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Starfield Shattered Space promised to usher in a new phase for Bethesda’s beleaguered space RPG. It was to be a moment to reflect on everything the developer had learned since launch, showing real improvement in areas fans were unhappy about. For a while it looked like the dream was coming true as Starfield’s player count shot back up – not to the highs it launched to, but nearly enough to threaten Skyrim’s numbers. That threat has now ended, as Starfield’s player count on Steam has gone spiraling back down to Earth.
At the time of writing Starfield is sitting on 8,388 players concurrently in-game on Steam, while Bethesda’s enduring RPG Skyrim has 22,801. Well, 25,089, if you count both versions of Skyrim. That’s a big difference but for a little while, when Shattered Space was fresh out in the wild, Starfield was in reaching distance with a peak of 21,792 – the highest number of concurrent players it’s seen on the platform since launch.
Of course there are some caveats to apply here. The first is that this only counts Steam players, which means all those on console or playing via alternate methods are being discounted. The other is that this is a single-player game, so player counts don’t quite matter in the same way as they would for a multiplayer title.
That said, player numbers on Steam can be used, especially when talking about big games, to gauge sentiment and how popular a title is. While Starfield, at launch, beat anything that Skyrim has to offer with all-time peaks of 330,723 versus 287,411, it’s failed to recapture that magic in the months since. Now, it lingers behind a 13-year-old game, albeit one that’s got brilliant modding support and has become its own cultural phenomenon.
All this might paint a grim picture for Starfield but 8,388 players online at the same time on Steam in a single-player game remains incredibly respectable. It’s just that comparing these figures to Bethesda’s flagship title makes it all look a little underwhelming.
If you’d like to see what the fuss is about for yourself, head over to Steam to get a closer look at Starfield Shattered Space.
Should you want to head in a different direction, our guide to the best Starfield mods will help you make your existing game much more your own. Our recommendations for the best space games will also help keep your head among the stars.
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