Starfield Achieved an Unprecedented Player Count Record in 2023

A recent report by Newzoo has shed light on the state of the gaming industry in 2023 and what the future holds. The report discussed the top ten games on each core platform based on Monthly Average Users (MAU) in 2023, unveiling some intriguing insights.

One striking observation was that Starfield emerged as the sole single-player game to make it to the top ten on Xbox and PC in terms of average MAU (Monthly Average Users), even without PlayStation data due to it not being released on that platform. This new franchise stood out among a list dominated by multiplayer and cooperative games, where the other titles had an average age of over seven years.

Admin Note: it should be noted that these figures are only stats from major publishers who make them available publicly and does not include all stats from all games within the same time period, which means that the stats are skewed toward the available data set and not real world data.

[VincentVanBro]

No, just no.

[Obscure_Observer]

Lol

The Denial is real! XD

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

Starfield was a steam platinum tier seller in 2023( https://store.steampowered.... so the game did well. N4G seems to have an ever shifting goal post for what makes a game successful, especially if said title isn’t on your preferred platform.

[shinoff2183]

Player count shouldn't really be a factor when the game was given away. What would've been real indicative is how much it sold. Which we won't get those numbers.

Truth is stsrfield was incomplete nonmatter how you put it, and it lacked alot. Lore, maps(2023), real exploration, etc. I won't even get into the stuff I think is dumb like fps and loading because it's trivial at best.

[Games_People_Play]

The game is also on Gamepass, so “player count” doesn’t impress me. What was the game’s total cost, including advertising, and what is the total sales?

[S2Killinit]

What a bogus record. The game was on gamepass and MS acted like it was the most amazing thing to show up on a screen since moving pictures.

Its like breaking record for climbing but I took an elevator

[mrcatastropheAF]

@shinoff2183 the game topped steam charts from purchases so what are you on about goofy. It was not given to steam players for free and topped charts as a platinum seller.

We can have our opinions on the game but its financial success can't be understated

[Games_People_Play]

I never said Gamepass was free.
I have had Gamepass Ultimate on my PC and Xbox. How does that change what I said?

[Mr_cheese]

It's like congratulating wiisports for being the wiis top selling game when it was prepackaged with every system 🤣

[Crows90]

Yes it is. When an irrelevant disappointment keeps on trying to be relevant...it's sad

[LordoftheCritics]

''Starfield Achieved an Unprecedented Player Count Record.....''

Now imagine all those tears of suffering.

[Sonic1881]

The game is on gamepass. How much did the game sell 🤔

[Zeref]

The ONLY single player game in the top 10... Interesting. Not Tears of the Kingdom, Not Hogwarts Legacy, Not Spiderman 2, Baldurs Gate 3... Starfield is in the Top 10. The way people talk about the game as if it's the biggest flop ever contradicts reality. Goes to show that none of your opinions on this website matters. Reality disagrees. No matter how hard you try to spin this. Starfield came in late and blew every other game that people thought were "better" games out of the water in reality. We love to see it. Congrats to Bethesda and Xbox.

[Obscure_Observer]

"Starfield is in the Top 10. The way people talk about the game as if it's the biggest flop ever contradicts reality. Goes to show that none of your opinions on this website matters. Reality disagrees."

Absolutely! Starfield is an absolute success!

Direct quote from the article:

"One striking observation was that Starfield emerged as the sole single-player game to make it to the top ten on Xbox and PC in terms of average MAU (Monthly Average Users), even without PlayStation data due to it not being released on that platform. This new franchise stood out among a list dominated by multiplayer and cooperative games, where the other titles had an average age of over seven years."

Let them fight the numbers!

[fr0sty]

The game was included on gamepass, was released by the creator of the much-loved skyrim, and so they ride that hype train of "overhyped game from a popular dev that is being given away free to GP subs" to get every person who bothered to even try it for 5 minutes to drive up the monthly active users on PC and Xbox (excluding nintendo and PS5), creating a hype-point to sell the lie that their game is doing good, while still refusing to release actual sales numbers. Can't "fight the numbers" when the actual sales numbers aren't being released...

