Starfield Rockets Past 10 Million Players

After reaching 6 million players as of September 7, Starfield has now climbed past 10 million players, Bethesda Game Studios has announced. At 6 million players out of the gate, Starfield was already the "biggest launch" in Bethesda history, and now it's even bigger.

10 million definitely sounds like a big number, but Bethesda and Microsoft never said what their expectations were for the game in terms of players or timelines. Nor is there a good way to compare to past Bethesda game launches, considering the paradigm shift that is Game Pass. Bethesda did not say how many copies Starfield has sold outright versus how many people are playing the title as part of their Game Pass membership.

Whatever the case, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said Starfield will absolutely make money.

Starfield is exclusive on console to Xbox, and that means millions in potential lost sales. Xbox finance boss Tim Stuart testified during the FTC trial that Starfield was expected to sell 10 million copies on PlayStation. He said Starfield could help drive Game Pass subscribers and console sales to help offset the losses.

Starfield will grow with a story expansion, Shattered Space, and other ongoing updates over time, including DLSS support and the addition of an FOV slider, among other things. Built-in modding support for Starfield is coming in 2024.

News of Starfield passing a new player milestone comes during the same week of the massive Xbox document leak that revealed a trove of information about Microsoft's potential future plans. The leak, as it turns out, was Microsoft's own fault.