We Love It's Guide to…
Explore Tamriel nearly a millennium before Skyrim, taking on quests, shaping a character, crafting, and fighting solo or with others.
Released 22 May 2017
Explore Tamriel's Regions
Follow Voice-Acted Quests
Build Flexible Characters
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.
Developed by ZeniMax Online Studios · Published by Bethesda Softworks
Set in Tamriel nearly 1,000 years before The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the game casts you as an adventurer making your way through a shared fantasy world. Its regions hold storylines, characters, ruins, and quests to discover.
Travel between regions to explore, complete quests, gather resources, and fight enemies. You can take on much of the story alone, or join other players for dungeons, trials, and competitive modes including alliance warfare and battlegrounds.
Develop your character by advancing skills, acquiring gear, and experimenting with abilities and builds. Crafting lets you make items, while housing offers a separate activity in decorating and furnishing homes.
Players who enjoy the game often praise its Elder Scrolls setting, regional stories, lore, and freedom to explore at their own pace, including as a solo player. Reviews also value the range of activities, from crafting and housing to group dungeons and PvP. Recurring criticism focuses on monetization—especially the subscription-linked crafting bag and inventory limits—and some players also report lag, repetitive endgame content, or frustration with newer paid systems.
Includes The Elder Scrolls Online base game plus the Morrowind, Imperial City, Orsinium, Thieves Guild, and Dark Brotherhood adventures.
Every legend starts somewhere and in The Elder Scrolls Online, it starts with you. Write your story into a vibrant chapter of Tamriel’s distant past that takes place nearly 1,000 years before the iconic TES V: Skyrim, and discover a world steeped in adventure and possibility.
WELCOME TO SEASONS - Step into new stories and experimental content inspired by classic TES history, delivered every three months. Play and unlock epic rewards with Tamriel Tomes.
A DIVERSE FANTASY WORLD – Travel Tamriel and discover a world of adventure. Explore mushroom forests in Morrowind, battle Daedra in Oblivion, or duel other players in PvP combat.
RICH STORIES ON A SHARED CANVAS - Immerse yourself in storytelling crafted with the same spirit as your favorite Elder Scrolls games. Discover an ever-growing world with friends or solo.
PURPOSE IN EVERY PATH - Choose from an array of quests and challenges that fit your desires and ambitions. Make this Elder Scrolls world your own - you belong here.
| Platforms | Windows, macOS |
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| Age ratings |
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| Players | 1–12 |
| Play modes |
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| Other modes |
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| Multiplayer | The game is an MMORPG with both online PvE and online PvP. It supports solo play in a shared online world, cooperative group content such as dungeons, trials, and world events, and PvP modes including Cyrodiil, Imperial City, duels, and Battlegrounds. Reviews repeatedly describe playing solo, with friends, random groups, guilds, and large faction-based PvP groups. |
| Multiplayer & mods | Add-on support is mentioned by reviews, but no provided text states that mods add, remove, or fundamentally change multiplayer modes or player counts. |
| Controller support | Xbox |
| Controller required | No |
| DLC / extras | 6 listed on Steam |
| DRM / EULA |
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| Content notices |
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| Metacritic | 80/100 View on Metacritic |
| Website | Official website |
