Last updated: November 12, 2026. Live Steam data from SteamCharts, captured November 12, 2026. This page is refreshed at least once a month and after every season launch.
On November 12, 2026, SteamCharts showed 1,166 people playing Sea of Thieves on Steam, which makes the game look much quieter than it is. Steam is only one storefront for a crossplay game that also runs on Xbox, the Microsoft Store, Game Pass and PlayStation 5, and Rare’s latest official milestone is 40 million lifetime players, announced in April 2024. Below you’ll find the latest Steam numbers, every month of 2026 compared with the same month of 2025, the full history since 2020, and what the figures mean for your next voyage.
Key takeaways
- Steam is the only platform with public live data, and its 30-day average of 2,978.1 players is the lowest SteamCharts has recorded for the game.
- From January to October 2026, Steam averaged 5,148.5 players, 19.8% below the same months of 2025 (6,417.3).
- Months without a big sale in either year are much closer: October 2026 was down 4.5%, and September 2026 was up 10.3% year over year.
- The 2026 Steam peak of 16,224 is about half of 2025’s 31,500, and both are far below the 2020 record of 66,632.
- Weekends average about 3.2K concurrent Steam players, against roughly 2.1K midweek.
Fact-checked
We checked these key facts against the sources named, on November 12, 2026:
- The PS5 version launched on April 30, 2024, alongside Season 12, with full crossplay (source: mp1st.com)
- October 2026 averaged 3,884.8 Steam players, 15.06% lower than September, with a peak of 9,638 (source: steamcharts.com)
- Rare announced Custom Seas in July 2025 as a paid custom-server feature planned for early 2026 (source: mithrie.com)
- SteamCharts lists the all-time peak as 66,632, Tracker.gg as 66,716, and SteamDB as 66,906 on June 18, 2020 (source: steamdb.info)
- on February 17, 2025, the game hit its lowest-ever price of $13.99 (65% off), and the new players it brought in lifted both months (source: steamdb.info)
Sea of Thieves player count right now (November 2026)
On November 12, 2026, SteamCharts showed 1,166 players in game, a 24-hour peak of 3,509 and an all-time Steam peak of 66,632. These figures cover Steam only. Players on Xbox, the Microsoft Store, Game Pass and PS5 share the same servers but don’t appear in any public live count. The game isn’t dead, but Steam activity is at a record low for this point in the season.
| Metric | Figure | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Live Steam players | 1,166 | SteamCharts, Nov 12, 2026 |
| 24-hour Steam peak | 3,509 | SteamCharts, Nov 12, 2026 |
| Last 30 days, Steam average | 2,978.1 (down 23.34%) | SteamCharts, 30 days to Nov 12, 2026 |
| Last 30 days, Steam peak | 7,015 | SteamCharts, 30 days to Nov 12, 2026 |
| October 2026, Steam average | 3,884.8 (peak 9,638) | SteamCharts, Oct 2026 |
| All-time Steam peak | 66,632 | SteamCharts, June 2020 |
Live and 24-hour peak on Steam
Over a single day, the Steam count swings by about three to one. PlayerAuctions’ tracker logged between 1,025 and 3,561 players on November 11, 2026. Check at a quiet hour and the game looks far emptier than it feels during an evening session.
Last 30 days vs October 2026
October 2026 averaged 3,884.8 Steam players, 15.06% lower than September, with a peak of 9,638. The 30-day average to November 12 fell further, to 2,978.1. That’s the lowest monthly figure in SteamCharts’ history for the game, and it’s the honest headline. Late autumn is also the back half of Season 21, and every season sags at this stage.
Total players ever: 40 million (April 2024)
Rare announced on April 17, 2024 that Sea of Thieves had passed 40 million players across Xbox, Windows and Steam. The announcement came before the PS5 launch, so PS5 players aren’t in that number. Microsoft and Rare haven’t published a newer total. Any page that lists “30 million subscribers” is out of date, and “subscribers” is the wrong word for a buy-to-play game anyway.
