The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Has Sold Over 60 Million Units - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 13 June 2023 / 7,905 Views
Bethesda's Todd Howard in an interview with IGN revealed The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has sold over 60 million units since it first released in 2011.
This figure is up from 30 million units sold in November 2016.
"We're sitting here, it’s 12 years after Skyrim, we’re looking at a game that has over 60 million copies [sold], and all these people playing it, are still playing it," said Howard. "So we have learned that we need to build in from the beginning. A game that has this long term play thought of. Hopefully, people are playing Starfield a long time from now."
With over 60 million units sold, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of the best-selling video games of all time.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim first released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on November 11, 2011, followed by the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 28, 2016, the Nintendo Switch on November 17, 2017, and the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 11, 2021.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
So 10 copies sold on average per port.
And there it finally is. We always knew it was far past that last report of 30 mil, honestly not even suprised by this figure, but still an absolutely insane number. Makes it the 6th or 7th best selling game ever I think.
7th best selling I believe, it’s a huge milestone
So much for The Witcher 3 being the best selling WRPG. Pretty sure I mentioned in that news article that Skyrim might have sold more.
6 vs 8? really that big of a difference? also 50 million vs 60 million, I doubt either cd projekt or bethesda needs to fret about the other
Skyrim is also ported to a Smart Fridge and Amazon whatever. It's on at least 10 platforms officially and released more than once on some of those platforms. So ported twice on the same platform.
He's right to say 6 vs 8 though. Bethesda is most likely not counting the VR port of Skyrim towards the 60m+ here, that is treated as a separate game by Bethesda. Same goes for the Alexa text adventure version, also not counted here as it was free to play and therefore can't count toward sales. The Samsung Smart Fridge thing was part of the joke video only, it was not actually ported to the Samsung Smart Fridge or the Motorola Pager, only the Alexa text adventure version from the joke video was actually a real product that Bethesda made.
So only 2 more versions for Skyrim vs Witcher 3 in this 60m vs 50m sales comparison, those being 360 and PS3. Witcher 3 did release 3.5 years later though, so it will pass Skyrim lifetime most likely, it sells alot of copies per year still. It is worth noting that Witcher 3 likely never would have sold that well had Skyrim not released early enough into Witcher 3's dev cycle to heavily influence it's development. CD Prokekt stated that they were influenced by Skyrim while making Witcher 3, it probably would have ended up linear like Witcher 1 and 2 were it not for Skyrim convincing them that an open world design could work. Not only that, but Skyrim's huge popularity helped to grow the fantasy RPG genre itself, the genre would have never been popular enough for Witcher 3 to sell 50m+ copies were it not for Skyrim selling many millions in the years before Witcher 3 released. Skyrim walked so that Witcher 3 could run (as the expression goes, though it was more like Skyrim ran a little bit slower so that Witcher 3 could run a bit faster xD).
"and the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 11, 2011"
The year is a typo, 2021 ten years after the original release.
They won't be reaching them numbers no more once it's released day one on gamepass,
And then of course it's Microsoft exclusive.
1 - PS3 Basic
2 - PS4 Physical Special Edition
3 - PS4 Digital Special Edition
4 - PS5 Digital Anniversary Edition
5 - PC Basic
6 - PC Anniversary Edition
7 - Switch Physical Special Edition
8 - Switch Digital Anniversary Edition
9 - Xbox Digital Anniversary Edition
Um, I might have an issue.
Edit - And for anyone wondering why they keep rereleasing it, this is why. Clearly it sells. Why spend 250 million on making a new game when they can spend 250 thousand refining an existing game and both will sell similar numbers? It just makes good business sense. I'd love to see Elder Scrolls VI come out, but like clearly Skyrim is still selling.
Wish they told us the console breakdown. It's weird when I get the impression the game company that is most transparent about sales figures is Nintendo. And i'm a Nintendo fan. Why not just go '20 Mil on X360, 15 Mil on PS3, 15 Mil on PS4, 8 Mil on Xbox1, 2 Mil on Switch' or something....that would be interesting information to know.
Does Elder Scrolls 6 sell 10 million between steam, pc and those that don't play it on gamepass?
Now remake Skyrim and sell another 60 mill.
Many of us have certainly double and triple dipped on Skyrim over the years lol myself included.
Very impressive but expected.
That is a huge number. Elder Scrolls VI won't get anywhere near this number of sales when it will be available in less platforms and being in the GP.
Maybe, but we'll have to wait and see. Elder Scrolls VI isn't releasing for another.....4-5 years minimum. Who knows how huge GP will be by then since Xbox's major exclusives are now starting to line up and hopefully that one major AAA per quarter target, how many different devices and additional ways you can access GP, and the game will of course still be on PC from both Steam and PC Game Pass which PC is Bethesda's main audience. And of course you can still buy the game like normal on Xbox. You're not forced to use GP.
Even then, who knows if it will be exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem. This could be amongst the "case by case" basis and be an exception.
Can't say it is impossible, but I very much doubt it is the case.
Once you take into account the 12 years since it came out in 2011 and another 4 or 5 years wait for for Elder Scrolls VI , and then add on the discounted pricing across multiple platforms, it makes one wonder how much more money and sales they would have made and how much happier we would be if we had seen the series on a 6 year cycle with Elder Scrolls 6 in 2017 and Elder Scrolls 7 this year.
If it's on PC it can do at least 30-40m.
Gamepass pc version
Which wouldn't be above the 60M sold now, and did Skyrim sold 40M on PC alone? Considering it being present on 3 gens on the main consoles I find hard to believe on such a split.
Not just on PC, but overall without the PS platforms. I don't think it needs to be discussed we'll likely see a decline in total sales, but that's just the way it is.
There is 3 platforms we could get skyrim, PC, Xbox and PS. With PS out and Xbox going near 0 due to the game always being on GP the blunt of sales would need to come from PC that is why I think even 40M total would be quite hard to achieve.
Essay Pro