The Elder Scrolls 6 might still be a speck on the horizon as Bethesda Games focuses on Starfield for the time being, but the previous entry in the long-running fantasy game series is about to celebrate a big milestone. That’s right, The Elder Scrolls Online is ten years old in 2024 – feel old yet? To celebrate, developer ZeniMax Online Studios is planning a full year of special events and new systems, as it reflects on the game’s success.
First launched in April 2014, The Elder Scrolls Online boasts a total count of over 22 million players across its almost ten year tenure, and studio director Matt Firor says the MMORPG has been “massively successful for many years now,” and continues to do well in 2023. Reflecting on the past twelve months, he notes that “almost two million of you joined ESO [in the] last year, not counting the players enjoying the game for free from the Epic Games Store.”
To celebrate a decade of The Elder Scrolls Online, a community event is being held for its birthday in April 2024, while a special ESO Tavern will be opening its doors in Germany on July 13-14, 2024. However, Firor notes that while PC players were able to start their online adventures in Tamriel in 2014, the game’s console launch came over a year later, in June 2015. “As such,” he explains, “we are considering the entirety of April 2024 through July 205 as our ten-year anniversary period.”
“We will fill it as much as we can with special events, retrospectives, and lots of other fun stuff to celebrate you, our community, and the ESO dev team,” Firor continues. January 2024 also sees a reveal show that will unveil what’s next for the multiplayer game, which is set to continue the story from the 2023 Elder Scrolls Online Necrom expansion that delves into the Daedric realms but also leaves us with a tantalizing cliffhanger.
Firor also addresses the game’s servers, noting that “In 2023, our number one priority – besides shipping Necrom and Infinite Archive – was to make the service more stable.” Despite the team’s hardware refresh causing some longer downtimes, he says, “I’m pretty happy with where things are – especially after our Epic Games Store launch in July, where we saw our highest monthly active user numbers since 2015.”
It’s been a long road for The Elder Scrolls Online, and it sounds like there’s even more to come. So if you’re not as fussed about the incoming Starfield Shattered Space DLC or the wasteland frolics of Fallout 76, and that Elder Scrolls 6 release date is still feeling a long, long way away, perhaps it’s a good time to journey back to Tamriel in ESO – whether you’re bringing friends or flying solo.
Alternatively, have a look through more of the best single-player MMOs, or escape to all manner of weird, wild, and wondrous worlds in the best fantasy games on PC.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.