Best Pirate Games 2023

Arrr, Arrgh, Yarr, Gar! Here is the ultimate list of the best pirate games to play right now. Find your next pirate game right here!

If you enjoy going on swashbuckling adventures out on the open seas, then you’ll love playing the best pirate games available on PC and console.

From pirate-themed adventure games to naval warfare and pirate action RPGs, there’s no shortage of great titles to live out your dreams as a plundering buccaneer.

In this list, we’ll highlight the best pirate games to play in 2024, including pirate multiplayer games for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.

We’ll be updating this list in the future with new titles, so make sure to check back and let us know if we missed any of your favorite multiplayer games!

Related:Best Steampunk Games 2023Best Fantasy Games 2023Best Point and Click Adventure Games 2023

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Our first recommendation for pirate lovers is Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, an RPG by Obsidian where you play as a Watcher, beings with the power to analyze souls and learn from their memories.

Armed with this ability, you’re tasked with gathering information from souls and using it to save the world before it falls apart.

To do so, you’ll have to chart a course across a vast, unexplored archipelago and play out challenging RPG battles against roaming pirates.

While the series traditionally features real-time combat, Obsidian issued a patch for Deadfire that allows you to take turns during battles.

Next up, we have the Xbox exclusive pirate game Sea of Thieves, which launched in a rocky state but has improved tremendously over the course of several updates.

This is in large part due to Microsoft’s commitment to helping developer Rare get the game where it needs to be and supporting the Sea of Thieves community.

In this, up to 4 players join forces to create a pirate team as they guide vessels, traverse the sea, and search for treasure on islands and wreckage.

Along the way, they’ll encounter evil skeletons and enemy players who may try to initiate battles, overtake ships, and claim riches as their own.

Blackwake is an online pirate game where players work together to maintain and sail a ship across deadly waters littered with other players.

In many ways, it plays similarly to Sea of Thieves but emphasizes combat over exploration, which can make it feel a lot more competitive-focused.

To this point, the game features an abundance of classic multiplayer modes such as Team Deathmatch, Capture the Booty, and Fortress Siege.

Even if Sea of Thieves is the more popular pirate multiplayer game these days, Blackwake’s positive Steam reviews are a testament to its satisfying gameplay.

For a more single-player focused pirate experience, check out GreedFall, an indie action RPG that takes place in an alternate 17th Century setting where magic exists.

In it, you take on the role of a noble plagued by a family illness that causes them to venture to a mysterious island caught in the middle of a war between native and colonizing factions.

Like many RPGs, GreedFall puts a significant emphasis on player freedom, giving you the option to align yourself with either side, remain neutral, or carve out your own path.

While the open-world has more of a AA-indie budget look and feel, the tropical setting and classic weaponry and clothing fall perfectly in line with other pirate games on this list.

Man O’ War: Corsair is another game that combines sword and sorcery with pirate-themed adventures set within the Warhammer universe.

What’s more, the game includes several races from the popular fantasy franchise, including dwarves, orcs, elves, and rat-like Skaven that play a unique role in the world.

Gameplay focuses on exploration and combat with you captaining a ship as you plunder, trade, and fight your way to becoming the most feared crew in all the lands.

While it may be a bit rough around the edges, Corsair features some of the coolest real-time naval battles where you can board enemy ships, fire off cannonballs, and defend yourself from giant sea monsters.

If you fancy pirate games that incorporate trading and economy systems, then you’ll love exploring every minute mechanic on display in the Port Royale series.

Whether you’re already familiar with the strategy sim franchise or completely new, you’ll find each entry offers unique challenges throughout its complex systems.

We suggest jumping straight ahead to Port Royale 4, which sees you establishing trade routes amongst 17th Century Caribbean powers and protecting your wares from plundering bandits.

Outside of its mechanics, the game includes some of the best-looking graphics and a memorable soundtrack filled with shanties you’ll come to love over hours and hours of gameplay.

Our next recommendation is Tempest, a pirate-themed open-world action RPG where players sail across three continents teeming with various colonies, forts, ships, and opportunities for adventure.

As captain, you’ll have a chance to train your crew and raise their proficiency in ship-to-ship combat as well as against legendary beasts like the Kraken and Leviathan.

Additionally, the game features robust ship customization along with a trading system and simple UI that makes it easy to keep track of your crew.

While Tempest was originally designed as a single-player experience, it also supports online multiplayer where you and your friends can quest together and share the same open world. 

The Pirate series is another good recommendation for open-world sandbox adventures and sees you taking the helm of your own ship as you try to conquer the Caribbean.

Following 2016’s Caribbean Hunt, the entry we’re suggesting pirate lovers check out is 2017’s Plague of the Dead, a free-to-play game that casts you as legendary pirate captain John Rackham.

After using arcane voodoo magic to raise your Flying Gang crew from the dead, you’ll set off on a mission to face the terrifying Inquisitor using each crewmate’s unique skills.

Throughout the campaign, you’ll have an opportunity to unlock new ships, historical captains from the Golden Age of Piracy, and new abilities such as summoning a mighty Kraken to fight on your side.

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 is an extravagant 3D pirate combat game inspired by the Dynasty Warriors franchise and based on Eichiro Oda’s hit manga series.

Serving as the fourth installment in the Pirate Warriors spin-offs, it tells an original story based on the Wano arc from the One Piece anime but modifies certain plot elements.

Gameplay is best described as a hack and slack action game, with players able to harness different pirate heroes’ abilities and smash through hundreds of enemies at once.

Pirate Warriors 4 features an impressive number of maps, environment and enemy designs, and bossfights that require determination and strategy to overcome.

