Launching for Xbox One and PC back in 2018, Sea of Thieves didn't exactly set the world on fire upon its debut, with critics and audiences sharing their disappointment with the title's limited gameplay loop. In the months since, Rare has done everything in its power to make up for what was initially quite a slow start, adding new objectives, missions, and pets, with the promise that even more is set to come throughout 2021.
It seems this year's slate of updates could debut to a bigger crowd than expected, with the number of Sea of Thieves players on Steam rising exponentially over the last two weeks. In fact, the Steam game is currently experiencing the highest recorded number of players since the week the game made its way onto Valve's seminal PC marketplace in early June last year.
From December 22 until now, the number of players logging into the game has jumped from roughly 10,000 to 50,000, with January 2 seeing a whopping 53,347 pirates sailing the game's high seas. The reason behind Sea of Thieves' sudden success seems to be the Steam Winter Sale, which saw the game discounted along with a number of other significant titles. The popular annual promotion was likely a big draw for the open-world multiplayer pirate game, luring in players who were waiting for a price drop before officially setting sail. Considering Rare was clear that 2021 would be a huge year for the game, those new players will no doubt be in for some fresh adventures alongside their team of trusty crewmates.
As for Sea of Thieves itself, the game has made some big changes recently, with Rare announcing early last month that Sea of Thieves will be shifting to seasonal content rather than its regular monthly updates. This will begin with a Merchant Alliance Voyage content drop that starts later this month, tasking players with working together to discover a lost shipwreck with plenty of treasure to plunder. There will also be a new "Plunder Pass," which is an optional addition similar in format to the ever-popular battle passes of games like Fortnite and Call of Duty.
Outside of Sea of Thieves, Steam has been seeing some very interesting shifts in trends at the moment. For one, Cyberpunk 2077's numbers have dropped dramatically over the last few days, with the game losing 79% of its player base in the time since launch. As many will no doubt know, the game has had one of the roughest launches of the generation, with players reporting a laundry list of game-breaking bugs and technical issues.
Sea of Thieves is out now on PC and Xbox One.
Source: Steam Database