Sea of Thieves Season One Takes to Open Waters January 28

The inaugural season of Sea of Thieves is scheduled to arrive on January 28, according to Rare, who shared the news to the official SoT Twitter account on January 21. The seasonal format marks a slight deviation of course for the nearly four-year-old swashbuckling action-adventure game, but it’s one that will bring more unique and shifting content to players over time. 

Rare shared a treasure trove of information on seasons back in Sea of Thieves‘ December news drop, stating that seasons would last three months, meaning that Season One should run from January 28 through April 28, 2021.

Seasons will include both free and premium battle passes, similarly to those found in games like Fortnite. There will be 100 levels to achieve, all with special rewards. The premium version of the battle pass is called the Plunder Pass and, of course, it allows players to get their hands on more exclusive rewards from the Pirate Emporium.

As of this writing, Rare did not share a price point for the premium tier, but it’s likely to be competitively priced with battle passes found in other live-service games. 

Mike Chapman, Sea of Thieves Creative Director, laid out Rare’s plan for these new seasons, saying:

Since July 2019, we’ve been updating the game as part of our monthly updates. And this has been really important for us because we want to expand the possibilities within Sea of Thieves, bringing new content to you, our players, new goals to strive for, and new rewards to attain.

After a year and a hald of updating the game that way, we’re moving to a new way. So from January, Seasons are coming to Sea of Thieves, with a few piratey twists.  

You can see more of what Chapman had to say about Sea of Thieves Seasons in the December update video below, starting at around 4:25. He talks about rewards, Pirate Legends, Twitch drops, renown progression, Emporium updates, live events, quality of life updates, a new Merchant Alliance Voyage experience, and a whole lot more. 

Sea of Thieves had its biggest year in 2020, with Rare saying some 11 million players took to the open waters for adventure and plunder. 

Back in 2019, we took a look at why Sea of Thieves is more relevant than ever, and that’s only become truer since. Stay tuned for more on SoT throughout 2021 as the game receives more updates.