that 4.8 million people played the nautical adventure game last month, the most since its release almost two-and-a-half-years ago.

The game’s record player numbers were driven by the launch of a Pirates of the Caribbean crossover which arrived alongside Season 3 on June 22.

Titled Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life, the free expansion sees Disney character Jack Sparrow appearing in an original story set across five tales.

Microsoft said in July 2020 that Sea of Thieves had been played by over 15 million people since launch, cementing the game’s place as “the most successful new IP from Xbox this generation”.

At the time it said June 2020 was Sea of Thieves’ biggest month to date, with the game reaching over 3.3 million players.

The pirate-themed co-op multiplayer game released for Xbox One and PC in March 2018, when it became the first exclusive title from Microsoft to launch on Xbox Game Pass day-and-date with its retail release.

It has since been optimised for Xbox Series X/S. In addition to improved loading times, it runs at 4K and 60fps on Xbox Series X, and at 1080p and 60fps on Xbox Series S.

A new seasonal progression system was added to the game in January 2021.