Bethesda Game Studios’ Starfield had over one million concurrent players at launch and over six million players in total, and it seems to have scored big at retail as well. While the full UK physical retail charts from Gfk aren’t available yet, GamesIndustry’s Christopher Dring confirmed that it debuted in first place.
It’s not the biggest launch in the region this year, but “almost identical to Diablo 4.” As Dring notes, “Diablo 4 was a major digital hit. Starfield will be similar because it’s on the two most digital platforms (PC & Xbox).” When considering Game Pass, Starfield may become the biggest launch of 2023.
That may seem unbelievable with how The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Hogwarts Legacy and Dead Island 2 have performed in the region. However, given that its Premium Upgrade debuted in the previous week’s sales charts at seventh place, it’s not all that farfetched.
Starfield is available for Xbox Series X/S and PC. Check out our review for more details. In terms of Steam numbers, it’s already beaten the peak concurrent player record set by The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.
Starfield is No.1 in the UK boxed charts, which is impressive. It’s not the biggest physical launch of 2022 (it’s behind Hogwarts, Zelda, Star Wars, Resi 4, FF16 and Dead Island 2 on that list), but it’s almost identical to Diablo 4, and that’s significant because…
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) September 10, 2023
Diablo 4 was a major digital hit. Starfield will be similar because it’s on the two most digital platforms (PC & Xbox). Note: Diablo is also on PS5, which does ok physically.
Throw in Game Pass… this might be the biggest launch of 2023. And that’s saying something
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) September 10, 2023