How to fix the “Purchase Failed!” ship error in Sea of Thieves

When players attempt to purchase a ship in Sea of Thieves, they sometimes encounter a problem with the game where they receive a notification of “Purchase Failed!” on their screen when trying to buy a ship. Each time a player does this, the purchase still goes through by taking a player’s gold coins, but it prevents them from receiving the vessel they wish to purchase. Here’s what we know about how to fix the “Purchase Failed!” ship error in Sea of Thieves.

What can you do about the “Purchase Failed!” notification in Sea of Thieves

Unfortunately, if you receive this error when buying a ship, there’s little you can do about it. What many have found to help with this problem is to close out of your current Sea of Thieves application and try again. You are receiving this error because the servers are currently overloaded, and this will typically happen at the start of a Sea of Thieves season.

Related: Can crewmates customize Captained ships in Sea of Thieves?

What’s happening in multiple other players is likely trying to get into the game and purchase their ship for the first time. Unfortunately, this is happening at a tremendous rate, and the Sea of Thieves servers are likely encountering some issues, which means the purchase will not go through.

Hopefully, when you close out of the application and boot it back up, the purchase goes through, or you have your gold returned to your account. Following the drop of a Sea of Thieves content update, problems like this are bound to happen to multiple players, but they should let up as more get into the game and drop out of the main menu. You may want to reach out to the Sea of Thieves support team if you continue to experience this problem or do not receive your gold back following these incorrect purchases.