Playercounts, milestones and Game Pass performance (Starfield hits 10M, biggest Bethesda launch ever, Ghostwire Tokyo hits 6M, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre hits 4M, Minecraft Dungeons hits 25M)

  • Forza Horizon 5: 34 million in 24 months (2021 to 2023)
  • Sea of Thieves: 30 million in 50 months (2018 to 2022)
  • Forza Horizon 4: 24 million in 24 months (2018 to 2020)
  • Halo Infinite: 20 million in 2 months (2021 to 2022 / Multiplayer is F2P)
  • Grounded: 15 million in 28 months (2020 to 2022)
  • Microsoft Flight Simulator: 12 million in 34 months (2020 to 2023, released in 2021 on console)
  • Starfield: 11 million in a month (2023)
  • State of Decay 2: 11 million in 50 months (2018 to 2022)
  • Halo MCC (Game Pass PC + Steam only): 10 million in 16 months (2019 to 2021)
  • Killer Instinct: 10 million in 46 months (2013 to 2017)
  • High on Life: 7.5 million in 4 months (2022 to 2023)
  • Descenders ( Game Pass numbers only ): 4 million in 24 months (2019 to 2021)
  • Gears 5: 3 million during opening weekend (2019)
  • Minecraft Legends: 3 million in 10 days (2023)
  • Hi-Fi Rush: 3 million in 7 months (2023)
  • Ori and the Will of the Wisps: 2.8 million in 8 months (2020)
  • Redfall: at least 2 million in 1 month (2023)
  • Scorn: 2 million in 8 months (2022 to 2023)
  • Battletoads: 1 million in 2 months (2020)
  • Chivarly 2: 500k in 3 days (2022)
  • Ravenlock: 250k in a week (2023)
  • Let’s build a zoo: 250k in a week (2022)
  • Rain on Your Parade: 150k in a week (2021)
  • [Never joined Game Pass] Forza Horizon 3: 10 million players in 23 months (2016 to 2018)

Games (1st-party or 3rd-party) that showed up on Game Pass but were also released on PlayStation:

  • Minecraft Dungeons: 25 million in 40 months (2020 to 2023, Day One Game Pass )
  • The Elder Scrolls Online: 22 million in 9 years (2014 to 2023) (not on Game Pass PC)
  • Fallout 76: 16 million in 57 months (2018 to 2023)
  • Back 4 Blood: 10 million in 4 months (2021, Day One Game Pass)
  • SnowRunner: 10 million in 34 months (2020 to 2023)
  • Metro Exodus: 10 million in 51 months (2019 to 2020)
  • Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: 8 million in 12 months (2021 to 2022)
  • PowerWash Simulator: 7 million in 10 months (2022, Day One Game Pass)
  • Hellblade: 6.3 million in 48 months (2017 to 2021)
  • Ghostwire Tokyo: 6 million in 17 months (2022 to 2023, 1-year exclusive on PS5)
  • Atomic Heart: 5 million in 3 weeks (2023, Day One Game Pass)
  • Rainbow Six Extraction: 5 million in 1 month (2022, Day One Game Pass)
  • DEATHLOOP: 5 million in 17 months (2021 to 2023, 1-year exclusive on PS5)
  • Two Point Hospital: 5 million in 45 months (2018 to 2022) (+Switch)
  • The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: 4 million in a month (2023, Day One Game Pass)
  • MLB The Show 21: 4 million in 3 months (2021, Day One Game Pass, with 2M copies sold on PS/Xbox so assuming ~2M players through Game Pass)
  • Wo Long Fallen Dynasty: 3.8 million in 1.5 month (2023, Day One Game Pass)
  • Outriders: 3.5 million in 1 month (2021, Day One Game Pass )
  • PAYDAY3: 3 million in 9 days (2023, Day One Game Pass )
  • Scarlet Nexus: 2 million in 9 months (2021 to 2022)
  • Wasteland 3: 2 million in 15 months (2020 to 2021, Day One Game Pass )
  • Exoprimal: 1 million in 10 days (2023, Day One Game Pass)
  • Disney Dreamlight Valley: 1 million in 10 days (2022, Day One Game Pass) (+Switch)
  • A Plague Tale Requiem: 1 million in 1 week (2022, Day One Game Pass) (+Switch)
  • Two Point Campus: 1 million in 3 weeks (2022, Day One Game Pass) (+Switch)
  • Metal Hellsinger: 1 million in 3 months (2022, Day One Game Pass)
  • Escape Academy: 1 million in 3.5 months (2022, Day One Game Pass)
  • Weird West: 400k players in 2 weeks (2022, Day One Game Pass)
  • Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2: 200k in 1 day (2023, Day One Game Pass)

