A quick look at the the Steam most-played chart shows the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim at a peak of 38,126 – the 12th most-played game on Steam.
While impressive in its own right, it’s even more incredible when considering the game will be celebrating its 5th birthday on 11 November.
With the upcoming The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition heading to consoles and PC this year, Bethesda has revealed why it thinks the game continues to be so popular.
“By 2011, pretty much everyone in the gaming world knew about The Elder Scrolls. Expectations were sky-high for the follow-up to Oblivion, with millions of new fans eagerly awaiting the next chapter. It was hard to imagine how The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim could manage to deliver on those expectations.”
The biggest change first came with the story, you were no longer relegated to being a bit-part (albeit powerful) character.
“In Skyrim you are the great and powerful – the last Dovahkiin, a prophesized hero born with the body of a mortal and the soul of a dragon, whose destiny it is to save the Empire.”
Add this to the snow-peaked world of Skyrim itself with its unique creatures and characters and there really is no game like it.
Of course, PC gamers will point to mod support as the main reason for the game’s longevity, a feature coming to Xbox One for the first time in the Special Edition.
The ability to change the world as you fit has seen an already long game become a thousand-hour mainstay.
Do you still play Skyrim? Let us know in the comments below and in our forums.
More gaming news
The awesome photos of what arcades looked like before video games
South Africans – this is why your Pokemon GO just stopped working
Loading ...
I play, though mostly I play God 🙂 By which I mean I wander the highways and byways and occasionally pause to look at the sunrises and sunsets, think about what else might look good there, then “make it so.” It’s not quite the holodeck yet, but it’s getting there.
The game itself is amazing mind you, the main story can take you hundreds of hours, but it’s the music, the atmosphere, the land and it’s people, the flora and fauna, that will keep you coming back time and time again. It doesn’t hurr that you are the center of attention, and the primary agent of the game, but there are also the wild open spaces, and the pure joy of discovery. Maybe it was there originally, maybe it comes from a mod, but there are always things to find that will delight you. People have been playing this game for thousands of hours, and still finding new stuff.
Then there are the mods big and small, some add a garden or a single tree, some add whole new lands teeming with new quests and new loot. Some change the look of the cities or the weather. Alter the Economy, or “the that light attaches to a girl” to quote Counting Crows, (“A long December”) it can be whatever you want it to be, and you have the choice of who you want to be. Be that a hunter, a cook, a blacksmith, or the mythical Dragonborn of legend. It doesn’t even impose a morality on you for the most part, unlike most games. There is no censure for bad behaviour and no applause for good either.
It’s a great place to get lost, and found again. Should you need there are always things to do, or you could just sit by the river during the day, pass the time of day with people. Then run a few errands for some coin, and then prop up the bar at night, where the rooms are cheap. River wood is good for that sort of thing. Tell Orgnar I said “hi” he’s a man of few words 🙂