5 Best Video Games Like Sea Of Thieves

When it first launched in 2018, "Sea of Thieves" wasn't generally received well, with many players and critics citing its lack of content as a major disappointment. However, eight years later in 2026, "Sea of Thieves" is still going strong, with a healthy player base and more content available than ever. The developers at Rare have made perhaps the definitive pirate game of the era, and many players have continued to return to "Sea of Thieves" due to its multiplayer elements.

Regardless of your reasons for enjoying "Sea of Thieves," there are some other games out there that can offer a similar experience in one way or another. Whether you like the pirate aspect, the co-op elements, or the survival game loop on offer here, a few specific games can give you the same feeling as sailing the open seas with your ship. Below, you can see what these games are and how they stack up to Rare's (now PvE-welcoming) "Sea of Thieves."

If you're primarily a fan of "Sea of Thieves" for its pirate theme, then "Grounded" might not initially seem like a game you'd enjoy. However, it offers plenty of the same elements that "Sea of Thieves" does, just in a completely different setting. "Grounded" is a co-op survival game that places you in the shoes of a child who has been shrunken down to microscopic size. Either solo or in a group, you must figure out how to survive in your house's backyard, contending with large insects, puddles that have been turned into oceans, and massive trees that were once blades of grass.

One of the key components of "Grounded" is its crafting system, which allows you to make items used from specific resources that you find across the map. With these crafted items, you can take on new enemies, access different parts of the world, and progress your current objective. While this sounds like the normal survival gameplay loop, some of the items you have to obtain in "Grounded" require deep strategy and, if you're playing in co-op, teamwork with your party. "Grounded" also has a sequel, aptly named "Grounded 2," which offers a more modern version of the experience, but both games are worth playing in their own right.

"Valheim" is one of those survival games that came out of the gates hot and mostly kept its momentum all the way to the present. Released initially for early access in 2021, "Valheim" is still regarded as one of the best survival games on the market thanks to its in-depth and engrossing gameplay. Set in the heart of Norse mythology, "Valheim" is a Viking survival game that starts you off as a banished warrior who's desperate to prove themselves to the god Odin.

To do that, though, you need to craft progressively better gear so that you can slay bosses and gain the approval of the gods. The trick with this gameplay loop, however, is that "Valheim" is split up into completely distinct areas, and to slay each area's boss, you need to harvest key materials that can only be acquired in that part of the map. It's an extremely rewarding gameplay loop that gives purpose to everything you do. "Valheim" also features an expansive base-building system that even lets you construct a boat to sail the open waters, so "Sea of Thieves" fans should particularly enjoy that aspect of the game. You can even engage in co-op PvP in "Valheim," provided you play with specific rules on a server.

What if you could take "Sea of Thieves" and instead of sailing a pirate ship, you traded it in for a spaceship? That's "No Man's Sky" in a nutshell, and that's alluring if you're a fan of "Sea of Thieves." While there is, of course, plenty of differences between the two games, "No Man's Sky" is essentially a much larger, procedurally generated version of the pirate survival game, set in the vast expanse of outer space.

Right from the start of the game, "No Man's Sky" offers an enormous amount of content to players. You get to pilot your own spaceship and take it to a limitless number of planets and galaxies. On these planets, you can set up a base, find completely unique fauna and flora, and harvest different materials that you can use for quests or upgrades to your ship and character.

"No Man's Sky" also features space stations with NPCs that offer missions, as well as massive multiplayer hub areas where you can interact with other players; typically the only way you'll see people, outside of occasionally finding a system discovered by someone else. There's no PvP in these hubs, but you can take player-on-player battles to the skies and engage with other pilots in immersive ship combat. "No Man's Sky" is still receiving constant updates, and one recent update even added underwater content, giving "Sea of Thieves" fans another reason to hop in.

While "Sea of Thieves" might be the defining pirate experience for the current generation, "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag" is often viewed as the best pirate game of all time. Originally released in 2013, "Black Flag" offers fantastic open-world, pirate-themed gameplay that places you in the shoes of Captain Edward Kenway. As Kenway, you must battle personal demons, command a crew on your own ship, and infiltrate a nefarious organization operating in the Caribbean at the peak of the pirate era.

"Black Flag" is the fourth game in the mainline "Assassin's Creed" series, but you don't have to play any others in the series to understand what's going on with the plot. The story tends to take a backseat in "Black Flag," as you have an entire ocean's worth of content to explore in the game's massive world. 

You can set sail for dozens of islands, dock at major hub towns such as Nassau, and even build up your own island with new facilities to be a home for pirates everywhere. The definitive version of the game is offered "Black Flag Resynced," a remaster of the original game that adds some new content and improves the graphics. Whichever version you decide to play, "Black Flag" is far and away the closest pirate experience to "Sea of Thieves," just without the multiplayer aspect.

There aren't too many options in the pirate survival genre of video games, but perhaps the next best option compared to "Sea of Thieves" is "Windrose." This is a relatively new game that takes a more traditional approach to the survival gameplay loop, but still lets you become a full-fledged pirate. Still in early access at the time of writing, "Windrose" is already packed with content, and more updates are coming down the line to expand the world and story even further.

Throughout the game, you'll be able to build a starter ship and upgrade it to become a true force on the open seas. You can recruit crew members by exploring the huge open world, which features plenty of playable areas on both land and sea. The ship mechanics and combat are already standout features, letting you engage in huge battles with other ships using every cannon and weapon you have access to.

"Windrose" also offers great ground-level combat, with various bosses you can take on during the story using both guns and melee weapons. Between boss fights, ship combat, and regular survival elements, this pirate game isn't an easy one, and so your abilities as a captain will continually be challenged as you progress.