Starfield Shattered Space is already struggling to make an impact on Steam

Starfield is one of those games that forever seems to be wobbling on a knife-edge, balanced between world-breaking success and becoming a forgotten failure. New DLC Shattered Space is out now for the title and despite many fans looking forward to the launch, it doesn’t appear to have changed much for Bethesda’s RPG. Player numbers on Steam haven’t improved hugely and the expansion is currently sitting on a ‘mixed’ rating, with many fans venting their frustration at the expansion.

It seems that the biggest bone of contention with Starfield players is that the Shattered Space DLC is simply more of the RPG. Looking through recent reviews, many come from fans returning after a long absence to see how much the game has changed and what’s new. For them, it appears that simply receiving more of the game isn’t enough to move the dial on any previous negative opinions.

“This is sadly not what I expected from Bethesda, and is just more Starfield like the base game,” reads one popular review on Steam. “You get one tiny city, re-skinned weapons, clothing, and nothing really notable,” says another. “The fact that they have the audacity to charge the same price for this as Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty blows me away,” opines one more.

Of course, the DLC is currently at a ‘mixed’ rating with 44% of reviews being positive, so there are some glimmers of hope for Starfield among the disappointed comments. “This DLC is an improvement over some of the weaker areas of the base game,” one notable review reads. “Dazra is quite interesting visually and it seems like there’s a lot of options in dialogue that I’ve been able to use in minor sidequests,” says one player who enjoys the feel of the new areas. “Shattered Space is exactly what Starfield should’ve been, a wide open map with a story, side quests, and a ton of land to wander and explore,” enthuses another.

In terms of the DLC’s impact, however, it doesn’t appear to have drawn that many back to the game, at least on Steam. At the time of writing Starfield has a 24-hour peak concurrency of 21,792 players, which is far down from its all-time peak of 330,723. To put that in context, it’s an increase of 54% compared to its pre-DLC daily peak. Comparing that to another title, while Starfield is obviously not Elden Ring, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion shifted the dial far more considerably for the game, with its Steam players jumping up 348%.

Of course, caveats do apply. The game may well be more popular on the Game Pass service, and there is no information available regarding numbers for console players. Despite that, this serves as a good indicator of the impact of the DLC.

All of this means that knife-edge that Starfield teeters on remains unchanged, with its first DLC giving some fans what they were looking for, but frustrating others. The Shattered Space DLC for Starfield is out now. If you’d like to check out the expansion for yourself, you can head over to Steam to make up your own mind. You can also get the full lowdown on everything related to Bethesda’s game over at the Starfield Db.

Should you need to expand your game without paying a penny, our guide to the best Starfield mods will help you get more for less. Elsewhere, our best space games guide will ensure the galaxy opens up for you, ripe for exploration.

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