If you’re in the mood for a good pirate mystery, consider checking out Crowalt: Traces of the Lost Colony, a side-scrolling adventure game from Madcraft Studios.

In it, you take on the role of a young and ambitious adventurer named Hugh Radcliff as he sets out to find a lost colony that settled in America and mysteriously vanished 150 years prior.

To track down answers, Radcliff will have to talk to the residents of Crowalt Island and keep drawings and notes of important findings in his journal.

The game has an old-school point-and-click adventure feel that sees you collecting, combining, and using various items to solve puzzles, earn characters’ trust, and advance the story.

Moving along, Windward is a naval combat sandbox pirate game that can be played solo or cooperatively with a group of friends

It sees you designing your own custom pirate faction before setting off to navigate a procedurally generated world filled with trading towns, quests, and enemy vessels.

As you make your way around the world, you’ll have the opportunity to help towns in exchange for rewards you can use to upgrade your ship and have to defend yourself from other plundering pirates.

Over time, your efforts will be reflected visually in the world as towns expand to offer more quests, resources, better items, and upgrades for your ship.

Despite being one of the more recent releases on this list, Rise of the Third Power has a distinct retro pixel art look and feel that harkens back to the glory days of console-style RPGs.

However, developer Stegosoft Games has made sure to include some standard modern conveniences like auto-save that make this pirate adventure a lot more welcoming.

In it, you join a party of eight unique characters as they embark on a suicide mission to overthrow a corrupt emperor while navigating their personal relationships, tragedies, and drama.

The game features a custom turn-based battle system that lets you combine each character’s unique powers and exploit your enemies’ weaknesses without having to tediously manage your party.

Another great 2D pixel art game with a pirate theme is Black Skylands, which casts you as captain of a skyship traveling through a steampunk open-world consisting of floating islands.

Similar to other games on this list, Black Skylands focuses on action and exploration with you building up your ship’s defenses and battling other pirate ships and monsters to claim new territories.

Along the way, you’ll encounter valuable resources and materials that allow you to craft new gear, weapons, and modifications for your steampunk ship.

Black Skylands’ sandbox world also boasts an assortment of optional dynamic events and quests, including aerial combat battles and village distress signals.

A personal favorite, Return of the Obra Dinn is an old-school-inspired detective game with a bold, 1-bit monochromatic art style that tells a captivating pirate story.

In it, you take on the role of an insurance adjusted tasked with determining how the crew of a mysterious ship met their demise.

To aid you in your quest, you’re given ‘Memento Mortem,’ a magical pocket-watch that allows you to replay the final moments before a character’s death to pick out clues and gather evidence.

The game functions as a sort of giant puzzle piece that encourages you to experiment, make guesses, and use context clues to figure out what transpired on the Obra Dinn.

Taking our love for pirates to the deep stretches of outer space, Flinthook is an action roguelite that chronicles the many adventures of a pistol-wielding space pirate searching for treasure.

Assuming control of the titular Flinthook, you’ll go around the galaxies plundering enemy ships, defeating enemies with a blasma pistol, and bending the flow of time to stay alive.

Flinthook also has a versatile hookshot that allows him to traverse tricky environments with ease and dodge any hazards, traps, or projectiles enemies may throw his way.

As you advance, you will unlock fresh perks that can be equipped, and permanent upgrades that remain in subsequent attempts.

Next up on our list is Peachleaf Pirates, a colorful point-and-click RPG with farming sim gameplay and 2D pixel art graphics.

In it, you play as a seemingly unknown sea traveler who washes ashore a vibrant island with no memory of how they got there.

Welcomed by an eccentric cast of locals, you’ll divide your time between adventuring, homesteading, and exploring the island’s many mysteries.

The game offers an abundance of strange and exotic crops to grow and harvest, including Mango, Guava, Chubaberry, and Fairyplum.

Any self-respecting pirate lover is familiar with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, which was at one point adapted to video games under the LEGO branding.

Based on the first four movies, LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean offers a retelling of each film’s story with new elements that allow you to interact with characters, objects, and environments.

Along the way, you’ll break LEGO pieces, collect studs, battle enemies, and unlock recognizable characters from throughout the franchise.

While it may not take itself as seriously as many of the other entries on this list, LEGO games are always good for some fun, cartoon action with plenty of slapstick humor.

There are many Assassin’s Creed games but only a handful of them prominently feature pirates and naval-based combat.

Often regarded as one of the high points in the series, Black Flag offers both while telling the story of a rogue pirate named Edward Kenway during the year 1715.

Having earned the respect of legends like Blackbeard, Kenway becomes entangled in an ancient ongoing war between Assassins and Templars that threatens to destroy everything the pirates have built.

To maintain his glory, Kenway sails across the open seas hunting for treasure, raiding enemy ships, exploring tropical islands, and listening to the occasional sea shanty.

Last but not least, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is the third entry in the beloved platformer series that chronicles the adventures of a half-human half-genie named Shantae.

In it, players reprise their role as the titular heroine as she sets out to save Sequin Land from a new threat who calls themself the Pirate Master.

Forced to team up with her arch-nemesis Risky Boots, Shantae ventures to exotic islands where she’ll discover new powers and gadgets that expand her movement potential.

In true Metroidvania fashion, this allows the player to reach new areas, unlock secrets, and discover all the treasures a pirate could ever dream of.

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Justin Fernandez

As a fan of both indie and triple-A games, Justin finds joy in discovering and sharing hidden gems with other passionate gamers. In addition to reporting on the latest and greatest titles, he manages GamingScan’s social media channels.

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