The Game Census
The Elder Scrolls® Online cover art

The Elder Scrolls® Online

ZeniMax Online Studios · Bethesda Softworks · 2017-05-22

SteamPlayStation StoreEpic Games StoreAmazon

ActionAdventureMassively MultiplayerRPG

Franchise: The Elder Scrolls · Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative, Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) · Perspectives: First person, Third person

Releases: Apr 04, 2014 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Apr 04, 2014 (Mac), Jun 15, 2021 (Xbox Series X|S), Jun 15, 2021 (PlayStation 5), Jun 09, 2015 (Xbox One), Jun 09, 2015 (PlayStation 4)

Every legend starts somewhere and in The Elder Scrolls Online, it starts with you. Join millions of players in an online, fantasy RPG set in a vast living Elder Scrolls world.

The Elder Scrolls® Online is an Action, Adventure, Massively Multiplayer, and RPG game released in 2017, priced at $19.99, with an estimated 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 owners and a Very Positive review sentiment (81% of 161,675 reviews).— census verdict as of 2026-09-20

5,633
playing now
81%
positive of 162k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
5,000,000–10,000,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
452
twitch viewers (latest)
22.6
viewers/channel (concentration)
70/100
critic score (16 outlets, IGDB)
72/100
IGDB user rating (354 ratings)
184
Nexus mods (1.6M downloads)
4.30★
PlayStation Store rating (81,603 ratings)
71/100
opencritic · fair · 39% recommend · from 54 critics
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Verified
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$19.99
steam price (US)

5,633 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 10:00 UTC (census sample)

The Elder Scrolls Online, abbreviated ESO, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by ZeniMax Online Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is a part of the Elder Scrolls series. It was released for Windows and macOS in April 2014, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June 2015, and for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in June 2021.

Trailer

The Elder Scrolls® Online trailer thumbnail

The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle Launch Cinematic

≈1,000,000 YouTube results for this game's trailer search

Health check

Healthy
  • · 5,633 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 4,041 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~505/week).
  • · Review velocity down 15% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 1% of 27,535 Action games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 4.0M–9.7M copies

Review-multiple estimate from 161,911 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $1.99 at Steam (2025-03-13) · bundled 8×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $19.99 · on sale 57 of 95 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
3.7k3.7k20182026Week of 2018-03-01: 423 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 136 negativeWeek of 2018-04-01: 334 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 80 negativeWeek of 2018-05-01: 372 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 105 negativeWeek of 2018-06-01: 1,121 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 1,034 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 564 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 265 negativeWeek of 2018-08-01: 697 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 217 negativeWeek of 2018-09-01: 349 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 122 negativeWeek of 2018-10-01: 355 positiveWeek of 2018-10-01: 153 negativeWeek of 2018-11-01: 1,666 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 206 negativeWeek of 2018-12-01: 560 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 308 negativeWeek of 2019-01-01: 483 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 144 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 439 positiveWeek of 2019-02-01: 121 negativeWeek of 2019-03-01: 408 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 134 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 533 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 172 negativeWeek of 2019-05-01: 439 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 148 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 1,775 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 260 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 1,825 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 265 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 286 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 138 negativeWeek of 2019-09-01: 323 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 110 negativeWeek of 2019-10-01: 643 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 156 negativeWeek of 2019-11-01: 2,856 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 268 negativeWeek of 2019-12-01: 2,238 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 290 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 2,299 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 313 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 1,634 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 185 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 1,464 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 175 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 3,713 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 496 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 2,002 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 323 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 1,916 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 339 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 2,120 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 338 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 2,370 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 357 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 1,325 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 191 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 1,372 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 194 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 1,941 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 191 negativeWeek of 2020-12-01: 1,772 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 265 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 1,591 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 242 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 1,373 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 186 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 1,312 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 243 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 1,965 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 251 negativeWeek of 2021-05-01: 1,257 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 215 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 1,502 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 297 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 1,456 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 248 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 1,598 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 253 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 1,082 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 165 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 1,338 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 299 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 1,735 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 250 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 1,590 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 362 negativeWeek of 2022-01-01: 1,646 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 330 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 1,198 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 222 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 694 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 217 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 1,103 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 217 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 825 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 145 negativeWeek of 2022-06-01: 1,108 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 255 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 1,036 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 235 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 908 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 286 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 646 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 154 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 800 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 192 negativeWeek of 2022-11-01: 1,192 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 485 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 885 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 251 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 1,236 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 292 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 943 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 198 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 858 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 229 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 1,147 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 335 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 677 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 199 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 702 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 183 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 948 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 358 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 845 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 275 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 481 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 167 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 674 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 186 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 985 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 173 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 641 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 155 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 840 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 196 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 523 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 118 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 673 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 165 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 1,071 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 279 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 632 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 168 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 617 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 184 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 574 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 163 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 545 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 165 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 446 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 135 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 463 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 173 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 417 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 123 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 555 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 143 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 583 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 144 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 430 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 125 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 639 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 229 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 711 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 260 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 580 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 169 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 589 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 267 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 428 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 216 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 412 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 145 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 317 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 241 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 371 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 173 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 369 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 150 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 403 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 149 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 400 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 145 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 399 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 136 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 412 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 129 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 472 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 215 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 292 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 127 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 438 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 145 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 328 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 175 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 338 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 127 negativeWeek of 2026-09-01: 243 positiveWeek of 2026-09-01: 65 negativeWeek of 2026-10-01: 95 positiveWeek of 2026-10-01: 42 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

