How popular is ‘Starfield?’

Starfield has officially been out for less than three days, and it seems that the outpour of player support for this new Xbox exclusive — more than seven years in the making — is surprising everyone.

Baldur’s Gate 3 may have become trendy over the past month, but Bethesda is here to show that when it comes to RPG games, few companies can work up a reputation as simultaneously hype-fueling as it is damning. Starfield is now out on Xbox Series X|S and PC, and fans of Elder Scrolls and Fallout can finally live out their Bethesda fantasies in space.

In fact, despite the review controversy, which saw a lot of disparity among different outlets, it seems that Starfield is going down a treat with fans. Our own review of the game was extremely positive, and the numbers certainly seem to acknowledge this success, even if the game can be unbelievably outdated in certain areas.

How many people are playing Starfield?

While it’s still a little early to determine just how successful Starfield will be, it seems that the first Bethesda IP in more than two decades has managed to rope in a lot of players. As the company recently announced, more than 6 million people are already playing Starfield, with the concurrent player number shooting past 1 million.

In the first two days after its release, Skyrim had sold 3.4 million physical copies. For Fallout 4, Bethesda hitched that number up to 12 million units in 24 hours, so it’s not all that surprising to see Starfield leaping for those same heights.

Of course, we can attribute a large portion of this success to Xbox Game Pass, which allows its 25+ million subscriber base to access the game for free. It’s even safe to assume that the number is going to increase exponentially over the next couple of weeks as more people download the game. Add that to the ceaseless stream of mods — already numbering in the hundreds — and you’ll see why Starfield has the potential to turn into another addictive sensation much like Skyrim did before it.