Starfield has only been in early access for less than seven hours, but it’s already become the top-viewed category on Twitch, raking in 188.1k viewers at the time of writing as early access begins today.
Even prior to the early access period starting, Bethesda’s latest game was peaking on the Twitch charts with as many as 500k viewers at its most-viewed – thanks to a handful of Twitch streamers who got their hands on the title just hours before those starship doors opened for players who preordered the Premium and Constellation editions (or paid for the upgrade via Xbox Game Pass).
Currently, Starfield is beating out the ever-popular ‘Just Chatting’ category and bringing in nearly 200k viewers at a time when a major portion of the Twitch audience in the U.S. is likely sound asleep (or staying up as late as possible to plot their way through the stars). Popular U.S. streamer Shroud has been on the Starfield train for hours, drawing in 35k viewers even on a sleepy Friday afternoon in Australia (and the middle of the night for many other parts of the world).
The hype for Starfield is real, with other streamers like Jabo trying to visit every single one of the over 1,000 planets in-game. As more players jump in both over the early access period and into full release week next week, we’re bound to see all sorts of equally impressive and scuffed playthroughs, speed-runs, and clips surface from Twitch and beyond.
Reviews for Starfield dropped overnight, and so far the consensus seems to be generally positive, with some critics lauding it as an instant classic that elevates sandbox games, while others have given slightly more muted takes, critiquing the storyline and the overwhelming enormity of the title. Overall, most reviewers praised the relatively smooth playing experience, which they called (mostly) bug free – a feat for a game this big.
It’s likely we’ll see Starfield continue to dominate Twitch charts (and sales charts, too, if the Steam preorder period was anything to go by) as we nosedive into the weekend, and start to see player reviews come through as well as more and more people get stuck in.
Will you be playing Starfield this weekend? Let us know in the comments.
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