A 'Rough' PS5 Port Still Launched Starfield to #1

For all the discourse about Starfield's PS5 port being buggy and borderline "unplayable" at launch, the numbers tell a different story. According to Circana senior director Mat Piscatella, Starfield was the best-selling game in tracked physical and digital US full game dollar sales for the week ending April 11. That's the first time it's topped the weekly chart since the week ending September 2, 2023, right around its original launch.

The timing lines up with Starfield's PS5 debut on April 7, which arrived alongside the free Free Lanes update and the paid Terran Armada expansion. PlayStation 5 sales accounted for 95 percent of its full game sales that week, per Piscatella. Analyst Rhys Elliott from Alinea Analytics estimated it only sold about 140,000 copies during that PS5 launch week, and Elliott has separately suggested Crimson Desert is on track to overtake Starfield's total lifetime sales by year's end. He also stated that given Bethesda's budget and decade-long development cycle, Starfield has "likely barely broken even."

So yes, Starfield hit #1, but the context matters. Its PS5 launch week competition was essentially MLB The Show 26 at number two and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 at number three. Pokémon Champions, which launched around the same time on Switch, is free-to-start and digital-only, and Circana doesn't receive digital sales data from Nintendo. The field was thin. Piscatella called it "a solid debut for the PS5 version" while noting that future momentum remains uncertain.

I think this tells us more about the release calendar than it does about Starfield's health. Selling 140,000 copies and topping a chart in a dead week is a commercial fact, not a comeback. If Bethesda's goal was to prove the PS5 audience was hungry for this game, the number they should be watching is what happens in weeks two through four, once the launch curiosity fades and the port's reputation has fully settled in.