Sea of Thieves is Shutting Down Its Arena PvP Mode

gamerant.com:

Sea of Thieves first launched in 2018 as a relatively bare-bones open world pirate game experience, but Rare has consistently supported the game, releasing substantial new updates that have helped it become incredibly popular. Rare isn't slowing down its support of Sea of Thieves anytime soon, as it has previewed what fans can expect from the game in 2022. And while this year will see even more new content added to Sea of Thieves, it will also see some content removed from the game as well.

Rare has confirmed that it is shutting down the Sea of Thieves Arena mode, which is an exclusively PvP mode first introduced in the game's Anniversary update back in 2019. This mode is good for players who aren't interested in exploring the game world and simply want to fight other pirates and sink enemy ships, but it will be going away at some point during Season 6. A specific removal date wasn't mentioned by Rare, but Sea of Thieves Season 6 starts sometime in March, so time is running out for anyone that wants to play the Arena mode.

2022 Will Be 'Biggest Year Yet' for Sea of Thieves

Rare described shutting down the Sea of Thieves Arena as a «difficult decision,» but one that will be necessary so the studio can focus its efforts on the new Adventure content that it will be rolling out throughout the year. Rare added that Arena playtime only accounts for about 2% of total playtime in Sea of Thieves, indicating that not many players are all that interested in playing it anyway.

Regardless, the decision to remove Arena from Sea of Thieves will likely prove to be a controversial one for a couple of different reasons. For one, Arena has been a place where players can go to immediately get into some action. In the standard Sea of Thieves