Sea of Thieves' Arena PVP Mode Will Shut Down To Focus On Adventure Mode

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Developer Rare is shutting down Sea of Thieves’ arena PVP mode to focus on the development of the Adventure mode and upcoming Mysteries. Rare previously teased its 2022 preview event for Sea of Thieves in a trailer Monday, hinting that this year would be the biggest ever for the pirate-themed adventure game. Considering 2021 held some huge game updates that were well received by fans, it was unclear how the developers planned to top themselves.

Last year was the beginning of Sea of Thieves’ three-month-long seasons — which kicked off with Season 1 in January 2021 – eventually culminating in its summer crossover event “A Pirate’s Life” during Season 3, which brought Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean to the game. The next two seasons brought highly popular features as well, such as the challenging Siren Shrines from Season 4 or the ability for Sea of Thieves players to bury their treasure in Season 5. The big year of updates enticed more prospective pirates than ever, with Rare celebrating 25 million players in late October with a 25 million gold giveaway. The consistency of updates and new features has given Sea of Thieves new sails, and, as was apparent during Thursday’s 2022 preview event, the developers are taking the game in brand new directions.

Related: Sea of Thieves: The Pirates of the Caribbean Crossover's Best Moments

Announced in Rare’s Sea of Thieves 2022 Preview Event (via Tom Warren on Twitter), the development team has “made the difficult decision to close arena in Sea of Thieves,” claiming it needs to dedicate developer resources on the Adventure mode instead. Rare said it would officially shut down the dedicated PVP mode on March 10 during Season 6. The developers explained that only 2% of the player base