We’ve all seen how big of a release Starfield was for Bethesda on September 6. Figures indicated that 6 million players, 1 million of which subscribed to early access, jumped into the game on launch day. Bethesda even announced 10 million players three weeks after release.
Those are all cumulative figures across all platforms, including Steam and Game Pass. However, over a month after launch, Starfield appears to be “losing Steam” at the Steam gaming platform, according to recently released figures.
In the US-only chart alone, the game dropped 19 places, settling at a dismal No. 34 rank. Globally, Starfield also dipped 39 places to number 58.
Interestingly, its predecessors, Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76, experienced spikes in usage. In the global chart, Elder Scrolls Online jumped 11 places, attaining the rank of No. 24. On the other hand, Fallout 76, which divided its fans as Starfield did, went up a stunning 46 places to number 38.
Fallout 76 and ESO also reached the top 20 in the US chart, hitting no. 20 and no. 11, respectively.
Dave Meikleham over at Tom’s Guide revealed that Starfield’s concurrent peak in players two days ago was only 47,455. This is a massive drop from the immensely high 330,597 all-time concurrent peak a couple of days after launch.
Dave also said that Starfield experienced an almost 50% drop in player usage in the past 30 days.
These are indeed alarming for what has been considered Bethesda’s biggest launch to date. He, however, opined that Starfield can still bounce back after the sudden dip this month with the upcoming Shattered Space DLC and the release of official modding tools from Bethesda.
Many players blame the bugs that came with the initial release, although Starfield featured fewer bugs on launch than its predecessors.
Recently retired Senior VP of Publishing, Peter Hines, admitted that they could’ve made less buggy games but also pointed out that Bethesda wants to lean into player freedom and embrace chaos.
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