The Loot Gaming’s writer shares his opinion that Sea of Thieves shares nothing in common with $60 AAA releases and that Microsoft had other options with their sales model in order to create a gaming platform with this title. It notes the success of the game in terms of player base but also shows that not only does this not translate to sales but it also doesn’t necessarily mean active players.
Source: N4G PC By treating Sea of Thieves as a AAA game, Microsoft failed it