By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Sea of Thieves Numbers

    • Sea of Thieves has been played by more than fifteen million players since launch in March 2018.

    • June 2020 was the biggest month so far for Sea of Thieves, with over 3.3 million players setting sail.

    • Sea of Thieves has sold over 1 million copies to date on Steam since its launch on June 3, 2020.

    • more people have played Sea of Thieves in the first six months of 2020 than those who played in the whole of 2019, which was more than 2018.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/07/20/sea-of-thieves-passes-15-million-players-since-launch/



Around the Network

Great success for an outstanding game!



Impressive, well done Rare.



This goes directly against the "Rare is dead under MS" narrative.

I demand this thread be locked immediately.



Congratulations to Rare for the success of Sea of Thieves, hopefully Everwild becomes a hit as well.



Proud to be a Californian.

Around the Network

I don’t think anybody expected this kind of turnaround. Really nothing like this game. Gives me great pleasure to say it’s their most successful game ever, take that jaded N64 Rare fans! Lol



Xbox: Best hardware, Game Pass best value, best BC, more 1st party genres and multiplayer titles. 

 

I'm curious does anybody know the time length it counts as 'being played'?

Like for Netflix, they stated that if someone watches a movie or show on Netflix for more than 2 minutes they count it as a view.



V-r0cK said:
I'm curious does anybody know the time length it counts as 'being played'?

Like for Netflix, they stated that if someone watches a movie or show on Netflix for more than 2 minutes they count it as a view.

Simply entering the game world counts as a play. I can imagine millions tried this game and wasn’t their cup of tea. But I feel this also applies to people who tried it and had a lot of fun. The beauty of GP is that people try games they normally wouldn’t have bought outright.

So while there’s many who barely played it and are part of the 15 million, we can now safely assume a healthy amount have sticked it out. 



Xbox: Best hardware, Game Pass best value, best BC, more 1st party genres and multiplayer titles. 

 

Sea of Thieves was created with creative freedom from Rare, and it turned out to be a gamble that landed success. Hopefully Rare will continue to have creative freedom in the future and EverWild looks set to continue with fresh new ideas.



sales2099 said:
V-r0cK said:
I'm curious does anybody know the time length it counts as 'being played'?

Like for Netflix, they stated that if someone watches a movie or show on Netflix for more than 2 minutes they count it as a view.

Simply entering the game world counts as a play. I can imagine millions tried this game and wasn’t their cup of tea. But I feel this also applies to people who tried it and had a lot of fun. The beauty of GP is that people try games they normally wouldn’t have bought outright.

So while there’s many who barely played it and are part of the 15 million, we can now safely assume a healthy amount have sticked it out. 

But I'm just really curious to what extent because sometimes the aim could be low just so companies can fluff the numbers. I'm not saying for Sea of Thieves but in general for all games etc.

Let's use Sea of Thieves for an example but I actually mean for all games in general when it comes to these 'being played' statistics.  Say Rare/MS used the same amount of time like Netflix does with 2 minutes into the game counts as play,  what if the introduction video of the game itself is over 2 min long so MS/Rare counts it, but do you yourself actually count that as being played when all you've done was watched the intro? (Obviously if you're watching the intro you'll likely be playing a bit afterwards too).

I've seen trophies where say a game sold, lets say 5M copies, but only say that only 80% of gamers achieved the first trophy of completing the very first chapter.  That means only 4M gamers have played it enough to finish the first chapter, which I would considered that as being played, while 1M gamers havent really played it.  I even think there was an Uncharted or Tomb Raider game trophy for getting the first treasure and that's like automatically at the very beginning that can't be missed and the trophy percentage wasn't even 100% for that.  So like there was quite a few people that didnt even actually try it at all but bought the game.

Sale numbers means the most since that's money earned and that's the best way to define it's success since people actually bought it.   But when i hear about a certain game was played this amount, or this game was downloaded this amount, I get a bit weary about that and feel they could be fluffing the numbers just to please the big heads.  'Downloading numbers' are also funny, cause like some games boast that it's been downloaded 'X' million times, but of course it has since it was free.  I've also downloaded a bunch of games cause it was either free to play or free on PS Plus but sometimes I just never even tried it and i delete it right after cause I realize i wasn't really interested and wanted to save storage space, so I personally dont think that should count for anything. 

Bottomline, I feel like there needs to be a clear standard that defines what is 'being played' is all.   

In my opinion, it should be like when you at least finished the first chapter or something along that line. 

Site note: My brother said he played the first The Last of Us for just 15min and he also said it sucked. 1) To me, 15 min isn't enough to say you played it.  2) He's also a complete idiot for judging a game when you've only played for 15min.