Starfield struggles to break past 300K concurrent Steam players

However, it should be noted that this still makes Starfield the third biggest Steam launch for a Bethesda game thus far. Fallout 4 still has the distinction of having the biggest Steam launch, with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim taking the second place. Moreover, it was earlier touted that Starfield is the biggest overall launch for a Bethesda game surpassing 6 million players.

It should be noted that the Steam concurrent player count is only for that platform and not including Starfield's statistics for the Xbox Network and Game Pass. Given that it was reported by Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, that Starfield

surpassed 1 million

total concurrent players on all platforms, this would likely mean over 700 thousand concurrent players were recorded outside of the Steam numbers.

Assuming this is accurate, it should still be concerning for Bethesda that their biggest new game launch, and the first original IP in 25 years, is running behind other recently successful AAA games. Consulting the SteamDB information charts (as of the time of this writing), Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3 is still ahead of Starfield's concurrent player count in terms of peak and average numbers. And yet that game has been out for over a month.

A growing number of players have expressed criticisms that the overall gameplay experience of Starfield is boring. Specific concerns have pointed out the lack of imagination with the procedurally generated planets. Others have mentioned the dull and unmemorable NPCs that populate Starfield's locations and ships.

Could these critical reactions to the features and mechanics of Starfield have contributed to the lack of interest as far as Steam concurrent player numbers? Can Starfield get an upswing with the help of positive word-of-mouth from fans who are enjoying the massive exploration and wide variety of options it offers? Share your thoughts on what the future might bring for Starfield from potential updates and improvements.

About Starfield:

Starfield is the first new universe in over 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity's greatest mystery.

Developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks, Starfield is available on Steam and the Xbox Network and can be played on Windows PCs and Xbox Series X/S platforms.