Starfield rockets past 10 million players

Bethesda has announced that Starfield has over 10 million players as of September 20.

The game acquired this player count within two weeks of availability (three weeks counting early access), making Starfield the biggest launch in Bethesda's history and one of the biggest launches of 2023 so far.

This figure is just the latest milestone for Starfield.

The game hit over 230,000 concurrent players in the first two hours of early access on Steam, and on release day, September 6, it became Xbox's most-played next-gen game ever with 1 million concurrent players. One day later, on September 7, it was announced the game had over 6 million players.

It's unknown how many people are playing the game through Game Pass or Steam, as Microsoft has not announced the breakdown; however, as of September 20, the peak concurrent player count on Steam stands at 330,723 players. So, while it's easier to figure out a base number of players on Valve's service, it's unknown how many folks, in total, have purchased the game or opted to go the Game Pass route.

Starfield is arguably one of the biggest games of 2023, and it is most certainly the highest-profile Xbox Series X and Series S release since the consoles debuted in November 2020.

The open-world RPG is Bethesda's first brand new IP in over 25 years, the first Bethesda-developed game set in space, and the first game it has released since Microsoft acquired the studio.

Starfield's success is a testament to Bethesda's ability to create immersive and engaging worlds and also a sign of the growing popularity of sci-fi RPGs. With 10 million players and counting, the title could be well on its way to becoming one of the defining games of this console generation.