12k4.7k2026-09-14 19:00 — 9,922 players2026-09-16 04:00 — 5,543 players2026-09-17 11:00 — 5,838 players2026-09-18 19:00 — 9,408 players2026-09-20 02:00 — 6,923 players2026-09-21 10:00 — 5,340 players2026-09-22 17:00 — 9,115 players2026-09-24 01:00 — 6,408 players2026-09-25 08:00 — 4,680 players2026-09-26 16:00 — 9,272 players2026-09-27 23:00 — 7,230 players2026-09-29 07:00 — 5,285 players2026-09-30 14:00 — 8,557 players2026-10-01 22:00 — 8,288 players2026-10-03 05:00 — 6,483 players2026-10-04 14:00 — 10,840 players2026-10-05 21:00 — 8,766 players2026-10-07 05:00 — 5,554 players2026-10-08 12:00 — 6,702 players2026-10-09 20:00 — 10,452 players2026-10-11 03:00 — 7,266 players2026-10-12 11:00 — 6,156 players2026-10-13 18:00 — 10,406 players2026-10-14 10:00 — 5,633 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
28k510Jul 2014Aug 2026Jul 2014 — avg 1,993 · peak 3,107Nov 2014 — avg 510 · peak 1,187Mar 2015 — avg 2,122 · peak 5,067Jul 2015 — avg 2,707 · peak 5,971Nov 2015 — avg 1,585 · peak 4,487Mar 2016 — avg 2,425 · peak 4,852Jul 2016 — avg 3,286 · peak 7,008Nov 2016 — avg 9,037 · peak 29,305Mar 2017 — avg 7,430 · peak 13,220Jul 2017 — avg 8,379 · peak 14,351Nov 2017 — avg 7,829 · peak 14,783Mar 2018 — avg 9,980 · peak 24,641Jul 2018 — avg 13,578 · peak 23,384Nov 2018 — avg 10,897 · peak 18,228Mar 2019 — avg 13,616 · peak 31,851Jul 2019 — avg 14,606 · peak 24,568Nov 2019 — avg 11,532 · peak 21,527Mar 2020 — avg 14,756 · peak 25,432Jul 2020 — avg 22,007 · peak 34,962Nov 2020 — avg 16,956 · peak 33,807Mar 2021 — avg 20,190 · peak 36,373Jul 2021 — avg 18,760 · peak 31,391Nov 2021 — avg 15,781 · peak 29,494Mar 2022 — avg 12,654 · peak 20,947Jul 2022 — avg 16,162 · peak 27,980Nov 2022 — avg 13,300 · peak 21,737Mar 2023 — avg 14,944 · peak 23,269Jul 2023 — avg 15,477 · peak 24,231Nov 2023 — avg 12,153 · peak 19,637Mar 2024 — avg 13,632 · peak 22,943Jul 2024 — avg 11,575 · peak 19,349Nov 2024 — avg 9,960 · peak 16,563Mar 2025 — avg 10,923 · peak 19,385Jul 2025 — avg 10,237 · peak 17,083Nov 2025 — avg 8,999 · peak 15,060Mar 2026 — avg 9,636 · peak 17,801Jul 2026 — avg 9,064 · peak 15,605Aug 2026 — avg 8,888 · peak 15,009
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Chart history

PositiveNegative
16162026-09-212026-10-142026-09-21: 14 new positive2026-09-21: 16 new negative2026-09-22: 5 new positive2026-09-24: 10 new positive2026-09-24: 1 new negative2026-09-26: 7 new positive2026-09-26: 5 new negative2026-09-30: 9 new positive2026-09-30: 3 new negative2026-10-01: 2 new positive2026-10-01: 2 new negative2026-10-02: 1 new positive2026-10-02: 4 new negative2026-10-03: 11 new positive2026-10-03: 1 new negative2026-10-04: 11 new positive2026-10-04: 7 new negative2026-10-05: 7 new positive2026-10-05: 5 new negative2026-10-06: 3 new positive2026-10-06: 7 new negative2026-10-07: 10 new positive2026-10-07: 1 new negative2026-10-08: 7 new positive2026-10-08: 7 new negative2026-10-10: 6 new positive2026-10-10: 9 new negative2026-10-11: 10 new positive2026-10-11: 6 new negative2026-10-12: 5 new positive2026-10-12: 4 new negative2026-10-13: 12 new positive2026-10-13: 3 new negative2026-10-14: 10 new positive
New Steam reviews per day (census review snapshots). Positive above the line, negative below.

