No Man’s Sky is seeing its biggest month in years amid Starfield’s success
And in the wake of last month's major Echoes update
Starfield’s success might be making headlines lately, but another space game also seems to be reaping the benefits of Bethesda’s much-anticipated sci-fi epic: No Man’s Sky.
Hello Games’ Sean Murray revealed on not-Twitter that No Man’s Sky is currently seeing its biggest month “in the last few years” across all platforms - including PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Switch, as well as VR and Game Pass - in the wake of Starfield’s launch in early September. (Thanks, PC Gamer.)
On PC specifically, No Man’s Sky has recently seen the highest number of concurrent players - over 34,000 people - since last July, where it topped just over 40,000 simultaneous players according to SteamDB.
While Starfield’s launch has no doubt helped more players to discover or return to No Man’s Sky - either as they look to alternatives for vast planet exploration or simply discover it through recommendations for other games set in the vastness of space - it’s likely not the sole reason for No Man’s Sky’s bump in numbers.
The game released a major update, Echoes, at the end of August, adding a brand new faction of scrappy robots who serve as the focus of a lengthy new story chapter. The latest update also expanded players’ ability to blow up big capital ships in space combat and salvage precious loot, as well as adding the option to target specific parts of ships to knock out their weapons, shields, engines and so on. That can be while doing trench runs, like that bit of Star Wars.
Echoes marked No Man’s Sky’s seventh anniversary, if you can believe it. It’s travelled a very long way since its rocky start, and it looks like it’s far from done when it comes to taking players further into its ridiculously big universe.