Only three months after launch, 12 million people have played the space-faring Starfield
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer revealed the big number at this year’s CCXP entertainment convention in Brazil. “Starfield has been awesome,” Spencer says in an event interview. “One of the special things about my job is that I get to play games very early in development,” he continues, “in fact, I was playing Starfield about this time last year… and I could tell when I was playing – and from the fact that I couldn’t stop playing – that this was probably gonna be a pretty special game.”
That suspicion appears to have been confirmed, as the space epic has 12 million players and is one of the company’s “top ten most played games from our studios.” Spencer did not reveal the percentage of people who purchased the game versus those who simply downloaded it from Game Pass, but the game did propel the subscription service to its biggest “single day ever.”
Starfield has a long way to go before it can compete with its two larger, older siblings. Skyrim has sold 60 million copies since its release a decade ago, while the post-apocalyptic Fallout 4 has sold 25 million – and Spencer is hoping the studio can pull off the feat a third time.
When asked if he sees Skyrim-level success for Starfield, Spencer simply says, “That’s our goal.” Later, he explains that Todd Howard and the team want “people who love space and space exploration” to stick with Starfield as long as fantasy fans have with Skyrim. “A ton of confidence that for many, many years, Starfield will be sitting very high.”
According to the Xbox boss, Bethesda is aiming for that longevity with the upcoming Shattered Space expansion and official mod support. Skyrim was given immortal legs thanks to mods.