Highlights
- Starfield has already become one of the most-played games on Steam, proving that Bethesda has another massive hit on its hands.
- The RPG has garnered significant player numbers, peaking at 248,632 concurrent players, placing it as the sixth most-played game on Steam.
- The early access data suggests that Starfield has the potential to become one of the biggest game launches of 2023, potentially surpassing Bethesda's previous Steam launches.
Starfield has cracked the top 10 most-played games on Steam before it's even released. The achievement indicates that Bethesda has another massive hit on its hands, much like early Starfield reviews already suggested.
The full-fledged release of the much-anticipated RPG is scheduled for September 6. However, anyone who paid for the Premium Edition of Starfield has been able to play it in early access since September 1.
Enough people did so for Starfield to promptly crack the top 10 most-played games on Steam. The RPG has so far peaked at 248,632 concurrent players, according to data compiled by SteamDB. That figure places Starfield as the sixth most-played game on Valve's platform less than 24 hours ahead of its official release. Every other title currently above it is free-to-play, with the sole exception of the historic Steam hit that is Baldur's Gate 3.
Top 10 Most Played Steam Games on September 5, 2023
But while Baldur's Gate 3 spent over a month as a PC exclusive, Starfield has also been available in early access on current-generation Xbox consoles from day one. Another important factor to consider is that Xbox Game Pass members have been able to play Starfield early by pairing their subscriptions with a $34.99 Premium Edition upgrade on either platform. The RPG's early adopter demographic is thus feasibly much larger than what this newly surfaced data suggests, especially given how SteamDB can only track publicly visible player profiles and given the fact that PC gamers can also pick up Starfield via the Microsoft Store.
Starfield's initial Steam momentum is in the same ballpark as some other recent massively successful launches on the platform. For example, Hogwarts Legacy had over 400,000 concurrent PC players during its early access period in February. It more than doubled that figure before long, peaking at 879,308 players within two days of its official release. Assuming Bethesda's latest RPG enjoys a similar ratio of Premium to Standard Edition purchases, it's bound to reach half a million concurrent Steam players in the days ahead.
Should that come to pass, Starfield will become Bethesda's biggest-ever Steam launch. That title is currently held by Fallout 4, which peaked at 472,962 simultaneous players five days into its November 2015 launch. Starfield's early momentum on the platform is also already closing in on The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, whose all-time Steam player peak sits at 287,411. This promising early access data indicates that Bethesda's first new IP since 1994 is on course to become one of the biggest game launches of 2023.
Starfield launches September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: SteamDB