[mrcatastropheAF]

@fr0sty the game was a platinum seller on steam where folks needed to pay full price to get the "its only successful because it was on GP" angle is looking extra goofy rn

[Ra3030]

Top 10 of what? Currently on Xbox Live its not cracking the Top 40 (41st) of most played games. On Game Pass where you play it free I'm told it can't crack the top 10 (15th) and on Steam its not one of the Top 100 most played. Sure a lot people bought into the pre-release hype as they did with Halo Infinite and jumped in on release but Starfield isn't currently on any top 10 most played list. So maybe back in 2023 just after release the game had good player count but that's no longer the case as Starfield The Game of the Generation suffered the same fate as Halo Infinite did when gamers actually got to play the game they didn't like it and quickly moved on.

[Crows90]

Can't fight numbers that dont exist buddy. How much did it sell?

[Armaggedon]

People keep jumping on this game. Its okay, they are still giving their time to it. Might as well be playing it

[Petebloodyonion]

It seems they don't take into account Nintendo and it's mucky regarding PlayStation.
Not saying that Starfield was not popular in 2023 but simply saying that this article seems to cherry-pick some data in order to fit the headline.

[Zeref]

This website covered it better. This is the reality. Deal with it. Nintendo is covered properly and so is Playstation. Your excuses don't matter.

https://exputer.com/news/ga...

[VincentVanBro]

@Zeref, read the articles you send.

“ On the flip side, Switch has a few exclusive single-player titles on the top ten list.”

Don’t trust headlines, it is immediately contradicted in the body of the article

You’re full of shit lol

[rippermcrip]

Starfield was free to what...25 million? people.

No sales numbers released. Estimates are around 2.5-3 million. We know it dropped out of Steam Top 100 sales after only 2 months.

Good job trying to put down those other games that not only sold butt loads, but actually were GOTY winners/nominees.

[Zeref]

Your insecurity is showing because nowhere did I put these games down. I personally enjoyed Hogwarts Legacy much more than Starfield.

[purple101]

Im a ps fan and even I know 12 million true it, surely we can do simple math, steam states it sold 3.8 million so the other 8 million either paid for it on Xbox or tried it included in their monthly sub

But yeh we will never know how many it was destined to sell because gp can make any game seem like a success
If still say 3.8 million on steam is pretty dang good tho

[CrashMania]

You're wasting your time, actual logical thinking and context doesn't exist to these people, they know all this full well anyway. They know it didn;t move the hardware needle, barely anyone was rushing out to grab and xbox to play this, there was no huge increase in GP subs, no sales data has been given (no doubt it will pretty well on steam at least), gee I wonder why. It's easier for MS to to not give any context and talk about MAUs, planets explored, bullets fired lmao.

[Crows90]

@palapolonoj

Do some bing searches buddy

[shinoff2183]

And known of those games were given away on gamepass. What the sold numbers. Idc about ms player count that's a bs metric

[Zeref]

More people played it than any other single player game. Which is all that matters. Go cry about it.

[Lightning77]

Just give a congratulations and move on stop being part of the whine crowd around here.

[RNTody]

You mean games people actually had to buy or that are exclusive to one platform? As opposed to being available on Games Pass to all PC and Xbox players, with extraordinary levels of hype and marketing behind it? Yeah, "interesting", but sadly "player count" may even entail sitting on the main menu for five minutes, as I'm sure it's all those who booted the game. I mean, I played Need for Speed Unbound for 10 minutes on PS Extra, I guess I'm part of the "player count".

Starfield may be successful from metrics like these, but the fact remains that it pales in comparison to all of Bethesda's previous works and is the lowest rated of their titles. If you want to talk about reality, Starfield will be forgotten in a year with a very low engagement: Skyrim, Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3 will live on.

Edit: I'm hoping the modding scene changes that for Starfield. I'm sure someone will have the bright idea of making landing on planets a thing. Who knows.

But if you want to be excited about "player count" over actual sales and critical performance, you do that I suppose.

[Zeref]

Yeah i'm more excited about how many people played the game over how much money the trillion dollar corporation made from it.

[RNTody]

@Zeref The point is somewhere across the globe where you missed it. Sales and good critical performance means we get more and better, the developer is likely to grow. Player count in a single player game that is available on a subscription service is utterly meaningless without knowing the criteria, because playing for 10 minutes or a couple of hours and deleting the game can make you part of player count for all I know.

[mrcatastropheAF]

It topped charts on steam as a platinum seller where folks had to pay full price to play so despite ratings and reviews the "reality" you are referencing is the reality that Starfield was a financial success.

We can debate whether its a good game and worthy of all the hype it received but what can't be debated is the games financial success.