Player count by platform: Steam, Xbox, Microsoft Store and PS5
Only Steam publishes live concurrency, so Steam charts show just one part of a playerbase that sails together through crossplay. Microsoft doesn’t release live counts for Xbox consoles, the Xbox app on Windows or Game Pass, and Sony doesn’t release them for PS5. Every figure beyond Steam comes from milestones, store charts or press reporting.
| Platform | Public live data? | Best available figure | Source and period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam (PC) | Yes | 1,166 live; 2,978.1 30-day average | SteamCharts, Nov 2026 |
| Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One | No | Counted in Rare’s 40M total | Rare, April 2024 |
| Windows (Microsoft Store, Xbox app, PC Game Pass) | No | Counted in Rare’s 40M total | Rare, April 2024 |
| PlayStation 5 | No | Best-selling PS5 game on PS Store, US/Canada and EU | PlayStation Store charts via Pure Xbox, May 2024 |
| PlayStation 5 (sales) | No | Reported 1M+ copies sold | Windows Central, unnamed sources, 2024 |
Steam (the only public live data)
Valve publishes concurrent player counts for every Steam app. SteamDB, SteamCharts and Tracker.gg all read that feed, which explains why their numbers differ slightly. SteamCharts lists the all-time peak as 66,632, Tracker.gg as 66,716, and SteamDB as 66,906 on June 18, 2020. Each site samples at different intervals, so whichever caught the busiest minute shows the highest number. None of them is wrong.
The Steam store page now calls the game “Sea of Thieves: 2026 Edition”. The edition name changes every year, but the app ID stays 1172620, so the history carries straight through.
Xbox, Windows and Game Pass
The game launched on March 20, 2018 on Xbox One and Windows PC. Rare built it on Unreal Engine and Xbox Game Studios published it, with Xbox Game Pass access from day one. That gave Xbox and the Microsoft Store more than two years of players before the Steam release on June 3, 2020, and Game Pass has kept bringing in new players since. Microsoft publishes no live breakdown, so nobody outside the company knows how many people play on Xbox. The most anyone can say is that the Xbox and Windows audience is large and long-established.
PlayStation 5 since April 30, 2024
The PS5 version launched on April 30, 2024, alongside Season 12, with full crossplay. It topped the European PlayStation Store chart in April 2024. In May 2024, its first full month, it was the best-selling PS5 game on the PS Store in both US/Canada and Europe, according to PlayStation’s download charts as reported by Pure Xbox. Windows Central reported, citing unnamed sources, that PS5 sales passed 1 million copies. That’s credible reporting, but Sony has never confirmed it, so it isn’t an official figure.
Why there’s no official all-platform live count
Platform holders treat engagement data as commercially sensitive, and Microsoft prefers milestone announcements to live dashboards. Sales trackers such as Circana report dollar sales, not players in game. That gap lets unreliable figures spread. Here’s how much weight each type of source deserves:
- Official (trust): Rare’s lifetime milestones and Steam’s live concurrency.
- Proven reporting (trust with care): Windows Central’s 1M+ PS5 sales figure, which rests on unnamed sources.
- Unverifiable estimates (ignore): activeplayer.io’s “70k to 90k daily” and “150k concurrent” claims, which come with no stated method. The same applies to “2 to 3 million monthly active users” figures that circulate without a source.
- Algorithmic guesses (ignore): PlayerAuctions’ “Google Data” count of 21,852 comes from a Google Trends model, not a measurement. The same site sells accounts, which breaks the game’s terms. Other tracker sites have published 2024 Steam peaks above 102,000, and no Steam data supports that.
Some players suggest using Emissary ledgers to measure the population. The idea makes sense, but ledgers only rank crews that raised an Emissary flag for a particular faction during a particular period. They measure a dedicated subset of players, not the whole playerbase.
Sea of Thieves player count in 2026, month by month
On Steam, 2026 opened strong with a January average of 6,212.1. Monthly averages stayed between 4,561.7 and 5,794.6 through the summer, then slid through autumn to 3,884.8 in October. Each rise lines up with a season launch or a free weekend, and each fall comes in the quiet middle of a season.
