According to Decrypt, Starfield, the latest release from Skyrim developer Bethesda, has become the top best-selling premium game in dollar sales since its launch on September 6. Circana data reveals that Starfield was the highest-grossing paid game last month, surpassing Warner Bros. Games' Mortal Kombat 1, EA Sports FC 24, and Madden NFL 24. As of now, Starfield is the seventh best-selling premium game of the year, selling more copies than Bandai Namco's Elden Ring and Square Enix's Final Fantasy XVI, among others.

Microsoft, which owns Xbox and Bethesda, confirmed that Starfield's release significantly boosted its business, leading to an increase in Xbox Game Pass subscribers. During the company's quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood stated that the gaming division experienced a 9% revenue spike, primarily due to Starfield's release and a concurrent jump in Xbox Game Pass subscriptions. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared that more than 11 million people have played Starfield to date, with nearly half of the hours played on PC. On launch day, the game set a record for the most Game Pass subscriptions added in a single day.

Starfield saw a substantial 6 million players within its first day, and the Starfield team announced on Twitter that it became Bethesda's biggest game launch of all time within 24 hours of release. Bruce Nesmith, a former Bethesda game designer who worked on Skyrim and Starfield's early development, expressed his satisfaction with the audience's reaction to the game in an interview with MinnMax this week. He noted that creating a new IP like Starfield was more challenging than working on Skyrim or the Fallout series due to the need for more original content.