The game was likely given to over 8 million people via GP subscription and still managed to sell millions on Steam...put a nail in that "GP hurts sales" argument as well while we're at it.

[RNTody]

@mrcatastropheAF Hate to break it to you buddy but Starfield certainly didn't sell many millions on Steam, there are no sales stats available and some estimates put it at 2.5 million copies sold in total across all platforms, which pales compares to previous Bethesda games. Not to mention its active Steam player count, meaning people currently playing the game, has dwindled to numbers less than games like Skyrim, The Witcher 3, Fallout 4, heck even Batman Arkham Knight still has half the average player count of Starfield.

Yet, we can't find any sales numbers for Starfield, so you cannot draw the conclusions you're drawing. You also used the phrase "platinum seller" without defining it. What does that mean? Top 12 sold titles? 400,000 copies?

You cannot conclude the game was a financial success, because Microsoft does its usual of telling you about player count and hours spent orbiting planets but won't disclose sales.

[rippermcrip]

There's no insecurity. I was pointing how how ignorant your logic is when you apply some common sense.

You suggested the game did well because of how good it is, when that had nothing to do with it.

[Petebloodyonion]

"This website covered it better. This is the reality. Deal with it. Nintendo is covered properly and so is Playstation. Your excuses don't matter."

Did you bother to check your data?
https://exputer.com/news/ga...

there's a nice graph in the article giving info and Starfield appears as #8 on the Xbox Platform but appears nowhere else (not on PC). As for Nintendo, they validated only USA and UK data and the usual single-player entries are all there (Zelda, Mario).

So again what does this article try to prove? that if I squint my eyes and believe in Santa it will make Starfield the most-played game of all time? the best game played between Date X and Date Y?

Again there's no concrete explanation on how they are gathering the data and how it can be proven fact for the world.
heck here's one concrete data in a similar fashion
According to the games being played by PeteBloodyOnion on his average game time
Walkabout minigolf is the most game played of the year 2023 putting an Indy Quest title ahead of Massive popular games like COD, Fortenite, etc. Walkabout Minigolf is secretly showing that VR is growing fast.

[Plague-Doctor27]

The issue is that the title suggests it reached top 10 overall across Xbox, PC, and PS5. The data clearly shows it was only in the top 10 on xbox. There is no overall top 10 in their report. Also Switch has TotK, Mario Wonder, etc. No idea why they don't count. Also, MAU data is collected by most countries so they just gathered it all together. I'd trust the numbers/data they're presenting

[andy85]

Now see its ranking if it wasn't given away 'free'. Baffles me how much people cling to stuff. It didn't blow anything away. It isn't hard to spin anything, the massive marker is its the only thing in your list you could play without paying anything extra. Also, it literally says without playstation data, so how can they include it in the wording above playstation. So it's just an Xbox and PC list 🙃

[HansyJ]

Incompetent response. On the surface you can say that but behind it all as
Others have explained it in reality was a flop compared to what it should have done

[Zeref]

A flop that sold at least 4 million on Steam and likely has 10s of millions of players on Gamepass or bought on Xbox and was played by more people than any other single player game 🙂

No matter how you spin your theory that it's a flop does not add up. Hard data can't be argued against.

[fr0sty]

THIS JUST IN!!! Xbox Series X leads every other console and PC by most drops of sweat emitted from the palms of their players... no data was available for PS5, PC, or Switch, but this surely means that Xbox is #1 above all others, because none of the other systems were even in the top 10!!!

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Obviously it was never the biggest flop ever, but it also has a lot of issues that people have spoken on and thoroughly detailed. And it didn't win game of the year or rpg or whatever, so it obviously didn't blow every other game away either. It's really just another Bethesda game at the end of the day.

[Zeref]

And yet it was played more than any other single player game 🙂

[Gameseeker_Frampt]

@Zeref

Except it isn't "the ONLY single player game in the top 10" - right above where it states that is the chart that shows Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Hogwarts Legacy in the Switch Top 10.

Also remember that these reports are put together by analyst groups looking to sell their information to investors. They don't say where they get their information from and most of it is vague guesses meant to impress those who know nothing of the actual video game market. The fact that they are comparing the MAU of 4 different platforms without mentioning the actual size of the userbase shows how flawed this report is. The top 10 MAU on Xbox is going to mean something different than the MAU on Switch which has 4 times as many users

[Gamingsince1981]

It was top 10 on only xbox ......imagine cheering because it was number 8 in a list of terrible games for xbox. This isn't about the other platforms lol

[KwietStorm_BLM]

"And yet it was played more than any other single player game"

You say that as if it backs up any claim you made. It, in fact, did not 'blow every other game out the water.' That statement doesn't even make any sense.

