Okay, so I’ve been having this super annoying issue with Sea of Thieves. It’s an awesome game, don’t get me wrong, but lately, the loading times? Forget about it. I’d click “Set Sail,” and then… nothing. Just a black screen, or sometimes that spinning wheel of doom, for what felt like forever. Seriously, I could make a cup of coffee, check my emails, maybe even do some laundry, and it’d still be loading.
So, I decided to get to the bottom of this. My first thought was, “Okay, maybe my internet is just being a jerk today.” So I did the usual stuff:
- I rebooted my router. Waited the usual 30 seconds, plugged it back in, the whole nine yards.
- I checked my internet speed. Everything looked normal there, plenty of bandwidth.
- I even ran a few other online games, just to make sure it wasn’t my entire system. Nope, those loaded up fine.
No luck. Still staring at that endless loading screen in Sea of Thieves.
Next up, I figured maybe it was something on my PC. I’ve got a pretty decent rig, but you never know. So I went through this checklist:
- I updated my graphics drivers. Always a good first step, right?
- I closed any background programs that might be hogging resources. Discord, Spotify, even my web browser.
- I verified the integrity of the game files through Steam. This is something you can do in the game’s properties, it basically checks for corrupted files.
- I even considered lowering the graphics settings in the game, but I really didn’t want to do that if I didn’t have to.
Still nothing! I was starting to get seriously frustrated. I mean, I just wanted to plunder some virtual gold, is that too much to ask?
Finally Solved
Then, after some more digging around online (tons of other people seem to have this problem, by the way), I found a few suggestions that actually seemed to help. And I did those:
- I moved the game to my SSD. I had it installed on my regular hard drive before, and apparently, SSDs make a HUGE difference for loading times in this game.
- I disabled my antivirus software temporarily. I know, I know, it’s not ideal, but some people said it can interfere with the game’s loading process. I made sure to turn it back on afterward!
- Changed my DNS to Google’s public DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) in my network settings.
And it worked! After making them, the loading times were noticeably better. Still not lightning-fast, but definitely playable.
I’m still not 100% sure which of those things was the main culprit, but honestly, I’m just happy I can finally play the game without waiting an eternity. If you’re having the same problem, I’d recommend trying those steps. Hopefully, they’ll work for you too!
