Our picks, beyond the numbers
5 games like Sea of Thieves we would recommend for different reasons
Sea of Thieves works because the ocean itself refuses to hand you a plot. A voyage can turn into a shanty session, a skeleton fort raid, or a desperate scramble to bail water after a cannonball finds its mark — and none of it is scripted ahead of time. We looked for games that chase some piece of that pirate fantasy, whether it's the crewed-ship feeling of everyone pulling their weight, the swashbuckling story Sea of Thieves deliberately doesn't tell, or naval combat pushed to its sharpest edge.
A couple of these scale the crew fantasy up or down; others hand you a structured single-player story instead of an open, consequence-light ocean. Here's where we'd send a Sea of Thieves player next.
Skull and Bones
Our first choice for a fleet-sized version of the fantasy
Skull and Bones, Ubisoft's own pirate game, lets a fleet of up to 20 players tackle world events and hunt down pirate hunters together since its 2024 release. It takes Sea of Thieves' shared-ocean idea and widens it into something closer to a live-service naval campaign.
We'd choose it for a Sea of Thieves player who wants that same sense of a living, populated sea, but with more structured world events and fleet-scale objectives to organize a crew around rather than Sea of Thieves' looser, emergent voyages.
The feel is noticeably different moment to moment: you're commanding a ship as your main way of interacting with the world rather than personally running around the deck, hoisting sails and manning the helm the way Sea of Thieves asks of its crew.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
For a single-player swashbuckling classic
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag remains one of the best single-ship pirate fantasies around. You sail the Caribbean as Edward Kenway, boarding enemy ships, hunting treasure and exploring a huge, detailed 18th-century world between Assassin and Templar business on land.
We'd point a Sea of Thieves player here when what they actually want is a real story to chase, with the sailing and ship combat as a backdrop rather than the entire point — Kenway's arc gives the pirate fantasy a beginning, middle and end that Sea of Thieves never provides.
That's also the trade-off: this is a scripted single-player campaign with on-foot stealth and assassination layered over the sailing, not a shared sandbox to crew with friends. If the social, live-ocean side of Sea of Thieves is what you'd miss most, this won't replace it.
Blackwake
For the crew dynamics taken to their extreme
Blackwake puts the ship-crewing fantasy front and center and strips almost everything else away: real crews man cannons, trim sails, steer and board enemy vessels together in intense multiplayer naval battles, with coordination as the entire skill being tested.
We like it for a Sea of Thieves player whose favorite moments are the ones where the whole crew is working in sync during a fight — Blackwake takes that specific thrill and makes it the whole game, with no downtime between encounters.
There's no campaign, no open-world exploration and no treasure hunting to break up the combat. It's purely multiplayer PvP naval warfare, so go in expecting a much narrower, more intense slice of what Sea of Thieves offers rather than a broader alternative to it.
Sid Meier's Pirates!
For a structured solo career on the high seas
Sid Meier's Pirates! is the granddaddy of pirate games: sail the Caribbean, raid towns, duel rival captains and build a reputation across a single-player career that actually has a shape to it, ending in an eventual retirement and a scorecard tallying your legacy.
We'd recommend it to a Sea of Thieves player who likes the pirate fantasy but wants a defined arc and goal to work toward, rather than an open-ended ocean where every session resets the stakes to zero.
That structure is exactly what separates it from Sea of Thieves — this is a solo campaign built around progress and an ending, not Sea of Thieves' story-free, perpetually ongoing shared world. Pick this when you want closure, not a world to keep returning to.
Windrose
For pirate combat with a soulslike edge
Windrose, in Early Access since April 2026, is a close cousin of Sea of Thieves' pirate fantasy: sail the seas, board enemy ships and fight with a noticeably more deliberate, soulslike edge, playable solo or in co-op with up to eight players.
We'd choose it for a Sea of Thieves player who wants the crewed-sailing feeling paired with combat that asks for more precision and patience than Sea of Thieves' comparatively forgiving sword fights and cannon duels.
It's still early in development, and the developers expect another year or two of Early Access before a full release, so expect some rough edges and ongoing balance changes rather than a finished, polished package.
