Starfield Becomes September's Hit and One of the Best-selling Games of the Year
Starfield reignes supreme in the U.S. gaming market in September and became one of the biggest hits of 2023 right off the bat.
I don't think anyone will call Bethesda's latest RPG a perfect game, but there's no denying that it has generated a lot of interest. In September Starfield instantly became one of the best-selling games of the year in the US.
That's according to data collected by the Circan group on the US market in the company's latest report (via Mat Piscatella on X). In September, Bethesda's title left the competition far behind, being the month's biggest best-seller (counting sales in dollars and not including subscriptions or DLCs).
This successful debut was enough for Starfield to rank 7th on the list of the best-selling games of 2023 by the end of September, in the "premium" (i.e., buy to play) category. The space RPG surpassed only the biggest hits of the period, with Hogwarts Legacy at the lead, despite the fact that none of them were available at launch in Game Pass like Starfield.
Premium game sales in the U.S. from January to September 2023.Source: Circana / Mat Piscatella / X
Starfield is probably one of the reasons why September was a very successful month for the U.S. game market. Last month, gamers spent $4.5 billion, up 10% from a year ago.
So there is no doubt that Game Pass did not hurt Starfield and is indeed a huge success for Bethesda. The question is whether the game will manage to maintain this position until the end of the year in the face of the the growing annoyance and - even worse - weariness of players?
