By Ever since playing AC Black Flag, I fell in love with pirate-themed games.
Even though it had limited ship sailing and ship battles, there was something so immersive and calm about being in control of a ship while listening to sea shanties.
Over the years, I kept looking for more games with pirate themes and naval combat where you can explore the seven seas, engage in battles, and raid other ships.
In this list, I’m highlighting some of the best pirate games that I know of so far. Most of these games are basically pirate simulators, while others offer similar vibes with engaging naval combat.
If you’re like me and love exploring the high seas in massive ships, then be sure to check out some of these titles.
1. World of Sea Battle
World of Sea Battle is an MMORPG featuring a massive open world with ship battles, raids, pirates, and even an in-game economy.
In this game, you can choose from many different types of historic ships to sail, trade, and fight pirates. Since it’s an MMO, it has both PVP and PVE content. But if you’re not into PVP, you can easily avoid it and focus just on PVE content.
A great thing about World of Sea Battle is that you get to choose your own path. You can become a pirate and raid other ships for loot, or become a trader and make money using the in-game economy, or even command a warship with your friends to fight pirates and other players.
Possibilities are endless with this game, and the best part is that it’s free to play!
2. Windrose
Windrose is a new survival RPG that was just released in early access. Even though it’s an early access game, it offers an immersive pirate simulation experience.
In this game, you get to explore a massive open world map with islands where you can build your bases, farm resources, unlock weapons, and sail the seas with your pirate ship. The game also features engaging ship battles against pirate ships as well.
For an early access game, Windrose feels well-polished and offers smooth gameplay. In terms of content, however, it’s a bit limited with more updates on the way. Right now, you could easily sink around 60 hours into the game, completing its islands.
3. Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced
Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag is the game that made me addicted to pirate games and I was delighted when I found out that a remake of the game is coming out.
If you haven’t played Black Flag yet, it offers the same Assassin’s Creed experience, combat, and exploration, but with a pirate-themed world and characters. You get to live the life of a pirate who’s also in charge of a pirate ship.
There are engaging story missions, side-quests, and most importantly, sea exploration in the game with fun sea shanties and battles with other ships.
This game has the perfect balance of on-foot and ship-based gameplay, and it’s perfect for role-playing as a pirate.
4. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
This is one of the unique titles to come from SEGA’s Like a Dragon franchise, and no, you don’t necessarily need to play the other titles to enjoy this pirate game.
In Pirate Yakuza, you play as Goro Majima, a guy who has apparently lost his memory and decides to start his journey as a pirate. Sound familiar? Doesn’t it sound like Captain Jack Sparrow?
This game does feature naval combat and over-the-top battles with pirates. But it’s mainly an RPG where you progress through missions and the story, much like AC Black Flag.
This game is highly entertaining and has some of the coolest combat systems I’ve seen in a pirate-themed game. Definitely worth grabbing on sale.
5. Sea of Thieves
I had so much fun playing Sea of Thieves with my sister and my wife. It’s a fun co-op game to play with friends and have a good time.
Even though I did not enjoy the PVP aspect of the game, I found PVE content to be much more interesting, especially the Pirates of the Caribbean-themed storyline.
In this game, you get to build and upgrade your own ship and explore its open world in hunt for treasures. The challenge is to bring those found treasures back to your home base without getting attacked by pirates, sea creatures, or other players.
Sea of Thieves has a cartoonish art style that may not be for everyone, but it offers good co-op gameplay activities to enjoy as a team.
6. Salt 2: Shores of Gold
Salt 2 is another fantastic indie game that features survival-based gameplay with a big open world. It supports both single player and co-op.
In this game, your ship acts as your mobile base, which you can upgrade and customize as you like. You can sail the seas to explore islands and hunt for treasures.
While this game doesn’t feature naval combat, it’s heavily focused on exploration and questing. There are loads of things you can do in the game, like going fishing, fighting pirates, crafting weapons, upgrading and decorating your ship.
7. Skull & Bones
Ubisoft wanted to capitalize on the success and popularity of Black Flag, so they made another game just for pirate sea battles and ship combat.
Skull & Bones launched with high expectations, but it failed miserably. This game had a lot of flaws at launch and did not succeed. But in 2026, Ubisoft decided to revive the game with a new seasonal content schedule and quality of life updates. And it did boost the player count a bit.
Overall, Skull & Bones is not entirely a bad game. It has good ship combat and exploration, and it can be a great game to play with friends as well.
The game went on sale for super cheap recently. If you could grab it on sale, it’ll be worth checking out.
8. Sea of Conquest: Pirate War
Sea of Conquest is another fun strategy-style game where you can fully upgrade and level up your ship while engaging in naval battles in real time. It’s actually a mobile game that also has a PC port.
In this game, you can become a pirate to hunt for treasures and fight other pirates for loot. You can also hire pirates for your crew, renovate and upgrade your ship, and do much more.
Since this is a mobile game, there are some pay-to-win elements and microtransactions in this game. But there is plenty of content for free-to-play players to enjoy.
9. Caribbean Legend
Caribbean Legend is another pirate-themed RPG that went under the radar for a while. Right out of the game, the game promises a 200-hour-long adventure, which is quite bold.
It actually has every aspect of a pirate role-playing game, including ship battles, treasures, bounties, loads of quests, a career mode, and even has romancing options.
Graphics in this game seem a bit dated for a 2024 game, but if you can look past that, Caribbean Legend offers an immersive sandbox-style pirate experience to live out your fantasies.
10. LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean
I’m not a huge fan of LEGO games, but when it’s for one of my favorite movie franchises of all time, I can make an exception.
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean is basically a LEGO-style game featuring the movie-inspired storyline. It actually has Johnny Depp voicing the main character as well.
The game was released in 2011, so it shows its age, but you can still enjoy the story campaign of this game. And, as a bonus, even an old potato PC can run this game now.
11. Corsairs – Battle of the Caribbean
Corsairs is a new pirate-themed real-time strategy game that also features naval combat and piracy. It’s a game worth checking out for fans of RTS games.
In this game, you get access to 12 different types of ships with different ammo types to plan your attacks and engage in tactical combat. It also has ship boarding, fleets, and various other mechanics to keep in mind during your advancements.
The game has five campaign modes for France, England, Spain, Denmark, and the Netherlands. You can also participate in online PVP skirmish matches as well.
12. World of Warships
World of Warships is a great game with amazing naval combat mechanics. But unfortunately, it’s riddled with paywalls and microtransactions that get in the way of the overall experience.
However, if you enjoy games with a grind, you might enjoy playing World of Warships. It has all those addictive features, like upgrades and progression, that will get you to come back for more.
There are actually more than 800 battleships and submarines in the game, which is unlike any other game in this genre.
