Starfield among highest-earning Steam games despite “mostly negative” reviews and Game Pass

Starfield has made it onto Steam’s top-earning Best of 2023 promotion, despite the game being available through Game Pass subscriptions and garnering “mostly negative” user reviews as of late.

Starfield’s massive universe has been one of the biggest draws of the game since it launched in September. Since then, players have been getting lost in its vast universe, and looking to create their own stories in the stars.

However, sentiment has recently soured against the game. The title fell to “mostly negative” user reviews last week on Steam, and some modders have expressed that they don’t want to continue to try and make mods for the game due to it being “boring“.

However, that hasn’t stopped it from being towards the top of Steam’s highest-earning games this year. Valve has started its Best of 2023 promotion and Starfield has found itself in the platinum level – making it one of the best-earning games on the storefront. We don’t know where exactly it lands on that list, but it’s at least in the top 12.

Starfield sold well on Steam despite hurdles

This is surprising for a couple of reasons. First of all, the aforementioned turning of sentiment on the game. Titles often rely on good word of mouth to continue to sell well. However, this makes some sense as many players would have to own it and play a decent amount to share their negative sentiment. 

Bethesda

However, perhaps more surprising is that the game was available on Game Pass. If players had a subscription to Xbox’s service, they could play Starfield without any extra cost. You’d expect this to significantly eat into sales of the title on Steam, but it seems a good number of PC players would rather own it than subscribe to Game Pass.

Another contributing factor here is that Bethesda sold the game at a premium for an early access period a week before the game came to Game Pass. It’s possible that many just wanted to play it early, rather than wait for it to reach Microsoft’s subscription service.

Whatever the reason, it’s clear interest in Starfield was sky-high, and there was a desire to own it. While the game has shifted into a more negative perception, hopefully with continued support and the work of the modding community, we can see it have a long life in the vein of other Besthesda games like Skyrim and Fallout 4.