Starfield Surpasses 12M Gamers But Can It Match Skyrim's 12-Year Run? Xbox Boss Sounds Off

Microsoft's Head of Gaming, Phil Spencer, recently commented about the desire Xbox and Bethesda Game Studios have for Starfield to be a hit similar to Skyrim during an interview at CCXP23 in Brazil. “Skyrim is such an amazing hit from Bethesda Game Studios, and talking to Todd Howard and the team, really what they wanted to do as people who love space and space exploration, is give them that same opportunity” said Spencer.

Xbox and Bethesda are working on several fronts to make this success a reality for Starfield. The game’s first DLC, Shattered Space, is already in the pipeline. Meanwhile, mod tools are being made to enable the community to make the same type of content that gave Skyrim such an incredibly long life span. These moves give Spencer the confidence to believe that Starfield will be able to match Skyrim.


Spencer also spoke about the success the Xbox first-party title has been able to achieve so far, stating that “Starfield has now had over 12 million players since the launch of Starfield, and it still sits in our top 10 most-played games from our studios.” However, Spencer did not break down these numbers between retail sales and gamers accessing the title through their Game Pass subscription.

While matching Skyrim is a difficult target to hit for any game franchise, Xbox and Bethesda are certainly providing the support necessary to give Starfield a legitimate chance. The other advantage the game has in its favor is being available on Game Pass, meaning that there are a lot of gamers who can more readily give the game a chance, and possibly add more players to the community and keep it going for years to come.