Rare confirms Sea of Thieves has had over 5 million players

Sea of Thieves might have burned brightly and disappeared from much of the usual online discourse, but it’s not suffering from a lack of popularity: Rare confirmed its swashbuckling multiplayer title has been played by over five million people since its March launch.

The announcement came alongside the launch of Cursed Sails, the game’s second free major content update – available now on Xbox One and Windows, of course.

Joe Neate, executive producer at Rare, wrote in the post; “Being able to share that we’ve welcomed more than five million players to Sea of Thieves since launch is both inspiring and humbling… Seeing our creative community embrace the possibilities that Sea of Thieves presents is an inspiration to everyone at the studio, and on behalf of us all at Rare, I’d like to thank everyone who’s been a part of this amazing adventure.”

Neate also pointed out Sea of Thieves’ impact on video and streaming sites, with the game enjoying more than 40 million hours broadcast live on Twitch, and 300 million views on Youtube for videos related to the game.

It isn’t specified exactly when the 5 million figure was reached, but it was back in March – not long after the game released – that Sea of Thieves broke the 2 million player barrier. It looks like the strategy of adding Microsoft’s exclusive titles to the £8 a month Xbox Game Pass has been a solid decision.