Starfield Just Busted The Biggest Myth About Xbox Game Pass

Bethesda’s newest giant role-playing game Starfield, which hit Xbox’s Game Pass service the day of its release, enjoyed a very loud launch last month. In fact, its developer singled it out as “the biggest Bethesda game launch of all time.” Now new data from consumer analytics company Circana backs up that boast with some numbers.

If you look at Circana’s sales data for September, you’ll see that Starfield was the best-selling game in the U.S. that month. “Add-on spending,” like the $35 Premium Edition upgrade many Game Pass members tacked onto their free base game to get into its Early Access, wasn’t accounted for in the data, which makes Starfield taking the number-one dollars earned spot here even more impressive.

Really, Starfield achieved these record sales in spite of Game Pass, which parent company Microsoft reportedly recognizes causes a “decline in base game sales 12 months following their addition [to the service].” Starfield’s next 11 months of sales, then, could be more contentious. There are already signs of its fresh paint chipping.

On Steam’s global Top Sellers chart, the latest Bethesda RPG fell a steep 26 spots from last week’s placement to a miserly ranking of 45, sitting between The Division 2 (#44) and Lies of P (#46), the latter of which also seems to be suffering from dwindling hype. Starfield is performing a bit better on Steam’s U.S.-only chart, lazing around the 27 slot, though it dropped 12 spots from its ranking there last week.

Big releases, especially during this packed October, keep threatening its standing. Mortal Kombat 1 and EA Sports FC 24 are right behind Starfield in September U.S. sales, Circana’s chart indicates. By some wizard magic, Hogwarts Legacy was the U.S.’s fifth bestselling game in September, though its concurrent player count seems to be shrinking ahead of its Switch port’s upcoming November 14 release.

Read More: Starfield’s Free On Game Pass But Still Topping Sales Charts

The wizard game’s surface-level magic has carried it pretty far, though—Circana’s analysis positions Hogwarts Legacy as the bestselling game of 2023 so far. And, to Starfield’s credit, its first month was impressive enough to help it creep up to the year’s number-seven spot, right under Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. There are worse places to be.