Sea of Thieves sails to No. 1 on the Steam top sellers list

Originally released all the way back in December 2016, Sea of Thieves has only just today released on Steam, for the price of $39.99. Back when the game first came out, Microsoft was not releasing any of its games on Steam and was instead keeping them exclusive to their Xbox console and the Windows App Store. In the intervening years, Microsoft has mellowed out a bit, and have decided to start releasing games on Steam too. With titles like Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Gears 5 and State of Decay 2 being some of the first big first-party Xbox games to hit Steam with Microsoft’s return to the platform. Now it’s Sea Of Thieves’ turn, and despite being nearly four years old, and being available as part of a Game Pass subscription, plenty of people have turned up to buy this game on Steam day one.

It’s managed to hit the number one spot on the Steam top sellers list, and whilst we don’t know exactly what that means in terms of hard numbers since Valve does not share precise sales numbers for games on their store, taking the number one spot is a strong indication that the game is doing well on Steam. Perhaps this is a validation of Microsoft’s strategy of maintaining their own store, whilst also embracing the store that is the first preference for a great many PC gamers. It also perhaps suggests that the Windows App Store being the only option to get the game on PC simply led to a significant number of people who would have otherwise been interested in the game-deciding to pass on it. Or maybe even just never even hearing about the game. Microsoft is bound to be happy having two of the top three selling games on Steam right now, with Ori and the Will of the Wisps currently occupying the number three slot too.

Sea of Thieves is a multiplayer-centric online Pirate ‘Em Up, where you and several friends can take to the seas on a big pirate ship, explore islands or go hunting for buried treasure. It’s a game that is pleasant to enjoy some downtime in as you sail the beautifully rendered waves, or you can get into more engaging action with sword fights and blunderbusses.

Despite the game having been out for so long already, it is still getting great support from developer Rare, with monthly patches adding new features and functionality on a regular basis. If you tried it back around launch and didn’t find it particularly engrossing, it might be worth dipping back in to see how much has been changed or added.

Will you be picking this up now that it’s on Steam? Did you try any of the earlier versions of Sea of Thieves? Are there any other big Microsoft first-party games that you’re hoping to see get a Steam release sometime soon? Let us know in the comments.