| Month (2026) | Avg. Steam players | Change vs prior month | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6,212.1 | Year’s high | Peak 16,224, the top concurrency of 2026 |
| February | 5,185.7 | -16.5% | Post-holiday cooldown |
| March | 5,394.0 | +4.0% | Season 19 launched March 19 |
| April | 5,708.1 | +5.8% | Season 19 in full swing |
| May | 4,561.7 | -20.1% | Mid-season slump |
| June | 5,794.6 | +27.0% | Season 20 and free Custom Seas, June 18 |
| July | 5,461.8 | -5.7% | Most players stayed while Custom Seas was new |
| August | 4,708.5 | -13.8% | Late-season fade |
| September | 4,573.5 | -2.9% | Season 21 and Free Play Weekend, Sept 17; peak 14,220 |
| October | 3,884.8 | -15.1% | Update 3.9.1 (Oct 22), Community Weekend; peak 9,638 |
| Last 30 days to Nov 12 | 2,978.1 | -23.3% | Lowest monthly average on record; peak 7,015 |
What spiked: January, June and September
January’s peak of 16,224 is the highest Steam concurrency of 2026, which is normal after holiday sales and gifted copies. June had the biggest month-on-month gain of the year, +27.03%, when Season 20 launched Custom Seas on June 18. September’s average barely moved, but its peak of 14,220 shows how many lapsed players came back for the Season 21 launch, which overlapped with a cross-platform Free Play Weekend from September 17 to 21.
What dropped: May, August, October and November
May fell 20% in the middle of Season 19, and August fell almost 14% late in Season 20. October and the first half of November fell hardest. Season 21 added saved Custom Seas layouts and a trial removal of the “Dive To” option. It also removed Raid Voyages, which some crews had used as an on-demand gold loop. Losing a fast-travel shortcut and a favourite grind can push players away during the quiet weeks between events.
Veteran's tip
Judge the game’s health year over year, not month over month. Every season has a launch spike and a mid-season slump, so comparing October with September mostly tells you where you are in the season cycle.
2026 vs 2025: year-over-year comparison by month
Across January to October, 2026 averaged 5,148.5 Steam players, against 6,417.3 for the same ten months of 2025. That’s a 19.8% fall. Month by month, though, the gap ranges from a 10.3% gain to a 39.8% loss, and the biggest losses line up with 2025’s record-low sale rather than with anything Rare did in 2026.
| Month | 2025 avg. (Steam) | 2026 avg. (Steam) | YoY change | 2026 season or event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6,230.5 | 6,212.1 | -0.3% | Holiday carry-over |
| February | 8,619.3 | 5,185.7 | -39.8% | Post-holiday cooldown (2025 had the $13.99 sale) |
| March | 8,820 | 5,394.0 | -38.8% | Season 19, March 19 |
| April | 5,967 | 5,708.1 | -4.3% | Season 19 |
| May | 6,797 | 4,561.7 | -32.9% | Season 19, mid-season |
| June | 6,220.5 | 5,794.6 | -6.8% | Season 20 and Custom Seas, June 18 |
| July | 7,230 | 5,461.8 | -24.5% | Season 20 |
| August | 6,073 | 4,708.5 | -22.5% | Season 20, late |
| September | 4,147 | 4,573.5 | +10.3% | Season 21 and Free Play Weekend, Sept 17 |
| October | 4,068.5 | 3,884.8 | -4.5% | Season 21, update 3.9.1 |
| November | 3,805 | 2,978.1 (30 days to Nov 12) | -21.7% (partial) | Season 21 |
| December | 5,333 | Not yet available | n/a | Season 21 expected to end late December |
| Jan–Oct average | 6,417.3 | 5,148.5 | -19.8% | |
| Full-year average | 6,109.2 | Not yet available | n/a |
All values are SteamCharts monthly averages. The 2025 figures for March, April, May, July, August, September, November and December are rounded to the nearest whole player. YoY change is the 2026 average divided by the 2025 average, minus one. The yearly averages are simple means of the monthly averages. The November row compares a 30-day window with a full calendar month, so treat it as an early signal only.
Where 2026 held up
In four months (January, April, June and October), 2026 finished within 7% of 2025. September 2026 was the only month that beat its 2025 counterpart. Season 21’s launch and the Free Play Weekend both fell inside September, while 2025’s September had no comparable boost. In these months, the core playerbase has hardly moved.