Price history

$64.81$0.002015-01-012026-09-032015-01-01 — best price $19.792015-12-05 — best price $59.992016-07-10 — best price $39.992017-02-14 — best price $29.992017-09-17 — best price $40.192018-01-22 — best price $29.992018-05-17 — best price $29.992018-09-17 — best price $19.992019-02-04 — best price $9.992019-07-31 — best price $19.992019-12-19 — best price $7.992020-05-11 — best price $8.002020-09-23 — best price $6.882021-02-10 — best price $7.992021-05-14 — best price $10.002021-10-12 — best price $19.992022-01-08 — best price $19.992022-04-26 — best price $16.792022-08-31 — best price $16.792023-02-01 — best price $19.992023-05-27 — best price $19.992023-08-22 — best price $5.992024-01-15 — best price $5.392024-04-16 — best price $19.992024-07-18 — best price $5.392024-11-01 — best price $5.392025-01-02 — best price $19.992025-04-07 — best price $19.992025-06-19 — best price $16.792025-09-02 — best price $4.392025-12-02 — best price $19.992026-02-04 — best price $19.992026-03-24 — best price $4.792026-04-27 — best price $16.792026-06-05 — best price $16.792026-07-26 — best price $16.792026-09-03 — best price $4.30
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

6671852026-05-31 — 336 pageviews2026-06-04 — 298 pageviews2026-06-08 — 667 pageviews2026-06-12 — 324 pageviews2026-06-16 — 326 pageviews2026-06-20 — 279 pageviews2026-06-24 — 278 pageviews2026-06-28 — 334 pageviews2026-07-02 — 280 pageviews2026-07-06 — 524 pageviews2026-07-10 — 421 pageviews2026-07-14 — 354 pageviews2026-07-18 — 435 pageviews2026-07-22 — 240 pageviews2026-07-26 — 280 pageviews2026-07-30 — 274 pageviews2026-08-03 — 322 pageviews2026-08-07 — 291 pageviews2026-08-11 — 338 pageviews2026-08-15 — 330 pageviews2026-08-19 — 324 pageviews2026-08-23 — 273 pageviews2026-08-27 — 238 pageviews2026-08-31 — 291 pageviews2026-09-04 — 276 pageviews2026-09-08 — 238 pageviews2026-09-12 — 236 pageviews2026-09-16 — 185 pageviews2026-09-20 — 294 pageviews2026-09-24 — 239 pageviews2026-09-28 — 244 pageviews2026-10-02 — 236 pageviews2026-10-06 — 254 pageviews2026-10-10 — 206 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Twitch viewers

2.5k1262026-09-30 18:34 — 2,479 viewers2026-10-01 03:34 — 1,095 viewers2026-10-01 12:34 — 945 viewers2026-10-01 21:34 — 878 viewers2026-10-02 06:34 — 537 viewers2026-10-02 15:34 — 1,369 viewers2026-10-03 00:34 — 909 viewers2026-10-03 09:34 — 723 viewers2026-10-03 18:34 — 872 viewers2026-10-04 03:34 — 721 viewers2026-10-04 12:34 — 1,050 viewers2026-10-04 21:34 — 956 viewers2026-10-05 06:34 — 348 viewers2026-10-05 15:34 — 462 viewers2026-10-06 00:34 — 534 viewers2026-10-06 09:34 — 340 viewers2026-10-06 18:34 — 555 viewers2026-10-07 03:34 — 378 viewers2026-10-07 12:34 — 590 viewers2026-10-07 21:34 — 667 viewers2026-10-08 06:34 — 336 viewers2026-10-08 15:34 — 599 viewers2026-10-09 00:34 — 546 viewers2026-10-09 09:34 — 209 viewers2026-10-09 18:34 — 760 viewers2026-10-10 03:34 — 555 viewers2026-10-10 12:34 — 378 viewers2026-10-10 21:34 — 611 viewers2026-10-11 06:34 — 347 viewers2026-10-11 15:34 — 722 viewers2026-10-12 00:34 — 630 viewers2026-10-12 09:34 — 167 viewers2026-10-12 18:34 — 844 viewers2026-10-13 03:34 — 405 viewers2026-10-13 12:34 — 267 viewers2026-10-13 21:34 — 603 viewers2026-10-14 06:34 — 303 viewers2026-10-14 15:34 — 370 viewers2026-10-14 17:34 — 452 viewers
Hourly Twitch viewers (census snapshots).

Details

WindowsmacOSMulti-playerMMOPvPOnline PvPCo-opOnline Co-opSteam Trading CardsCaptions availableIn-App PurchasesCamera Comfort6 DLC

6 supported languages: English, French, German, Russian, Spanish - Spain, Simplified Chinese

Post-launch support: 6 DLC released, first 2020-02-11, latest 2025-07-09 (Steam store data)

Where its players are

Share of Steam reviews by language (top languages measured) — a proxy for where the player base lives.

Player tags

PvEPvPRPGActionMMORPGFantasyAdventureLore-RichOpen WorldStory Rich

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Recent updates

Players also track

Aarklash: LegacyElswordMiddle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™Pillars of EternityDragon Age™ Inquisition

Similarity via IGDB.

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