Sea of Thieves has now been played by over 40 million people, according to developer Rare.
The Microsoft-owned studio announced the new player milestone on Wednesday, ahead of the launch of Season 12 and the game’s PS5 release on April 30.
The pirate-themed co-op multiplayer game was originally 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.
Microsoft said in July 2020 that Sea of Thieves had been played by over 15 million people, cementing its place as Xbox’s “most successful new IP” of the last console generation.
“40 million players across Xbox, Windows 10 and Steam is an amazing milestone to be able to talk about, and of course it wouldn’t have happened without you – our brilliant, positive and welcoming community, who continue to surprise and impress us with your creativity and antics out on the waves,” said Joe Neate, executive producer at Rare on Sea of Thieves.
“That said, I also want to take this opportunity to offer heartfelt thanks to the team, who’ve worked so hard to deliver over a hundred free updates since launch and have plenty more excitement and innovation on the horizon. Season 12 is almost here, and the new additions like throwing knives and the Bone Caller are going to transform our sandbox yet again.
“I’m also excited about getting to expand our community even further, as we’re just days away from launching on PlayStation 5 and introducing a whole new plethora of pirates to our shared world,” he continued. “The positivity and excitement coming out of our Closed Beta was infectious, and I can’t wait for even more fresh faces to arrive starting next week.”
In February, Microsoft delivered an Xbox business update which confirmed reports that it’s planning to bring more first-party games to PlayStation and/or Nintendo Switch, in the form of Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves and Grounded.