Starfield’s First Weekend on Sale Sees It Surpass Skyrim on Steam

Starfield has overtaken The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim’s all-time concurrent players record on Steam in its first weekend available after full launch.

Data from SteamDB shows Starfield sitting in 27th place in Steam’s all-time list, while Skyrim is now in 31st. Starfield hit a peak of 330,723 concurrent players on September 10, while Skyrim’s record peaked 12 years ago at 287,411. The space epic fell short of developer Bethesda’s previous release Fallout 4, however, which sits in 16th place overall with 472,962.

While it’s perhaps surprising to some that Starfield hasn’t achieved a higher spot on the list, having topped six million players overall with one million concurrents on launch day, its inclusion on Xbox Game Pass has likely largely convoluted its numbers.

Though it was arguably the most anticipated game in recent memory, Starfield is available at no extra cost to those with Game Pass, meaning a large number of players who’d usually buy it on Steam likely opted for the subscription service version.

That’s not stopped Starfield from performing well, of course, as overtaking Skyrim is a significant milestone. It also topped the UK boxed chart according to GI.biz head Christopher Bing on X. Its appearance on Game Pass will likely stop Starfield from reaching Steam’s top 10, however, which includes recent releases such as Baldur’s Gate 3 and Hogwart’s Legacy.

Plenty of wild and wacky stories are emerging from Starfield’s launch too, such as Bethesda killing off all the poor labradors, players desperately trying to recreate the game on PlayStation, and what else but potatoes showing off the game’s “mind blowing” physics.

In our 7/10 review, IGN said: “Starfield has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.