On September 6th, “Starfield”, the acclaimed game developer Bethesda’s first original work in 25 years and a huge undertaking, was released. Just over two months later, the space role-playing game now has fewer concurrent players on the gaming platform Steam than Bethesda’s 12-year-old fantasy role-playing game “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim”.
On Monday, November 13th, “Skyrim” had 12,705 concurrent players while “Starfield” had 12,334 players. This was first pointed out by Rock, Paper Shotgun. It’s worth mentioning that this is not all concurrent “Skyrim” and “Starfield” players in the world, but nevertheless a useful benchmark.
The declining popularity of “Starfield” is perhaps not so strange since the game has received a rather lukewarm reception since its release.
Unfortunately, the enormous setup in “Starfield” is also its weakness. Bethesda wants to make a game that is as much action, role-playing as space warfare, but it ends up biting off more than they can chew. All parts are really good, but they may not be as well-polished as competitors’ games, which in turn may not be as ambitious.
