Starfield’s Steam rating drops to new low as player exodus continue

Starfield’s Steam page rating has dropped to a “Mixed” score, just two months after its launch, continuing a slow collapse for the Bethesda release.

Bethesda’s long-awaited space epic has been on a gradual player-count downturn since its Wednesday, Sept. 6 release, with a 50 percent decrease in player count from last month, according to Steam Charts. Starfield averaged around 26,500 concurrent players within the last 30 days, and it continues to plummet.

One of the big reasons why—beyond people just finishing the game—can be found in the 75,627 Starfield reviews on Steam since debut. Players have continuously raked Starfield over the coals for a multitude of reasons, though some still defend it to this day.

A thing to keep in mind is Starfield isn’t a multiplayer title. This means its player count isn’t propelled by the competitive landscape of leagues and ladders keeping gamers in their seats, unlike modern titles like Overwatch or Counter-Strike.

However, its single-player experience still isn’t ticking all the boxes for a collection of gamers, many of whom have rated it poorly online. A majority of these players have pointed to Starfield’s lack of layers beyond its number of planets is one big problem. Starfield “makes you feel small in a small world that is pretending to be big,” according to one reviewer, and others agree.

Its story wasn’t far from critique either. Players claimed Starfield’s missions “are functionally the same as the first 10 you play.” This is compounded by what players say is a boring storyline, meaning you’re likely to get a few disgruntled gamers.

On the other side of the coin, some players claimed it had a massive amount of content to dive head-first into. Others praised the sheer number of planets available to explore, contrasting other players’ reviews.

All this has led to the game slipping into a “mixed” rating on Steam as the discussion around Bethesda’s space epic continues to rage ahead of Christmas sales.

Though Starfield’s current player count is a far cry from the 145,000 upon release, it’s managed to stay above the 10,000 concurrent mark throughout November so far. Whether it can maintain its remaining player count is yet to be seen.