[Flewid638]

That's like saying Fortnite is good because millions of junior high school kids are playing it.

I haven't seen a single award recognition for Starfield all year.

[VincentVanBro]

The data was only pc and Xbox. Why would you think tears of the kingdom or Spider-Man 2 would show up?

[GamingManiac]

LOL and how many of those actually completed the game, or even played for more than a couple hours?

[Lightning77]

Same can be said for any game. Hell 50% of Baldurs Gate Players didn't even beat Act 1, 10% didn't even complete the tutorial. Baldurs Gate, easily one of the most popular games last year. Full priced, half priced on a subscription doesn't matter. Doesn't change ppls gaming habits. Hey, you would think if you spent 70 you would sit and get the most of out said game. As I said ppls gaming habits have changed over the past decade more distractions and being pulled around constantly. Yes even made worse with something like GP. How many beat it or complete is a redundant metric.

[RNTody]

@Lightning77 You're so right, player count and how many players beat a game, especially on a subscription service, is a redundant metric. However unlike Starfield, Balders Gate 3 can boast very high sales and exceptional critical performance. Once someone buys a game, it's irrelevant what they do with it thereafter. As long as it's not a refund, the sale is made and the developer gets theirs. With Games Pass, playing for 10 minutes and deleting may make you part of the "player count" but it certainly is a redundant metric.

[FGHFGHFGH]

Baldurs Gate 3 is still in top 10 sales on steam and top 10 played games (released before starfield) while starfield is like #300 below games like division 2 and fishing planet

[MrBaskerville]

Everybody would want to play it, as everyone played Skyrim. But that doesn't mean it'll have staying power. I don't believe it will have as strong legs as Skyrim had.

[Obscure_Observer]

"I don't believe it will have as strong legs as Skyrim had."

No game needs to have strong legs as Skyrim to be successful.

Starfield is nothing but a VERY successful new IP which performed way better in comparison to other big, beloved and well established gaming franchises.

Congrats to Todd and everyone at Bethesda.

I can´t wait for Shattered Space and the official Mod support coming this year

[Tacoboto]

What was that figure from earlier in the week, like 60% of game time or something like that is spent on games older than 6 years?

No wonder it's like that, when people think even RPGs *need* to have legs for a decade, immediately when they launch.

[fr0sty]

You know a game is doing bad when it has to resort to other statistics like MAU, which can be easily skewed, instead of outright sales, to justify its existence.

[MrBaskerville]

But it needs to make money. We'll never know if it did. But maybe a lot of people just paid for 1 month of gamepass and that was that. I'm glad I didn't pay, never want to play it again. By far the worst Bethesda rpg.

[Crows90]

You're right...Starfield is nothing but initial success in monthly active users. That's all we know for sure!

[Armaggedon]

The downvotes though. These people want this game to be a failure so bad. Its okay, people have been jumping them since fallout 4. People want to strong arm Bethesda into making different games. If you dont like what they make…. Dont play it

[Zeref]

You don't believe it or you don't want it to cuz it's an Xbox game? The game is not even a year old. Hasn't even gotten it's first DLC yet or even official mod support.

[MrBaskerville]

I just get the impression that lots of people were dissapointed. They kinda removed the one thing that gave their games appeal, leaving you with just the jank.

I'm sure there are tons of fans, but it's one of the more contentious releases from Bethesda (still mixed reviews on steam). I'm sure Fallout 76 also have fans, but no one would claim it was a fan favorite.

[Crows90]

It's a Bethesda game...Xbox has little to do with it.

[ChasterMies]

“One striking observation was that Starfield emerged as the sole single-player game to make it to the top ten on Xbox and PC in terms of average MAU (Monthly Average Users), even without PlayStation data due to it not being released on that platform”

There are too many caveats to parse what this is saying. The article links to a report from “newzoo” that can be sent to your e-mail inbox.

[Plague-Doctor27]

What's weird is their data (you can open the report as a PDF) shows Starfield as #8 on xbox and not in the top 10 at all for PC. Also TotK and Mario Wonder, among other games, are #2 and #3 on Switch. Their wording is very strange.

