GamePass absolutely counts as "sales" for a game. That's the whole point of having GamePass. Excluding people playing the game on GamePass hugely unfairly biases comparions made of games that are in GamePass.
As for BG3 sales, I am perfectly comfortable in making the assertion that its sales are hugely driven by all the graphic nudity and gratuitous sex. My very conservative estimate would be that 50% of BG3 sales have been based on the nudity and sex. So that's why I shrug at BG3 sales numbers, am not at all impressed by or care about them, and don't at all see any relevance therein to other RPGs or RPG developers.
I was trying to compare apple to apple, but you do have a point. Since people are basically getting Starfield for free on Game Pass, why not take it? Even with Game Pass, the sales numbers are almost the same as BG3 and we're talking about the studio that has much higher budget, recognizability, a big company behind it that can pour almost infinite amount of money and open world games are much more popular than crpgs. Add to that the hype that was generated for Starfield and you can clearly see BG3 sales are well above expectations.
As for BG3 sales, I am perfectly comfortable in making the assertion that its sales are hugely driven by all the graphic nudity and gratuitous sex. My very conservative estimate would be that 50% of BG3 sales have been based on the nudity and sex. So that's why I shrug at BG3 sales numbers, am not at all impressed by or care about them, and don't at all see any relevance therein to other RPGs or RPG developers.
Dude, you really should play the game or verify your sources. Claiming that sales are driven by graphics nudity and gratuitous sex is simply not true (I don't want to use a different word because knowing you, you may feel offended). There is nudity yes, there is sex yes, but it's a small fraction of the game and frankly, such comments are simply misleading.
