Sea of Thieves sails to 40 million players ahead of PS5 launch

Rare's Sea of Thieves comes to PlayStation 5 at the end of the month, having amassed 40 million players in its lifetime.

Per executive producer Joe Neate, the game's "amazing" milestone covers all three versions on Xbox (One and Series X|S), Windows, and Steam. It's unclear how that translates into sales, given its prominence on Xbox Game Pass.

In 2020, Microsoft reported that Sea of Thieves had 10 million players and dubbed it the studio's most successful new IP. 40 million is fairly high for a six-year-old game and supports Microsoft's reasoning for taking it to PS5.

When Microsoft first unveiled its multiplatform plans in February, Sea of Thieves was described as a "community-driven" title. PlayStation's community can boast some pretty high numbers themselves, which will likely help extend the game's lifecycle.

A game's player count tends to surge during specific events, like a new expansion or the launch of a new mode. As Xbox's first PlayStation game, Sea of Thieves may get its own spike, particularly with cross-play between all systems enabled.