Starfield: 'sick day excuse' searches peak on Google as game hits early access

Hm, Google searches for ‘sick day excuse’ have peaked just as Starfield has entered early access. Pure coincidence? Connected events? I bet that one’s left you pondering.

Those of you with Premium or Constellation editions of Starfield should now be able to enjoy the game via early access, with standard edition folks joining in on 6 September. Starfield has garnered a very respectable score on Metacritic, with us granting it a perfect 10 here at GAMINGbible. We wrote, “Every now and then, a new game comes along that changes our perception of what the industry is capable of. Starfield is that game. This is beyond what we’ve come to know an open-world to be. Bethesda has created a universe that, despite its vast scale, maintains interest and an impressive attention to detail throughout.” It’s no surprise that players are itching to dive into it. The only issue is that today is a Friday … a working day.

Take a look at our video review of Starfield below.

Could Starfield players be looking for sick day excuses in order to dive into early access? It’s possible. On 30 August, the search phrase ‘sick day excuse’ saw its highest peak in seven days. Early access opened up in the US yesterday, on 31 August. If you look at August as a whole, ‘sick day excuse’ searches peaked for the month around 26 August - still a couple days ahead of Starfield’s release. That 26 August peak remains the highest peak even when you switch to the 90 day view.

This could all just be a coincidence, but it is funny to ponder whether it’s connected to Starfield. Bethesda is clearly aware that players are planning on skipping work. Pete Hines posted a fake sick letter to his Twitter page for players to use.

It humorously reads, “To whom it may concern, please excuse [name] from work/school/chores for the foreseeable future. They are currently undergoing treatment for an infection from an Ashta bite after a recent expedition to Tau Ceti II.” Very funny.