Back at the beginning of 2024, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer made the announcement that the brand may explore placing some of its exclusive software on other platforms. Considered a controversial decision by a portion of fans, the move may have paid dividends.

According to an official post from PlayStationBlog, Xbox's open world swashbuckling adventure Sea of Thieves was the most downloaded game on the PlayStation 5 in May in both North America and Europe.

Developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Studios in 2018, Sea of Thieves joined Grounded, Hi-Fi Rush (developed by the now-defunct Tango Gameworks), and Pentiment as games that were jumping to the PlayStation family of consoles and the Nintendo Switch. Speaking of other Microsoft-owned properties like Grounded, it placed 12th (ahead of Marvel's Spider-Man 2) in the United States, and 15th in the UK. Fallout 4, developed by Bethesda, places 9th, as it is still riding the boost from the successful Amazon Prime Fallout television show.

The walls of console exclusivity are being chipped away in the modern age of gaming. As budgets balloon and inflation puts significant dents in the pockets of the consumer, the entertainment dollar gets more scarce. We have seen Square Enix, a company that has tied its flagship series Final Fantasy to the PlayStation platform since the mid-90's, now explore a multiplatform approach after the unit sales of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth and Final Fantasy XVI failed to net stronger profits as PS5 exclusives. Going back to Bethesda, the announcement that Doom: The Dark Age will be be a multiplatform release. This move for now seems to be paying off for Microsoft, especially following a strong Xbox Games Showcase.

SOURCE: PlayStationBlog.com