Starfield is officially Bethesda’s biggest game launch ever

Bethesda has announced that Starfield is now its biggest launch title ever.

It was confirmed by the publisher on X that the game exceeded the launch performance of games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4, seeing 6 million players and counting in under two weeks across Windows PC hardware and the two current generation Xbox consoles.

This is despite the fact that the game did not launch on PlayStation 5 like its predecessors, as Bethesda was acquired by Microsoft’s Xbox division in March 2021 and its new games in development (that were not subject to pre-existing contractual obligations) became Xbox console exclusives.

“If you’re an Xbox customer the thing I want you to know is this is about delivering great exclusive games for you, that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists,” said Spencer, at the time of the firm’s acquisition. 

“That’s our goal. That’s why we’re doing this. That’s the root of this partnership that we’re building and the creative capability we will be able to bring to market for our Xbox customers. It is going to be the best it’s ever been for Xbox after we’re done here.”

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Xbox chief marketing officer Jerret West recently described Starfield as “a comet game launch” and said that the release is “like a starting gun” to a “multi-year relay race of first-party titles”. 

The company has already announced several of the first-party games that are in the works, as you’d expect, including big names like Indiana Jones, Fable and Perfect Dark, the last of which has been described by those working on it as the industry’s first AAAA game. We’ll believe it when we see it, as according to VGC, things aren’t going well.