Sea of Thieves Keeps Proving Its Popularity

Unlike most Sea of Thieves players, I originally bought Sea of Thieves on disc. A friend was super excited about the game and needed friends to play with. I should also mention that he’s a massive Pirates of the Caribbean fan. While we all obliged and enjoyed the game, he was the only one who believed in the game’s long-term popularity. The rest of us weren’t sold due to the game’s then lack of content and middling reviews on release.

My, oh my, were the rest of us ever so wrong, and A Pirate’s Life confirms it…again.

A Pirate’s Life is a Huge Crossover for Sea of Thieves

For those who missed Xbox and Bethesda’s conference last week, Xbox pirates are getting a massive update. A Pirate’s Life brings Pirates of the Caribbean content and major lore-featured factions to Sea of Thieves. This update doesn’t stop at just featuring Captain Jack Sparrow.

A Pirate’s Life features Captain Sparrow’s first mate, Gibbs, the villainous Davy Jones, and his ship, the Flying Dutchman. Further, Captain Sparrow actually helps your player during brand new Tall Tales, Sea of Thieves’ story missions. Rare did not stop there for A Pirate’s Life. There’s a lot of gameplay based on existing concepts in their pirate game.

Last week’s release trailer also featured crab-based monsters called Ocean Crawlers and merpeople, namely Sirens, fighting pirates. There are also ghost pirates, coral-infested creatures, and more coming in this update. Enemies aside, players can also expect two new areas to explore: the Sea of the Damned and the Sunken Kingdom.

Rare Earned this Chance with Pirates of the Caribbean

Every year since that March release, Rare keeps showing why their pirate sandbox has exploded. In its first year, it added the Megalodon shark monster, skeleton piloted ships, volcanic islands, and more. This first year capped off with a massive anniversary update that introduced Tall Tales, competitive multiplayer mode, and the most requested feature, fishing.

In year two, players got more Tall Tales in The Seabound Soul and Heart of Fire. Before its second anniversary, Sea of Thieves broke 10 million players all time. Right after said anniversary, the game came to Steam and then broke 15 million players.

This game just keeps getting bigger and keeps proving why it deserves to be that big. Not only does Rare develop very good additional content for the game, but they also listened to their fans. Rare added many requested features (see above), but they also adjusted to make reasonable changes. When the brigantine was first revealed back in 2018, everyone asked why its crow’s nest would be on the shorter mast. The team quickly moved it over to the taller mast.

Sea of Thieves’ growth has been explosive. Xbox marketed the game heavily at launch because Rare was committed to the game’s ten-year plan. Now Disney knocked on their door in Twycross with the biggest pirate-related franchise in tow.

Congratulations, Rare. Your pirate success is well earned.

Writer’s note: All screenshots used for this article came from this press release for A Pirate’s Life.