Summary
Starfieldis Europe’s fifth fastest-selling 2023 game, having surpassed the likes of theResident Evil 4remake andFinal Fantasy 16, newly released data reveals. This bit of insight into the RPG’s commercial performance sheds more light on the extent ofStarfield’simmensely successful launch.
The fact that Bethesda’s latest title is enjoying massive sales should come as no surprise, not least becauseStarfieldalready became a big hit on Steam before it even released. Its day-one Xbox Game Pass debut also contributed to its success, pushing it to six million players two days into its September 6 release.Starfieldhence boasts the title of the biggest launch in Bethesda’s history by a decent margin.
RELATED:Starfield on PC Game Pass Has One Big Disadvantage Compared to Steam Version
Further illustrating that success is a new report from Game Sales Data (GSD), which estimates thatStarfieldwas comfortably the best-selling game in Europe during the week ending September 10. Looking at the bigger picture, the RPG had the fifth-largest European game launch of 2023, having only been surpassed byStar Wars Jedi: Survivor,The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,Diablo 4, and the best-sellingHogwarts Legacy.Starfieldthus outperformed theResident Evil 4remake,Final Fantasy 16,F1 23,Dead Island 2, andNBA 2K23, which make up the bottom half of the said top ten.
And though Bethesda’s latest RPG is largely responsible forSeptember 2023 being one of the best Xbox Game Pass months ever, its same-day release on Microsoft’s subscription platform almost certainly hurt its ranking on GSD’s European launch week chart for 2023. Namely,Starfield’svery presence on Xbox Game Pass likely lowered its sales, which are the only metrics tracked by the GSD.
On the other hand, the game’s five-day early access period offset some of those losses, as the newly published chart also includes its pre-September 6 sales, making its launch week ten days long. And while Xbox Game Pass likely cannibalizedStarfield’sweek-one sales to a greater extent than its two-part release helped prop them up, the early access period must have helped mitigate the impact of the RPG’s immediate addition to Microsoft’s subscription service nonetheless.
Microsoft, the owner of Bethesda parent ZeniMax Media, is unlikely to be bothered with that state of affairs. On the contrary, the tech giant has long insisted that direct sales are merely one of its avenues for reaching customers, while repeatedly labeling Xbox Game Pass as its flagship gaming offering. And while the full impact of Bethesda’s latest hit has yet to be determined, some industry watchers believe thattheStarfieldeffect has already been hugely beneficial to Xbox sales.
Starfieldis available now on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
