Starfield is now four months old, having launched back on September 6, 2023. The sweeping Bethesda RPG game and successor to the likes of Fallout and The Elder Scrolls took the world by storm at release, amassing huge player counts on Steam, and breaking launch-period records for its creator. Now, however, it’s slipping down the charts, with considerably older single-player games like Fallout 4 and Skyrim regularly drawing more players. Even Dave the Diver, the pixel-art adventure, controversially nominated for best indie at The Game Awards, has more Steam players than Starfield.
There’s still time for the Bethesda RPG. Starfield mods will hopefully continue to grow, and we’re waiting for news on the Starfield DLC, Shattered Space. Cyberpunk 2077 turned it around. With Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind, and Fallout 3 under its proverbial belt, Bethesda has a lot of goodwill. As it stands, however, Starfield is struggling on Steam even compared to older, smaller single-player games.
As of this writing, Thursday January 11, Starfield’s peak concurrent player count for the past 24 hours is 11,374. Compare that to Skyrim Special Edition, the updated version of Bethesda’s 2011 classic, at 22,894. Similarly, Fallout 4, from 2015, is beating Starfield, boasting 17.012 players in the last day.
Created by Mintrocket, a division of Nexon, Dave the Diver arrived in June 2023, three months ahead of Starfield. A smaller-scale single-player game, it nevertheless has more Steam players than Starfield over the last 24 hours, at 11,830.
The Starfield player base is of course split between Valve’s platform and Game Pass, where it has been available at launch, meaning it likely has more players than are reflected in Steam statistics. Based on user reviews, however, Starfield’s Steam ‘recent’ rating has dropped to ‘mostly negative.’
But given how long Skyrim has been going, it’s still early in Starfield’s potential lifespan. Check out the best Starfield planets that have recently been discovered, or perhaps some other great games like Starfield.
Still looking for more? While a good Starfield wiki can be a handy source of information, our new Starfield Database goes further, offering you daily news, searchable databanks, and even interactive tools.