Yeah, Starfield numbers on Steam are "much" lower as I expected but on the other hand games like this were supposed to push Gamepass (otherwise it wouldn't make sense to release hundred million dollar games there). So, if it pushed Gamepass subscriptions by a big number than those Steam numbers are absolutely ok. If it didn't then the Steam numbers are a little bit disappointing even if still big obviously.

Hmm, if I just want to trick the AI (which already takes away the immersive feeling) then I can also just use cheat codes or something. Doesn't it make more fun to build something which doesn't trick the AI and is just good because of your building skills? 

Yeah, space combat is easy enough in Starfield that it just doesn't seem necessary. It was actually useful in Kingdom Hearts to cheese the AI like that because if you wanted to get the true 100% completion on the in-game checklist you had to clear all Gummi Missions, some of which were hard as hell, but in Starfield, I just don't see the need to cheese the AI with a ring shaped ship like this, I have only died once in space combat aside from when attempting the final tier on the UC Vanguard simulator, and that was from multiple higher level than me ships attacking at once.

Yeah it places Starfield at #34 on the all-time list nowhere near Fallout 4, so it'd be interesting to see the number disparity between PC and console Game Pass. Sure the Xbox app is still a subpar experience, but it has drastically improved and it may be a huge number that were wanting to play Starfield for only $10.

PlayTracker still estimates that Starfield owners on Steam are over 1 million, so it may a combination of those who were able to play in early access because it was the weekend against those that weren't able to play yet because it was the middle of the work week. So it'll be interesting to see what concurrent player numbers will look like this weekend. 

As far as games on Steam is concerned, Starfield would be the second highest concurrent player count for a game that costs $70 behind last years CoD MWII lol

Microsoft Store Update

Windows Insiders in all channels running version 22308.1401.x.x of the Microsoft Store and higher will see the following improvement rolling out:

New Game Pass page: Explore and subscribe to PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate through our new dedicated page. With the new experience, you can learn about Game Pass benefits, such as exclusive games, deals, free perks, EA Play, and more. It’s also easier to discover, jump in, and play your next favorite game, including Day One games, new games on Game Pass, Bethesda games, and more.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.2271 and 22631.2271 (Beta Channel) | Windows Insider Blog

Lol. The quest for the Charybois system is wild.

Here is my rough estimation of how to break down the 1m+ peak concurrent users across all platforms:

• Steam- 269k (roughly 25%)
• Windows Store/PC Gamepass- Roughly 36%
• Xbox/Console Gamepass- Roughly 38%
• Cloud- Roughly 1%

Why are those my estimations? Well we know that PC overall is the biggest playerbase for Bethesda games, the biggest by a pretty big margin, so therefore PC (Steam + Windows Store/PC Gamepass combined) has to be the largest platform for Starfield. We know that PC is the biggest platform for Bethesda games because we have pretty good data for their past games. For instance, we know that approximately 40% of Skyrim's 60m+ lifetime owners are on PC, with the other ~60% being split between 3 different Xbox consoles (360, XB1, XS) and 3 different PS console (PS3, PS4, PS5)

As for cloud, well, Xbox revealed in the court case that they only have the server capacity for 5k peak concurrent players in the UK, and the UK is their 2nd largest gaming market. Worldwide then, they likely only have the server capacity for maybe 30k or so people to use Cloud gaming at once, and those would be split across all games, not just Starfield, so 10k peak concurrent people playing Starfield on Cloud, or 1% of the 1m peak concurrent players across all platforms, sounds about right to me.