With over six million players, Bethesda claims that Starfield is the company’s most successful launch to date, surpassing Skyrim and Fallout.
On The Social Media Platform Previously Known as Twitter, Bethesda revealed that more than six million players had purchased the space game since its full release on September 6 (and earlier release on September 1 for those who stumped for the game’s fancy premium editions). The company claimed that Starfield had become the “biggest Bethesda game launch of all time.”
It’s important to note that Bethesda didn’t break down how many people were playing Starfield on PC and Xbox, which are the two platforms where the game is available, or how many people had bought the game compared to those who had played it as part of their Game Pass subscription.
Phil Spencer, CEO of Xbox, posted a tweet on September 7 asking (X-ed?) that Starfield had reached a million concurrent players across all platforms, including PC and Xbox Series X/S, and that SteamDB reported a peak of just over 269,000 concurrent players on Starfield’s release day, September 6th. Since then, that number has remained relatively constant, peaking at approximately 258,000 at the time of writing at the 24-hour mark.
After focusing on its Elder Scrolls games and the Fallout series in recent years, to varying reviews from players but undeniable financial success, Bethesda hasn’t released a new IP in more than two decades. Starfield is also the company’s first since being acquired by Microsoft in 2021 as part of the ZeniMax Media buyout.
In our Starfield review, Alice stated that the most recent release from the studio was “a genuinely impressive space RPG that ultimately loses some of its Bethesda charm in the vast reaches of its galaxy.” In any case, it seems that way likely hasn’t prevented you from playing it as of now.
