Updated

Updated · Tech Times · Jun 19

Sea of Thieves Opens Season 20 Custom Seas to 40 Million Players After Dropping Paid Plan

Updated

Updated · Tech Times · Jun 19

Sea of Thieves Opens Season 20 Custom Seas to 40 Million Players After Dropping Paid Plan

Q: After making its sandbox mode free, how will Sea of Thieves fund this feature's future development?

Sea of Thieves is expected to fund Custom Seas indirectly, by using the free mode to boost overall engagement and then monetizing that larger, more active player base through the game’s existing business model. Rare had originally planned Custom Seas as a paid subscription feature, but reversed that decision in March 2026 and made it free at launch in Season 20. The rationale, based on Rare’s own messaging and the broader rollout, is that wider access should create a bigger and more stable community around the mode, giving it better long-term prospects than a paywall would. That means future development is likely to be supported not by Custom Seas charging users directly, but by the extra time players spend in Sea of Thieves and the new players the mode may attract. If Custom Seas succeeds as a social and creative tool, it can help retention across the wider game, which in turn supports revenue from the Pirate Emporium’s cosmetic sales and from the seasonal model, including optional paid progression. The mode itself does not offer progression rewards such as gold, reputation or commendations, and there is no creator revenue-sharing system. So its value to Rare is strategic rather than transactional: keeping Sea of Thieves fresh as a platform, encouraging community-made experiences, and strengthening the game’s long-term commercial ecosystem rather than selling the sandbox mode on its own.

3 articles · Updated · Tech Times · Jun 19

Season 20 went live at 10:00 UTC, making Custom Seas free for all Sea of Thieves players across Xbox, PlayStation 5 and PC after Rare scrapped its planned subscription model in March.
Rare said Insiders testing showed a paywall would limit the mode’s potential, prompting a shift toward broader access for a toolset built around private servers, admin controls and player-made game modes.
Custom Seas lets hosts assign crews, alter weather and time, spawn NPCs and treasure, set scoreboards and win conditions, and use a free camera, but it disables progression such as commendations and reputation.
Season 20 also adds Raid Voyages for direct access to world events and boosts Chest of Fortune drops, while Twitch Drops start June 19 and a Community Weekend runs June 26-29.
The launch is Rare’s biggest structural change since the 2021 seasonal model, betting user-generated content can extend a live-service game that had reached 40 million registered players before its PS5 expansion.