Where 2026 fell behind
The steepest losses came in February and March, which is no surprise: on February 17, 2025, the game hit its lowest-ever price of $13.99 (65% off), and the new players it brought in lifted both months. If you take February and March out of both years, the Jan–Oct gap narrows from -19.8% to -12.5% (5,113.1 against 5,841.7). Even with the sale stripped out, May, July and August 2026 still ran 22% to 33% behind 2025. That’s the summer softness to watch in 2027.
Did you know?
According to SteamCharts, September 2026 was the only month of the year to beat its 2025 equivalent, averaging 4,573.5 Steam players against 4,147 a year earlier.
Player count graph and history since 2020
Sea of Thieves had its biggest Steam numbers in its first month on the platform. Peaks have fallen unevenly since then: June 2021 came close to the record, 2023 beat 2022, 2024 and 2025 settled a little above 30,000, and the 2026 peak was roughly half of that.
Annual peaks and averages
| Year | Highest monthly peak (Steam) | Peak month | Sample monthly averages | Main driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 66,632 | June | Steam launch month | Steam release, June 3 |
| 2021 | 62,889 | June | Dec 13,038.9 | A Pirate’s Life, June 22 (January also peaked at 52,916) |
| 2022 | 36,840 | January | Oct 7,960.3 | Holiday carry-over |
| 2023 | 41,364 | March | Jan 12,140.0; Oct 11,620.5 | Season 9 and fifth anniversary, March 16 |
| 2024 | 32,905 | May | Jan 11,178.0; May 14,081; Nov 5,838.6 | PS5 launch (April 2024 peaked at 32,123), then a long fade |
| 2025 | 31,500 | February | Feb 8,619.3; Oct 4,068.5; full-year mean 6,109.2 | Record-low $13.99 sale |
| 2026 | 16,224 | January | Jan 6,212.1; Oct 3,884.8; Jan–Oct mean 5,148.5 | Season 20 Custom Seas, Season 21 |
All figures are SteamCharts monthly rows. Peaks record the single busiest moment of the month, while averages give mean concurrency across the month, so the two columns measure different things. For the long-term trend, the averages matter more.
That answers a common community question: if the Steam count looked healthy from 2021 to 2024, why has it dropped so much since August 2024? The big numbers people remember are monthly peaks, and the everyday averages tell another story. They rose from 7,960.3 in October 2022 to 11,620.5 in October 2023, then fell to 5,838.6 by November 2024 and 3,884.8 by October 2026. Some of the 2024 decline is players moving platform: many new players in mid-2024 joined on PS5, where Steam can’t count them.
Did you know?
The all-time Steam record of 66,632 nearly fell a year after it was set. In June 2021, the month A Pirate’s Life brought Jack Sparrow to the game, SteamCharts logged 62,889 concurrent players, about 3,700 short of the 2020 peak.
Biggest spikes and their causes
| Date | Event | Steam effect |
|---|---|---|
| March 20, 2018 | Launch on Xbox One and Windows | Not on Steam yet |
| June 3, 2020 | Steam release | All-time peak 66,632 in June 2020 |
| June 22, 2021 | A Pirate’s Life, Season 3 | June 2021 peak 62,889 |
| March 16, 2023 | Season 9, fifth anniversary and 2023 Edition | March 2023 peak 41,364, above every 2022 month |
| April 30, 2024 | PS5 launch with Season 12 and crossplay | May 2024 peak 32,905, average 14,081 |
| February 17, 2025 | Lowest price ever, $13.99 (65% off) | February 2025 peak 31,500, average 8,619.3 |
| July 2025 | Everwild cancelled; paid custom servers announced | No clear Steam spike |
| June 18, 2026 | Season 20 launches free Custom Seas | June +27% month on month |
| September 17, 2026 | Season 21 and Free Play Weekend | September peak 14,220; only month up year over year |
Is Sea of Thieves dying? An honest read
No, but it is shrinking on Steam. The first ten months of 2026 averaged 19.8% fewer Steam players than the same months of 2025, and the latest 30-day average is a record low. Rare is still shipping seasons on schedule, and in months without a big sale in either year, the gap is under 7%. The servers have fewer players than before, but they aren’t empty.
Year-over-year, not month-over-month
October 2026 averaged 3,884.8 Steam players, against 4,068.5 in October 2025. That 4.5% drop is far milder than the -15% and -23% month-over-month figures that make the headlines. Tracker.gg’s “down 49%” style figures compare one day’s peak with a date 30 days earlier. That window often spans a season launch, so the drop looks much worse than it is.