Minecraft:

  • Minecraft: 141 million Monthly Active Users in August 2021

Activision-Blizzard’s F2Ps:

  • Call of Duty Warzone: 125 million players in 26 months (2020 to 2022)
  • Overwatch 2: 40 million in 2 month (2022)

Other Activision-Blizzard titles (playercounts):

  • World of Warcraft: 100 million players in 110 months (2004 to 2014)
  • Diablo 3: 65 million players in 120 months (2012 to 2022)
  • Overwatch: 60 million players in 60 months (2016 to 2021)

Mobile:

  • Call of Duty Mobile: 650 million in 31 months (2019 to 2022)
  • Minecraft (mobile + PC, China only): 400 million as of 2020 (+100 million added during the year 2020)
  • King games: 240 million Monthly Active Users (last quarter)
  • Fallout Shelter (mobile + consoles/PC): 180 million in 6 years (2015 to 2021)
  • Heartstone (mobile + PC): 100 million in ~4.5 years (2014 to 2018)
  • Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!: 33 million in 2 weeks (2021)
  • Diablo Immortal (mobile + PC): 30 million in 2 month (2022)

Miscellaneous (number of units SOLD):

  • Gears of War franchise: over 40 million as of 2019
  • Skyrim (2011): 30 million as of November 2016, over 40 million shipped as of July 2020, 60 million sold as of June 2023
  • Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019): 30 million as of September 2020
  • Fallout 4 (2015): 12 million shipped on Launch Day, 25 million shipped as of July 2020
  • Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (2018): 10 million as of February 2019
  • Spyro Reignited Trilogy (2018): 10 million as of September 2023
  • Sea of Thieves (2018): 5 million on Steam as of December 2021
  • The Outer Worlds (2019): 5 million as of May 2023

First-Party summary, sales and playercounts mixed (last reported numbers, console/PC):

  • Minecraft: 141 million MAU (including mobile)
  • COD Warzone: 125 million
  • World of Warcraft: 100 million
  • Diablo 3: 65 million
  • Skyrim: 60 million
  • Overwatch: 60 million
  • Overwatch 2: 40 million
  • Forza Horizon 5: 34 million
  • Sea of Thieves: 30 million
  • Minecraft Dungeons: 25 million
  • Forza Horizon 4: 24 million
  • The Elder Scrolls Online: 22 million
  • Halo Infinite: 20 million
  • Fallout 76: 16 million
  • Grounded: 15 million
  • Microsoft Flight Simulator: 12 million
  • Starfield: 11 million
  • State of Decay 2: 11 million
  • Halo MCC: 10 million (PC)
  • Killer Instinct: 10 million
  • Hellblade: 6.3 million
  • Ghostwire Tokyo: 6 million
  • DEATHLOOP: 5 million
  • Minecraft Legends: 3 million
  • Gears 5: 3 million
  • Hi-Fi Rush: 3 million
  • Ori and the Will of the Wisps: 2.8 million
  • Wasteland 3: 2 million
  • Redfall: >2 million
  • Battletoads: 1 million
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Minecraft is a game bigger then service itself :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Also just look at the Growth of Gamepass impacting the User base for a game

Early Gamepass titles like FH4 and Sea of thevies took more 2 years to reach above 20M

FH5 and Halo are at that point roughly in just 2 months

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Yup. The day one audiences for first party titles will be enormous.

