The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has officially crossed the 65 million units sold milestone, joining fellow fantasy role-playing game The Witcher 3 as one of the top 10 best-selling games of all time.
Confirmation comes from Bethesda Game Studios chief Todd Howard, who today outlined the company’s lineup of games following Xbox’s latest round of layoffs.
Skyrim launched in 2011 and sold over 3.5 million units in 48 hours. Over the past 15 years it’s been ported to pretty much every platform capable of running it, with years of mods helping to keep the game feeling fresh.
Xbox boss Asha Sharma added that with 65 million units sold, Skyrim has become one of the 10 best-selling games of all time. Fallout 4, meanwhile, has crossed 35 million units sold, joining the top 25. Starfield, BGS’ third game franchise, has had 17 million players, but we don’t have a sales figure. Instead, Sharma noted that Starfield was about to cross the 1 billion hours played mark.
BGS is currently focused on getting The Elder Scrolls VI out the door, although it is reportedly at least two years away despite being announced in 2018. Fallout 5, meanwhile, has entered pre-production.
“The Elder Scrolls VI is our primary development focus today, with the majority of our team currently working on the next chapter of the franchise,” Howard said. “With over 65 million copies sold, players are still exploring Skyrim 15 years later, but we know it’s been a very long wait for the sequel. The next chapter is on the way. We’re where we planned to be, loving how it looks, and playing it every day.”
CD Projekt announced The Witcher 3 had hit 65 million units sold in May in what has become a fun head-to-head for game sales watchers. The Witcher 3 is of course set for a new expansion next year, despite being released over a decade ago, in May 2015. And work continues on its own sequel, The Witcher IV. Could both The Elder Scrolls VI and The Witcher IV end up against each other in, let’s say, 2028?
For a bit of video game sales context, Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, with an astonishing 400 million units sold. GTA 6 is in a distant second place with an equally remarkable 230 million sold. Fellow Rockstar game Red Dead Redemption 2 is on 85 million.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].