The honest counter-argument is the yearly trend. Year to date, the decline is close to a fifth. Once the February 2025 sale is stripped out, the gap is still 12.5%, and the 2026 peak is about half of 2025’s. A low-price sale or a strong Season 22 could close some of that gap. History shows a recovery is possible: the March 2023 bump came after a weak 2022.
Custom Seas and private sessions
Rare announced Custom Seas in July 2025 as a paid custom-server feature planned for early 2026. It launched with Season 20 instead. A session holds up to 24 players in as many as six crews. Hosts set the rules, and other players join by invite or with a five-digit code.
Custom Seas affects population in two ways. Steam still counts everyone in Custom Seas, so the feature doesn’t hide anyone from the charts. But those players aren’t on the public High Seas, so the open-world servers feel emptier even when the overall total holds up. You can’t earn Reputation or Renown in Custom Seas (except for the Season 20 Custom Seas deeds), and live events are turned off there. That keeps progression-focused crews on the public seas and limits the drain.
Did you know?
Tech Times reported that Custom Seas was first announced as a paid private-server feature. When it shipped on June 18, 2026, every owner got it for free.
Rare’s commitment after the 2025 layoffs
In July 2025, Microsoft’s Xbox layoffs hit Rare Ltd and Everwild was cancelled. Rare then held a Community Direct to lay out the future of Sea of Thieves. Executive producer Joe Neate’s team has kept up the seasonal schedule since, with Season 19 in March, Season 20 in June and Season 21 in September 2026, plus updates such as 3.9.1 on October 22, which added outfit saving. A studio winding a game down doesn’t build new systems like Custom Seas or layout saving. Community trackers expect Season 21 to end around December 29, 2026, though Rare hasn’t confirmed the date.
Veteran's tip
Come back in the first weeks of a new season. Season 21 is expected to end around late December 2026, so the public servers will be busiest when Season 22 launches.
What the numbers mean when you’re on the water
On a typical public High Seas session, expect a few other ships on your server. You’ll see more on weekends and in the evening, and fewer on a Tuesday afternoon. Going hours without seeing a sail is unusual. When it happens off-peak, server timing and luck are the usual causes, not an empty game.
Best times to find PvP and other crews
Tracker.gg’s weekday averages for the past month show a clear weekly pattern:
| Day | Avg. concurrent Steam players |
|---|---|
| Sunday | 3.2K |
| Monday | 2.2K |
| Tuesday | 2.1K |
| Wednesday | 2.3K |
| Thursday | 2.1K |
| Friday | 2.4K |
| Saturday | 3.2K |
Weekends are about 50% busier than midweek. Crossplay puts Xbox and PS5 players on the same servers, so the same weekly pattern almost certainly holds across platforms. The daily swing is just as large: on November 11, the busiest hour had more than three times the players of the quietest. For PvP, Fort of Fortune runs or Reaper’s Bones hunts, plan around weekend evenings in your region.
Solo slooping in a quieter sea
On a quieter sea, you have a better chance of finishing a voyage before anyone turns up, which is a real advantage for solo sailors. Each mode suits a different kind of player:
| Mode | Rewards and progression | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| High Seas | Full rewards, PvP, world events | Crews who want encounters; population matters most here |
| Safer Seas | PvE only, reduced rewards, capped progression | New players learning the ropes |
| Custom Seas | No Reputation or Renown; live events off | Friends or community groups who want guaranteed company |
If your crew struggles to find activity, the most reliable way to fill a server is a Custom Seas session with a Discord community. It works much like a guild booking a raid night.
Is Sea of Thieves worth buying or coming back to in 2026?
Yes, if you play with at least one friend or enjoy social sandbox games. There are enough players for regular encounters, the reviews are strong, and new content keeps arriving. The game lists at $39.99 on Steam. According to SteamDB, its record low was $13.99 (65% off) on February 17, 2025, and user reviews stand at 87.75% positive from about 374,000 reviews.
As a Microsoft first-party game, it’s included with Xbox Game Pass on Xbox and PC, so check your tier before buying. Returning players will find a lot that’s new since 2024: the Season 20 Custom Seas toolset, saved layouts and new commands in Season 21, the Chest of Fortune appearing in world events, and outfit saving from 3.9.1.