[Petebloodyonion]

It's hard to understand this article and the data in it since we can't access to any of the data.
1) "One striking observation was that Starfield emerged as the sole single-player game to make it to the top ten on Xbox and PC in terms of average MAU (Monthly Average Users), even without PlayStation data due to it not being released on that platform."

Does this mean that only took PC and Xbox to make that claim?

2) Where's Nintendo into this for they don't seem to be present in the data collection?

[MrBaskerville]

Super Mario Wonder or Zelda would probably ruin the story.

[rippermcrip]

It was free on GP. It was the most hyped game for how long? So none of this is a surprise.

It doesn't mean the game was any good. It doesn't mean anyone stuck with the game and continues to play it. Article even mentions that people have since lost interest in it.

[MrBaskerville]

I think to some people this doesn't matter. xbox won, Starfield is game of the decade.

[ravens52]

MAU... Really these are the numbers were using now LMFAO. I can't, I just can't.

[Futureshark]

Was it four? No??
Three??

[Einhander1972]

This article is fake, and it links to a newzoo graph that was posted at the start of last year. It's copywrite date is 2023 and there are only two references to Starfield one of which is talking about how it's a highly anticipated release delayed from 2022 into 2023.

"The pandemic didn’t just affect playtime—on the
development side of the industry, many title launches
have been delayed from 2022 to at least 2023. These
delays also contributed to 2022’s decrease in playtime
and spending, especially for anticipated titles like The
Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Bethesda’s IP
Starfield.

The silver lining is 2023 should be packed with top games
across many genres and on every platform."

[Goosebumps]

I think they updated the report

[Einhander1972]

This information seems to be presented in an extremely misleading way, it's in the top ten on xbox, not the way these sites are presenting it as if it's across all platforms.

And I will say what I always say, MAU is a BS statistic, MAU is not a representation of financial stability. I want to hear what games were most profitable, a profitable studio can keep a lights on.

[Plague-Doctor27]

The newzoo report they linked to even has data on Palworld. Pretty sure it is up to date

[anast]

No real numbers, not even the most played on steam, and game pass

[Psychonaut85]

Yeah. Doesn’t matter when its numbers are now lower than Skyrim. People would rather play the game you made 13 years ago.

[raWfodog]

Easy to see since it was highly marketed and overly hyped to be this generational masterpiece work-of-art. Player engagement quickly dropped after it turned out to be just an okay game. I haven’t played it yet so I can’t honestly say how good it is but it’s still on my backlog list to play one day once the complete edition is released with all patches and improvements added.

[Knightofelemia]

That many people enjoying it good for them I just won't play it I am not a real big Bethesda fan

[PhillyDonJawn]

Massive hit, this gonna have some people fuming. Starfield was much like LeBron James. Massive hype before it dropped. Lived up to success, loved by many but hated by many who wanted to see it fail

[TheEroica]

Congratulations Starfield!

[Armaggedon]

People keep hating on this game, but they will come to appreciate it once games like this dont exist anymore.

[Kekewei]

I don't care how happy MS or xbox fans are with "success" of starfield just keep this game away from ps5, thanks.

[SimpleDad]

All I know from word of mouth, social media players that this game was a joke.

[bleedsoe9mm]

Cant wait for Shattered Space

[gold_drake]

so, their data shows it on #8 on xbox and not the top 10 on steam.

sooo .... what?

[Abear21]

Congrats Bethesda! Just let this baby ride out and let the sales and cash pile up. Surely there is no need to improve this gem of a game as tons of people are playing it and it’s a real system seller.

Wait, didn’t most of those millions of players access this game for free? Oh yeah, that little detail.

[Extermin8or3_]

The game was essentially given away. It must have cost like 500m minimum to create and market maybe more. No way did it sell.... What 7.2 million sales would have been needed if MS recieved 100% of each sale to break even with a total Dev budget and marketing budget of 500 million combined. I suspect once marketing is factored in it cost more than that. Without games pass, those kind of sales figures are viable but with it, no way in hell. Which ofc is why it will get a ps5 release eventually and then if they can sell copies on ps5 which they probably can they'll probably end up with it being profitable.

[SinisterKieran]

I had to play it to learn what a boring mess it was.

[Flewid638]

I got it free on GamePass and I still want my money back. It was that disappointing.

[DustMan]

I recently restarted the game, and grinded through the first few hours. The game definitely picks up once you've completed a few story quests. I was not impressed at release, but as of now I find it to be pretty enjoyable for what it is.