Starfield just obliterated a major Skyrim record

It's fair to say Starfield has been a long time in the making, and so has its incredible hype. The sci-fi game is officially in the hands of players, and they can't get enough of it (unless they're hate-playing it, which means they can't get enough of it and are pretending to hate it to impress subreddits).

We're finally in the throes of the galaxy, and even though it was thought that it couldn't top Skyrim or Fallout, it's managing to do so in one specific regard. Setting its stall out early, Starfield is already smashing one long-held Skyrim record.

• The Starfield map problem has already been fixed

Starfield's concurrent players count obliterates Skyrim

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That's one hell of a high bar to cross. Though plenty of naysayers didn't think it could be done, Starfield has officially topped Skyrim as Bethesda's best launch ever. Bethesda's outer space epic has reported a whopping 313,993 players exploring the cosmos at the same time on Steam. in the last 24 hours 

This is a pretty far cry from Bethesda's other champion on Steam, Skyrim, which managed 287,411 at its best on the platform. It's worth considering that this was back. at Skyrim's launch in 2011, and Steam wasn't quite as popular back then as it is now. Even so, this is a pretty big deal.

What's most fascinating is that Starfield is being played mostly on Xbox - but its numbers on Steam aren't quite enough to breach the top three of popular games, with Counter-Strike, Dota 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 winning out for concurrent players on the platform right now.

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Will Starfield maintain its playerbase?

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The biggest question on players' lips is how long this success will last, and frankly, we're just going to have to wait and see. Starfield is undoubtedly a big deal, but many don't feel that it's not the instant classic that Skyrim was.

If that wasn't enough, Starfield's day-one appearance on Game Pass has some worried there's a chance that its interest could simply drop off. We're obviously hoping this isn't the case, but it'll likely be over to the community to keep things ticking along until we get the first big DLC. 

Starfield has clearly been a labour of love for Bethesda, and deserves to be given the amount of hard work that's gone into it, we're excited to see the heights it can soar to. Okay, what Skyrim record shall we smash next?