Bethesda’s Starfield officially launched on Wednesday after about a week of early access. The game’s already proven to be a big hit, with over 6 million players, making it the biggest launch in Bethesda’s history. Interestingly, the game’s high profile also seems to be helping one of its competitors, with Hello Games’s No Man’s Sky seeing massive spikes in players leading up to Starfield’s release.
Spike in No Man’s Sky players ahead of Starfield release
The website Steam Charts tracks the number of players currently playing games on Steam. As Video Gamer pointed out, No Man’s Sky saw a spike in players late last month. A second spike followed a few days later during Starfield’s early access period. It’s impossible to definitively prove that the hype around Bethesda’s game led to the spike in No Man’s Sky players. However, that seems to be the most likely scenario.
Released in 2016, No Man’s Sky was once a poster child for games failing to live up to their hype. However, Hello Games released a series of major updates that addressed the concerns of many players. Many now consider it something of a redemption story. The number of No Man’s Sky players has fluctuated over the past year, initially peaking at over 23,000 players in late March. Player numbers trended downward over the following months, down to less than 6,500 in early August.
However, No Man’s Sky saw a sharp turnaround in the second half of the month, peaking at almost 21,000 on August 27. After a slight dip, it started climbing again when Bethesda’s Starfield entered early access on September 1. Its player numbers peaked at just over 30,000 on September 3. As of this writing, the game has a bit over 25,000 players but may be moving toward another spike.
