While Starfield was heavily criticized by many, the game managed to become quite popular in the months following its release.
According to a new infographic shared by Bethesda as part of the studio’s end of the year update, the game has been played by 13 million players. Back in the day, this would have been a smashing success, but as this number obviously includes those who played the game via Xbox Game Pass, it doesn’t translate into 13 million copies sold. The average playtime per player is around 40 hours, which isn’t too surprising considering the length of the main campaign.
In the end-of-year update, Bethesda also confirmed what is in store for Starfield in the future. Updates should be released every six weeks starting in February, including everything from quality-of-life improvements to new content and feature updates. Every update will be available for testing in the beta branch before launching. Among the new features hitting the game first will be new ways to travel, city maps, expanded ship customization, and new gameplay options, such as the ability to customize different elements such as ship damage, carry capacity, and new survival mechanics. As previously announced, the game will also get official AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 and Intel XeSS support early next year.
While Bethesda is also working on launching Creations for Starfield early next year, the studio is also hard at work on the Shattered Space expansion, which will include new story content, new locations, new gear, and more. The expansion will launch sometime in 2024.
Starfield is available on PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. You can learn more about the game by checking out my review.
At the start of my journey in Starfield, my experience was admittedly rather dull and boring, but as I collected more Artifacts and got involved in the sprawling sci-fi universe created by Bethesda, I started warming up the game, getting to the point that I have some difficulty putting it down. While Starfield refines more than innovates the typical Bethesda formula, it is undoubtedly one of the best games ever made by the studio and one of the year’s finest titles.
