@dlchief58
No, you showed SELECTIVE data that fits your narrative and then try to dismiss the MORE COMPLETE data that proves you wrong.
I showed the only real data we have access to, everything else is hearsay, guesses, and promotional material.
You also seem to forget the game was a best seller when it released on PS5 and is still doing well on that platform.
You also seem to forget that the game reportedly lost over 50% of its play base after the first month on PS5, since articles seem to be an acceptable source for you.
All games face a downward trend over time (with a few exceptions).
This isn't true at all, most healthy live service games are able to maintain, and expand their player base. Warframe, a 12 year old live service game, just had its best 2 years in the last 6.
but nothing you have shown indicates a massive drop in players
Losing over half your players according to every measurable statistic in the last 5 years is a massive drop for a live service game.
if anything it is holding fairly steady over the years as the data I provided confirms
You showed no data, you showed articles claiming SoT was in the Most Played games on Xbox.
and is legit if you bothered to look at it, but why would you since it disproves your false narrative
Why would Xbox not promote Sea of Thieves, their own game? If SoT was doing terribly, do you think they would say so? Or do you think they would just cut Rare staff in half with layoffs and cancel their upcoming project?
Steam players were the most fickle and have the lowest population of all platforms for the game, as well as being a very late addition.
This is just silly, Steam is far and away the most popular platform for PC gaming. Every PC player prefers to have SoT on Steam given the chance, even most of those who started on Xbox/Microsoft ended up buying it on Steam.
It is NOT indicative of the total game population as my weekly gameplay data shows
Again, Xbox doesn't release numbers for player count, you have no data.
And Twitch data?? OH MY GOD! How in the world is that relevant
Ask ChatGPT what it means when a game's Twitch viewership declines for 5 years straight. I've already tried to explain how it indicates general interest that transcends platform biases, maybe a robot can explain it to you better.
Even with that being said, the game is still putting up decent viewership numbers regardless of how you try to paint it to suit your narrative.
3800 viewers is abysmal for a live service game. For reference, the most popular streamer, BoxyFresh, gets around 3000 viewers when he streams (nobody else comes close). He's hard carrying that average number.