Hundreds of thousands of players are already swashbuckling their way through Windrose, developer Kraken Express' pirate sandbox MMO, and the numbers are hard to argue with. Three days after hitting early access on April 14, the game peaked at 113,930 concurrent players on Steam and is holding near that ceiling right now.
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What the Steam charts are actually saying
Windrose is currently sitting at a concurrent player count of 102,999, placing it at No. 11 on Steam's most-played list. That puts it ahead of the beloved life sim Stardew Valley (around 100,000 players) and just behind Crimson Desert (around 113,000), which is itself one of the hottest PC releases right now. Counter-Strike 2 is still in a different stratosphere at roughly 1.4 million concurrent players, and Slay the Spire 2 holds around 286,000, but for a game barely out of the gate in early access, Windrose's numbers are genuinely impressive.
The player reception backs it up. Over 4,500 Steam reviews have landed at a "Very Positive" rating, and the community response points to something the genre has been missing for a while: a pirate game that actually feels good to play.
How Assassin's Creed Black Flag fits into this moment
Here's the thing: this isn't happening in a vacuum. Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, a remake of Ubisoft's beloved 2013 pirate adventure, is reportedly targeting a July 9 launch. That's a significant date, and the timing of Windrose's arrival feels less like coincidence and more like the market responding to a wave of renewed pirate enthusiasm.
Windrose producer Phil (known in the community as Yar_maste) has been open about the Black Flag connection. Kraken Express called Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag the "best pirate game of all time" and pointed to it as a direct inspiration for Windrose. Phil's take on the genre is that the pirate niche remains "still underserved today," and the Steam charts this week suggest plenty of players share that view.
The console question Kraken Express isn't ready to answer
Windrose is currently a PC-exclusive title, and that's where it's staying for now. Kraken Express confirmed on April 14 that there are no updates on a console version, even though the team has expressed genuine interest in bringing the game to other platforms eventually. The priority right now is getting to a full 1.0 launch, which means console players will need to wait.
That's a real limitation for a game generating this kind of momentum. A pirate MMO with these player numbers would likely find a receptive audience on PS5 and Xbox Series X, but Kraken Express is being measured about scope. Smart, probably, given how many early access games have stumbled by overextending before the core experience was locked in.
Pirates are having a moment, and the timing is no accident
The last time pirate games dominated this kind of cultural conversation, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was the reason. That game's naval combat and open-world sea exploration set a bar that very few games have matched in the years since. Windrose is clearly trying to fill that gap, and players are showing up for it.
With a potential Black Flag remake on the horizon and Windrose pulling real concurrent numbers right now, the pirate genre is in a better position than it has been in years. Whether Kraken Express can sustain this momentum through the full 1.0 launch is the real question worth watching.
For more on what's launching and worth your time, check out the latest gaming news or browse our guides to get the most out of what you're already playing.
