Starfield has been one of the biggest releases of the year. Following over eight years of development and five years of anticipation, the game was released to incredible buzz and excitement from the industry.
Upon launch, the RPG gathered over 313K concurrent players on Steam and quickly became the most-played next-generation exclusive for Xbox. Starfield also surpassed 6 million players in just ten days, becoming Bethesda’s biggest launch to date.
Following these impressive figures, it has been reported that Starifeld is Europe’s fifth fastest-selling game of 2023.
Why it matters: Unlike many of the biggest AAA releases of the year, Starfield was launched on Xbox Game Pass. This likely limited many of its sales, but it still managed to keep up with the competition.
Starfield is the fifth fastest-selling game across Europe this year. Starfield was technically on sale for longer due to the early access. But this is purely sales, no Game Pass data. Starfield comes ahead of Forza Horizon 5 as the biggest Xbox launch this generation (GSD data) pic.twitter.com/T9ywddGmDZ
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) September 18, 2023
According to the data from GamesIndustry, Starfield was easily the best-selling title during its launch week in Europe. This rapid success during its release made it the 5th fastest-selling game of 2023.
Additionally, it was also the fastest-selling new IP of the year. The report compares it to games like Final Fantasy 16 and Resident Evil 4, which were left behind by Bethesda’s latest IP.
Compared to other games from Xbox, Starfield pulls ahead of Forza Horizon 5, becoming the biggest Xbox launch after the release of the Xbox Series S|X consoles in Europe.
It should be noted that this data only considers sales numbers and excludes players coming from Xbox Game Pass. Additionally, Starfield’s early access releases mean it had already accumulated several hundred thousand sales before its full release.
Therefore, exact one-to-one comparisons are hard to make for Bethesda’s latest release. Nonetheless, the game has performed well across Europe. Baldur’s Gate 3 also appears to have been excluded from these figures.
Starfield’s release also accelerated console sales for Microsoft, as the Xbox Series S|X consoles saw a massive jump in UK sales after the game was released.
Microsoft now hopes to use this success to sustain the newfound interest in Xbox through a plethora of third-party titles on Game Pass and various first-party releases in 2024.
Nonetheless, Starfield appears to have exceeded Microsoft’s expectations. Parts of the world, like Europe, have been traditionally dominated by PlayStation, but Starfield’s anticipation has transcended Microsoft’s limited appeal in the region.
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[News Reporter]
Abiyan is on track to complete his Computer Science bachelor’s degree. His enthusiasm for writing and gaming motivates him to keep readers and gamers updated with the latest information from the industry. In his free time, Abiyan enjoys playing Dota 2 and Rocket League. Abiyan has also been cited in reputed websites such as Kitguru, Comicbook, GamingBible, Eurogamer and Gamingbolt.
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