Every Mainline Elder Scrolls Game, Ranked From Worst to Best

Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series has taken players across Tamriel for more than three decades, starting with a dungeon crawler in 1994 and eventually producing some of the biggest open-world RPGs ever made. Each release brought its own ideas to the table, from the sheer scale of Daggerfall to the freedom of Skyrim. Not all of those ideas have aged equally well, though.

With The Elder Scrolls 6 finally having an official name, there’s never been a better time to revisit the five mainline games that brought the series this far. Some are still easy to recommend, while others take more patience to enjoy today. Here’s how they compare.

5 The Elder Scrolls: Arena

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Arena deserves credit for starting the series, but its age is hard to understate. Released in 1994, it introduced Tamriel as a setting and gave players a huge world to explore, complete with dungeons and towns. The problem is that much of that exploration involves similar-looking environments, repetitive quests, and basic combat. It laid the groundwork for the games that followed, but going back to it can be a chore.

4 The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

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Daggerfall took the ambition of the first game and pushed it to another level. Its enormous world, detailed character creation, faction progression, and freedom to approach quests in different ways were impressive for 1996. That scale also came with plenty of repetition, especially inside its procedurally generated dungeons. If you want to experience it today, the open-source recreation and fan remaster of the game, Daggerfall Unity, is a superb option with modern improvements and extensive mod support.

3 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Credit: Bethesda

Released on November 11, 2011, Skyrim remains Bethesda’s most commercially successful RPG, with over 65 million copies sold (via X). It is one of those games where you can set out to finish a quest and end up spending the next hour investigating a cave, climbing a mountain, or getting caught up in an entirely unrelated storyline. Its streamlined RPG systems make it easy to pick up, but the main quest and several faction storylines are often criticized for lacking the depth that defined the previous two entries.

2 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

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Oblivion gets a lot right, especially its faction questlines. The Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild storylines are among the series’ best, and Cyrodiil has plenty of memorable side quests tucked away from the main conflict. Its level scaling can make progression feel odd, while the repeated trips through Oblivion Gates get tiresome. The 2025 Oblivion Remastered gives newcomers a more modern way to visit Cyrodiil, and the original also has a strong modding community.

1 The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

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Morrowind takes the top spot on our list thanks to a setting and world-building that are still hard to match. Vvardenfell feels unlike any other part of Tamriel, with strange landscapes, competing political factions, religious traditions, and lore that rewards players who take the time to read and explore. The dice-roll-based combat and dated movement can be frustrating, especially at the start. Community mods, along with the engine recreation project, OpenMW, can help with the technical side, but the world itself is the main reason to play.

Which mainline Elder Scrolls game would you put at number one? And how excited are you about The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel? Let us know in the comments below!