Highlights
- Bethesda's highly anticipated space RPG, Starfield, has surpassed expectations by reaching 10 million players within just two weeks of its release.
- Despite concerns about exclusivity to the Xbox ecosystem on consoles, Starfield's massive player count proves that those concerns were unfounded.
Bethesda Game Studios' 1,000 planet space RPG Starfield has reached 10 million players within its first two weeks. Starfield gives players the keys to a spaceship and tells them to go explore an entire galaxy's worth of star systems, moons, and planets. With several factions to join, companions to romance, the freedom to build one's own ships and settlements nearly anywhere in the galaxy, and more, Starfield has a ton for players to take part in.
As the very long awaited Starfield began approaching its release day some felt its exclusivity to the Xbox ecosystem as a first party title may hinder its success. Closing the door to potential sales on PlayStation was a risky move for an Xbox who has been struggling up to this point to strengthen its own lineup of AAA console exclusives. In the days after Starfield's historic release this concern began melting away as Bethesda's space RPG had reached the hands of six million players just one day after its September 6 release, becoming Bethesda's biggest launch of all time.
Now, Starfield has crossed yet another major milestone. On Twitter, the official Starfield account thanked a whopping 10 million players for playing the game. This comes just one day shy of two weeks since the game's launch and is likely taking into account the players who've had access to Bethesda's latest RPG one week early.
In the age of subscription services it's certain that a sizable portion of Starfield's 10 million players have picked the game up via Xbox Game Pass. While it surpassed Xbox's own Forza Horizon 5 in terms of physical and digital sales, it didn't quite break Forza Horizon 5's record of amassing 10 million players in just a single week. Still, Starfield's newest achievement is quite impressive. In the context of some of Bethesda Game Studios' past games, Starfield soars by. It took Fallout 3 seven years to reach 12 million players and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion nine years to reach nine million. In the decade plus since these older titles, Bethesda's pedigree has grown with Skyrim and Fallout 4, becoming a much more well known presence as a major western RPG studio. That, combined with the help of Game Pass giving more gamers access to title, and it's not hard to see how Starfield is enjoying so much success so quickly.
As well as Starfield's player count numbers are performing two weeks after launch, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is still Bethesda's largest record holder, with a mind-blowing 60 million copies sold over 12 years and across several console generations. Time will tell if or when Starfield will ever reach that number, but it's already a significant chunk of the way there.
Starfield is available now on PC, and Xbox Series X|S.