Starfield’s recent player spike is good, but it needs its Cyberpunk 2077 moment now

There’s no arguing with the fact that the most recent Starfield update has changed the game dramatically. On top of the much needed 60FPS upgrade on Xbox Series X, there have been plenty of other quality of life adjustments to the wider game too. While it’s true that the initial update might have broken the game for a select few players, for the rest, it’s been fantastic.

We can see this in the dramatic changes to the player count across all platforms. True Achievements reports that as of the week ending May 19th (four days on from the 1.11.36 update), Starfield climbed nine spots in its top 40 charts, rising from 29th to 20th overall. Similarly, SteamCharts has recorded an 19% increase in player-base over the course of the last 30 days. Of course, this is all data observed in isolation. For context, Starfield ranged between 145k to 50k in its first month of launch, which has dropped to an average of 5,500 now. This is generally expected from a single player game — players finish, they move on — though when compared to a title such as Elden Ring, which Starfield should have been able to compete with, it’s a no contest. Two years on from release, Elden Ring’s player-count is still edging around what Starfield saw the month after release. This isn’t a comparison of Elden Ring and Starfield, you know apples and oranges, but more a contextual reminder that Starfield is still waiting for its moment.

Well, luckily, there are some very positive signs to be observed. Aside from the slight increase in players across all platforms, Starfield is also going to be seeing updates once every six weeks or so, according to Bethesda themselves. It’s unreasonable to expect each of these to come close to the 25GB mammoth update this month, though we know games are an iterative process. Like CDProject Red with Cyberpunk 2077, Bethesda are likely very aware that their reputation is very much on the line with this game. In fact, I’d go as far to say that that pressure is exactly what they need. We’ve seen Skyrim and Fallout 4 getting plenty of updates over the years, with Fallout’s most recent coming nine whole years after release. Starfield has already started to see the same dedicated treatment too, and this year’s Summer Showcase is set up to be a game-changer reveal for the game.

The most recent update to Starfield has been adored by its fans, but if I’m being honest, I had my apprehensions about it. The first couple of hours I played the initial build after the main release back in 2023, I was blown away by the game. But, as I edged into double figures, then past 20 hours, I couldn’t help but think there was something lacking (land vehicles, most likely). It felt like the game was a stunning web of potential, but each thread had been cut short by jittery, jerky, and unrefined execution. I was prepared to give it another go — especially having never finished the main story — and the most recent update felt like the perfect excuse for that.

While it’s still not complete, and it’s by no means perfect, it feels like Todd Howard’s vision for Starfield is slowly coming together. The most recent update has unlocked plenty of its potential – graphics, gameplay, difficulty, and polish – though the weeks leading up the summer are going to be instrumental in transforming the game into what it could have been on launch. Exploration should be the word on Bethesda’s tongue, and the teased introduction of land vehicles might just enable that.