There’s a fair case against buying now, though. If you mostly play solo and want constant PvP, late-season weekdays in 2026 will feel slow. In that case, wait for the next season launch or a sale. To see where the crowds are right now, compare it with the most played MMOs on Steam.
Heads up
Online play on consoles normally needs Game Pass on Xbox or PlayStation Plus on PS5. Free Play Weekends are the exception. Game Pass tiers and Steam prices change often, so check the store before you pay.
What to watch next
The next real test is January 2027. If Season 22 and the holiday sales lift the Steam average back above January 2026’s 6,212.1, the autumn dip was the normal season cycle. If January lands well below that, the 19.8% year-to-date decline is the trend, and the summer 2026 gap against 2025 was an early warning. This page will add November’s full-month figure in early December and the Season 22 launch numbers once the season goes live.
FAQ
How many people play Sea of Thieves right now?
On November 12, 2026, SteamCharts showed 1,166 players on Steam, with a 24-hour peak of 3,509. Players on other platforms share the same servers but aren’t publicly counted, so the real number online is higher.
Is Sea of Thieves still popular in 2026?
Yes. It holds 87.75% positive Steam reviews and peaked at 16,224 concurrent Steam players in January 2026, though its Steam numbers are lower than in any earlier year.
Is Sea of Thieves dying?
No. Steam play is shrinking, with January to October 2026 averaging 19.8% below the same months of 2025, but October was only 4.5% down year over year and Rare shipped three seasons in 2026.
How does 2026 compare with 2025?
January to October 2026 averaged 5,148.5 Steam players, against 6,417.3 in 2025. The biggest gaps were February (-39.8%) and March (-38.8%), when 2025 was boosted by the $13.99 record-low sale. September 2026 was the only month up year over year, at +10.3%.
Is Sea of Thieves still active?
Yes. Season 21 launched with update 3.9.0 on September 17, 2026, followed by 3.9.1 on October 22 and a Community Weekend from October 23 to 26.
How many people play Sea of Thieves on Xbox?
Microsoft doesn’t publish Xbox-only figures. The game has been on Xbox and Game Pass since March 2018, so Xbox players are almost certainly a large share of the total.
What is the Sea of Thieves player count on PS5?
Sony publishes no count. In May 2024, the PS5 version was the PS Store’s best-selling PS5 game in US/Canada and Europe, and Windows Central reported more than 1 million PS5 sales, citing unnamed sources.
What is the Sea of Thieves player count on all platforms?
No official live figure covers every platform. Any “all-platform concurrent” number on a tracker site is an estimate.
Steam shows 4k players online, is that everyone?
No. Steam is one of several storefronts, and the game was on Xbox and Windows for more than two years before it reached Steam. Steam very likely accounts for a minority of active players.
What was Sea of Thieves’ highest player count?
The Steam record is 66,632 concurrent players in June 2020, per SteamCharts. SteamDB records 66,906 on June 18, 2020 because it sampled at a different moment.
How many total players does Sea of Thieves have?
More than 40 million as of April 17, 2024, according to Rare. That figure doesn’t include PS5, so the real total today is higher.
How often is this page updated?
At least once a month and after every season launch. Each update refreshes the live table, the monthly and year-over-year rows, and the key takeaways.
Has anyone 100% completed Sea of Thieves?
For the original achievement list, yes. Guinness World Records lists Xbox player Zyx as the first person to earn all 60 Sea of Thieves achievements, on November 17, 2018, after about 2,000 hours. Nobody can complete every commendation now. Arena commendations can’t be earned since Arena was retired in 2022, rewards from time-limited events and past seasons have expired, and Rare adds new commendations every season. The in-game Reputation menu lists everything still available. For most players, Pirate Legend and Athena’s Fortune progression are the long-term goals worth chasing.
Update log
- November 12, 2026: Refreshed the live, 24-hour and 30-day Steam figures. Added October 2026 data, a full 2025 vs 2026 month-by-month comparison and yearly mean averages, and replaced rounded history values with exact SteamCharts figures.
- Next scheduled refresh: Early December 2026 for November’s full-month average, then again at the Season 22 launch.
