Starfield rockets past 1 million players in its first 24 hours

We knew Starfield was always going to prove popular, but even after a busy early access weekend, it’s attracted a whole lot of players for the space RPG’s standard launch.

Xbox head Phil Spencer revealed the news on Twitter, declaring “Starfield exceeded 1 million concurrent players across all platforms today. Thanks to all the players who helped us reach this great milestone, and congrats to the Bethesda Studios.” Whether it’s people playing Starfield on Game Pass, or they’re playing the game on Steam, Xbox Series X|S or even via Cloud Gaming on, for example, Xbox One, players are exploring Bethesda’s latest galaxy.

The impressive number is surely good news for Xbox, and a massive turnaround of fortunes for both it and Bethesda following a disappointing reception to Redfield earlier this year. It’s easy to see why though, as many have been far more enamored with the space RPG and Starfield getting a far higher ratio of high reviews and praise – including that which can be found in our own Starfield review here. Bethesda themselves have said they were “overjoyed by the incredible response” so far to the game in their own tweet thanking the fans.

The milestone is also significant because of course Starfield is Bethesda’s first new IP in over 25 years, with its usual RPG offerings being based on long established series Fallout and The Elder Scrolls respectively. While there’s still a few asterixis to consider (big first party title, the marketing budget of Microsoft, etc) it’s still a great flagbearer for other companies to trust in new IP. We’ll have to wait and see how it does in the long term, but if the opening numbers are anything to go by, Starfield’s already rocketing to success.

If you’re just setting foot in the cosmos with Starfield, you’d better check out some of our extensive guides. We’ve got a Starfield map – every location on the Starmap explained primer here, or you can check out our picks for the Best Starfield ship designs – our favourite builds so far. If you’ve already spent quite a bit of time with the game, you might want to know what we know so far about the Starfield Shattered Space story expansion release date speculation and DLC details.

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