Starfield soars to the top spot on the UK Boxed Charts.
- Starfield has debuted at the number one spot on the UK Boxed Charts, bumping Hogwarts Legacy to second place.
- Rounding out the top five are Mario Cart Deluxe 8, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and Mortal Kombat 11.
- Starfield’s performance on the Xbox Game Pass has contributed to its impressive player count, and it’s expected to continue attracting players as performance issues are resolved.
Easily the most anticipated game release in recent memory is Starfield. And it appears that the game’s high level of interaction has positively correlated with sales figures.
Xbox and Bethesda invested much in Starfield’s marketing. A stand-alone showcase that delves further into the game was given to the title. And Todd Howard conducted multiple fan Q&A sessions regarding Bethesda’s most recent IP.
Microsoft’s marketing and excitement have paid off, as Starfield opens at the top of the UK Boxed Charts. This week, Hogwarts Legacy dropped to second place, as the game took its position. Mortal Kombat 11 and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga rank fourth and fifth, respectively, while Mario Cart Deluxe 8 comes in third.
From fourth to sixth place, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom dropped two spots. The new NBA 2K24 made its debut in eighth position. After all these time, Grand Theft Auto V is still ranked eighth. Another recent release, Fae Farm, is currently ranked ninth on the charts, while the Switch version of Minecraft dropped to tenth.
Unexpectedly, Armored Core6: Fires of Rubicon experienced one of the largest drops in the rankings. The FromSoftware mecha-action adventure debuted last week in fifth place but has since dropped to 20th place. Considering how recently Armored Core 6 made its appearance, this is unexpected.
Some games saw a decline in popularity over the past week, but some older titles saw an increase. From number 37 to number 15, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Game of the Year saw an increase. Dark Souls trilogy by FromSoftware returned to the charts at number 31, and Cyberpunk 2077 by CD Projekt Red came back at number 32. The lone paid DLC for Cyberpunk 2077, Phantom Liberty, releases in two weeks, so its return isn’t all that surprising.
Bethesda role-playing games continue to sell fairly well with Starfield. During the early access period, the Xbox digital store’s best-selling item was the Starfield Premium Upgrade. Five days before the game’s release, over two million people were playing the early access version.
Within two days after the game’s debut, Starfield also broke six million games played. Considering that the game is exclusively accessible on PC and Xbox Series X/S, the number is astounding. In the UK, Starfield’s sales figures were comparable to those of Diablo 4, which was released on PlayStation 5 and earlier systems.
With its astounding player numbers, Starfield effectively highlights the impact and reach of being an Xbox Game Pass Day 1 release. It will be intriguing to observe, though, if in the upcoming weeks player counts and even viewership on game streaming services continue to reach all-time highs. Once the performance concerns with Nvidia and Intel GPUs have been fixed, we anticipate that Starfield will be available to even more people.