Sea of Thieves dev yields to community feedback, introduces custom servers

Sea of Thieves is shifting gears as it approaches 2026. Developer Rare has announced that custom servers will finally set sail early next year as part of a new premium subscription model.
This was unveiled during Rare’s very first Sea of Thieves Community Direct, where the studio mentioned what they’re calling a “much-requested community feature,” which the developers have been working on for quite some time.

Custom servers in Sea of Thieves will allow players to curate their very own experience. Rare describes it as “their private sandbox where they can use switches, toggles, and commands to curate the server experience.” Players can fine-tune loot, enemy spawn rates, or turn AI off completely. For now, Rare hasn’t revealed the exact price for the premium subscription

Requested by the community, custom servers will feature support for Safer Seas Fleets, which allow a band of friends to fill an entire server while maintaining the same progression as the solo version of Safer Seas. This makes it easier for friends to play with each other without the hassle of coordinating across different servers.

Moreover, players will get a cinematic camera toolset, allowing content creators to experiment with camera angles that weren’t possible in base servers.

Rare announced this highly requested feature to maintain its Sea of Thieves player base. The game achieved a staggering 40 million lifetime players in April of 2024. But things haven’t been so great on the PS5, as the game lost 58% of its player base since launch. 

Production Director, Drew Stevens, has been pretty vocal about these challenges. For 2025, Rare's main focus centers on three aspects: game security, performance, and player safety.

In addition to custom servers, Rare is planning to overhaul Sea of Thieves’ seasonal content pipeline. The devs are stepping away from their current seasonal setup for a better-planned three-month season. 

Rare’s making some strategic moves with the introduction of custom servers and overhauling their seasonal content structure amid community demands and the competitive nature of live-service games. Sea of Thieves is setting itself up for what could be a game-changing year with these new changes as the title approaches its 7th anniversary since launch.