Starfield tops US sales on PS5 debut, but analysts call numbers lukewarm

Starfield climbed back to No. 1 in US sales on its PlayStation 5 launch week, but the headline came with a catch: the game’s first week on Sony’s console was strong enough to top the chart, yet still looked modest for a Bethesda RPG built on years of hype, patches and a huge development bill.

Bethesda first released Starfield on PC and Xbox Series X/S on September 6, 2023, and the PS5 version gave the studio a fresh sales win after a long stretch of mixed sentiment. Mat Piscatella said it was the first time Starfield had led the weekly US best-sellers list since the week ending September 2, 2023, which underlines how long the game had been out of the top spot before this platform expansion gave it a lift.

The sales estimate most people are using is about 140,000 copies on PlayStation 5 in the first week. Rhys Elliott of Alinea Analytics put that number forward, and Bethesda has not published an official PS5 sales figure. Elliott’s read on the result was blunt: “lukewarm.” That is the central tension here. Starfield sold again, but not at a level that screams breakout hit for a game that Bethesda has framed as its first new universe in more than 25 years.

The launch itself also did not arrive cleanly. PS5 players reported bugs and glitches serious enough that some asked for refunds, and Bethesda moved quickly with hotfixes after release. That matters because a platform debut can spike sales even when the actual player experience is shaky. In other words, the chart result tells you that curiosity was there; it does not prove the game suddenly won over a skeptical audience.

Bethesda has been signaling that Starfield is still a live project rather than a finished chapter. Before launch, the studio teased “long-term plans” for the game, and Todd Howard recently discussed Starfield’s future alongside Bethesda’s broader roadmap and The Elder Scrolls 6. There is also fresh noise around a possible Switch 2 version after a Taiwan ratings-board listing surfaced on April 15, 2026, though that remains unconfirmed. For now, the PS5 debut is a useful sales headline, not a clean verdict on Starfield’s long-term momentum.