June was a very good month for Sea of Thieves. Not only did the biggest pirate game in recent memory surpass a total of 15 million players, it also reported its highest-ever monthly active player count, with 3.3 million unique users playing the game in the month of June.
Upon release Sea of Thieves was met with middling reviews. While the core gameplay was solid, and the setting was unique, both fans and critics alike found the game to be rather thin, lacking deeper content to extend the game's replayability. The game seemed destined to be a footnote in gaming history, a rare miss from developer Rare.
However, Sea of Thieves refused to stay dead. Rare has regularly updated it, adding all sorts of improvements to Sea of Thieves, and a huge amount of content, including new missions, gear, enemies, PVP, and quality of life improvements. The game is far more enjoyable now than it was at launch, and clearly, players have picked up on this.
Sea of Thieves also has another thing going for it right now - most players are quarantining at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. While the outbreak has been brutal to both the games industry and the economy as a whole, some games, like Pokemon GO, have seen an increase in playtime and sales thanks to gamers being stuck at home.
Sea of Thieves is out now for Xbox One and PC.