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Can we even imagine Starfield’s numbers, considering FH5 did 10 mills in under 2 weeks, and almost 20 in 3 months.

If the game is a success reviews wise, it’s going to be one of the biggest moments of the generation for sure.

Judge Judy ain't got time for that

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Yeah it’s weird how much pushback Phil Spencer got for saying he wants this to be the most played Bethesda game ever when the numbers in this thread suggest it’s very realistic possibility. I mean, Skyrim had 7 million sales in it’s first week. Starfield doesn’t even have to do as well as Forza Horizon 5 or Halo Infinite to achieve that in player count.

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30 million players for Starfield in 2 months

Seems plausible :person_shrugging:

Edit: maybe not… Because it’s next gen only game😐

I don’t see that. It’s on considerably reduced number of devices than Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5.

Right, didn’t take that into consideration

Isn’t Starfield the first Major and New and Next Gen only title coming in the industry?

Yep – Maybe along FF16 too.

Where’d 2 months come from? Starfield doesn’t have to do 30 million right away, it took several years for Skyrim to hit that number - Starfield just has to beat that number in the next several years. Assuming the game is up to the quality we’d hope, I think it’s a very attainable goal. Sure, it’s a next gen only game (though that’ll be less of a problem as time goes on) and it’s on less consoles and that’s all going to take away from their potential playercount but the game is also gonna be so much more accessible for a wider audience now that it’ll be available on gamepass and through streaming.

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Gamepass

But it won’t have big consoles base like FH5 and Infinite has. Next Gen only, so not plausible :person_shrugging:

I think key stat we would have to know is retention and possibly how it effects retail and digital sales. However massive numbers to have people playing these games

That’s true, but my point being Starfield doesn’t have to beat Skyrim right away - Skyrim has been out for ten years, it doesn’t have to do that in a couple months, if it beats Skyrims total sales in playercount over a decade it’s still the most played Bethesda game. And over that decade the playerbase on Xbox Series S and X is only gonna grow.

I wasn’t talking about beating Skyrim… I was talking that game could reach 30 million with Gamepass like FH5 has 18 Million already in just 2 months

I will be curious with Starfield and Redfall.

Aside from them both only being natively available on Series/PC, they’re also both new IP that have no roots to anything aside from the studios (unlike Halo, Back 4 Blood, etc.).

Going to be fun to see the numbers!

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Oh I just got confused because 30 million is how many copies Skyrim was last reported to have sold so it seemed like you were talking about beating Skyrim. If you were just bringing up 30 million for unrelated reasons fair enough.

I’m pretty sure that even being a new IP, Starfield will destroy every Xbox 1st party game numbers so far, to me it’s a Cyberpunk case, sadly this one had been hyped for a longer time before releasing due to it having gameplay over 2 years before it’s release.

But, even if nowadays most people don’t know what Starfield is, once we see gameplay with starships, crazy brutal ambientation with these space cities etc, the word of mouth advertising will do it’s thing with the “Skyrim in the space” and it’ll get incredibly popular in a matter of a few months.

For Redfall i’d say they need content creators to help advertising, if the game is similar to Borderlands, it’ll be best played on cooperative, and these games must be popular on Twitch to be a huge hit (and must be good of course), if it’s good and they manage to get some hundred thousand viewers on there, it’ll grow quickly.

Did they ever say how many people have played Psychonauts?

With streaming being available on consoles now, I’m sure there’ll be a fair few Xbox One owners who haven’t been able to get a Series who’ll at the very least do some dabbling in the game via xCloud, while they wait for a time when they’ll be able to play it natively.

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Skyrim was absolutely enormous on PC due to modding, Starfield will be as well I’m sure.

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