Rare found a hit on its hands with Sea of Thieves, a live-service adventure game where players explore the seven seas as jolly pirates. While the launch of Sea of Thieves was notable for being Rare’s first new IP launch in years, the release was also a big coming out for Xbox Game Pass, the debut of Microsoft allowing subscribers day one access to Xbox first party games like Sea of Thieves for $9.99 a month.
So when Sea of Thieves became a hit, it was interesting to see how Game Pass may have contributed to Sea of Thieves’ success. But according to Rare producer Joe Neate, the real driver of players to Sea of Thieves was another in-house Microsoft app: Mixer, along with streaming services in general.
Source: N4G PC Sea of Thieves Owes Its Success to More Than Just Xbox Game Pass, Rare Says