Earlier this week, Bethesda Game Studios finally released the second major expansion for Starfield, dubbed Terran Armada. It was a long time coming, and fans had all but given up hope before Bethesda unveiled the expansion last month, along with the new ‘Free Lanes’ update meant to further please those already in love with Starfield.
Unfortunately, Starfield’s Terran Armada expansion, which dropped on April 7 for just $9.99, has fallen flat with fans, earning lacklustre reviews and negative sentiments across the board.
Starfield Might Never Recover
Ahead of the Free Lanes update, Bethesda Game Studios advised the community that it wasn’t about to become ‘Starfield 2.0’, overhauling the entire game and bringing millions back into the fold. Instead, it was an update that would further improve things for those who already enjoyed Starfield.
Terran Armada then arrived as the second major expansion, following on from 2024’s Shattered Space DLC. It was given a decent reveal by Bethesda Game Studios and was touted as introducing a threatening new faction with goals of taking over the galaxy, but it was a big promise with little substance, it seems.
If we look at Steam for a representative example, we can see that Terran Armada has earned a ‘Mixed’ rating from almost 600 reviews (at the time of writing). More than 45% of all reviews are negative, with players slating the expansion in many ways.
One user wrote, ‘Starfield is truly the biggest disappointment of this decade.’ Another wrote, ‘I understand this is only a $10 DLC, but the main enemy faction shouldn’t be established as a huge galactic threat when the main quest can be finished in like two hours.’
Even the positive reviews were bittersweet. One Steam user recommended the expansion but wrote, ‘Lots of fun but buggy as hell.’
Looking at the bigger picture, the arrival of Free Lanes and Terran Armada did little to boost confidence in Starfield.
On Steam, the game’s all-time high of 330,000 concurrent players seems like a distant memory. Terran Armada drove the count up to a peak of 27,000 players this week, but it’s not what you’d want to see from a game that was in the works for two decades.
On Twitch, the game’s all-time peak viewer count is more than 550,000 concurrent viewers, which was when it launched in 2023.
In October 2024, when Shattered Space came out, the peak count jumped to around 40,000, but for Terran Armada, which came out under a week ago, 13,000 peak viewers was all the game could muster, proving that nobody is interested in watching it.
Many have suggested that Bethesda Game Studios should cut ties with Starfield and move on to bigger, better projects, like Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5.
Do you think Starfield is beyond recovery? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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