Elder Scrolls Games Tier List: Every Entry Ranked
Tamriel's a big place, and Bethesda's been dragging us all over it since the early '90s. This list covers all twelve games in the Elder Scrolls family, from the DOS-era dungeon crawler that started it all to the shiny Unreal Engine 5 remaster of a fan favorite.
We ranked these based on what players and critics actually say when they argue about this stuff online: how the game played at launch, how it holds up now, and how much it actually mattered to the series. Some of these are easy calls. Others we know will get people typing angry replies, and that's fine. Rank them yourself in your head while you read and see where you land.
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SS Tier: The legends
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The game that turned 'Elder Scrolls' into a household name, and the one your uncle has owned on four different consoles. Dragons, shouts, a mountain you can climb from the very first minute, it's the kind of open world design other studios still chase. It's been re-released so many times it's basically a meme, but the meme is earned.
About The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The series' best-known entry, set in the northern province of Skyrim amid a civil war and a dragon crisis. Its open-world design and modding scene kept it culturally relevant for over a decade.
- Developer
- Bethesda Game Studios
- Platform
- PC, Xbox 360, PS3, and later ports
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Vvardenfell is still the weirdest, most memorable setting in the series: giant mushroom towers, ash storms, silt striders instead of horses. The combat and UI have aged like milk, but the sense of place hasn't, and that's why diehards still call this the series' creative peak.
About The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Set on the volcanic island of Vvardenfell, this entry is remembered for its alien landscapes, deep lore, and open-ended quest design. It's frequently cited as a turning point for the series' reputation.
- Developer
- Bethesda Game Studios
- Platform
- PC, Xbox
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
Taking a game people already loved and actually fixing the parts that bugged them (that infamous level scaling, the dated faces) is rarer than it should be. The remaster keeps Cyrodiil's Oblivion Gates and goofy NPC dialogue intact while making it look and feel like a current game.
About The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
A full remaster of the 2006 original built with updated visuals and combat improvements, released to generally strong reception from both returning fans and new players.
- Platform
- PC, Xbox, PlayStation
AA Tier: Genuinely great
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Radiant AI promised NPCs with real daily routines and mostly delivered something charmingly broken instead, guards arguing about cheese wheels, bandits sleeping through ambushes. The main quest and Oblivion Gates were a genuine step up in scope from Morrowind, even if the leveling system made enemies annoyingly tough to keep up with.
About The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Set in the imperial province of Cyrodiil, Oblivion introduced the Radiant AI system and a main questline centered on demonic invasions through Oblivion Gates.
- Developer
- Bethesda Game Studios
- Platform
- PC, Xbox 360, PS3
The Elder Scrolls Online
Nobody expected an Elder Scrolls MMO to last this long or get this good. Early reviews were rough, but years of expansions (Summerset, Elsweyr, the ongoing chapters) turned it into a genuinely solid way to explore the whole continent, not just one province at a time.
About The Elder Scrolls Online
A massively multiplayer online entry spanning the entire continent of Tamriel, set generations before the single-player games. It has grown substantially through years of post-launch expansions.
- Developer
- ZeniMax Online Studios
- Platform
- PC, Xbox, PlayStation
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
A procedurally generated map reportedly the size of a real country, with a main quest full of genuinely clever twists. It was a buggy mess at launch, famously so, but its ambition set the template for everything 'open world RPG' would come to mean.
About The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
A massive, largely procedurally generated RPG set in the Iliac Bay region. Known for its enormous scale and a famously buggy launch that fans have spent years patching and preserving.
- Developer
- Bethesda Softworks
- Platform
- MS-DOS
BB Tier: Solid, worth your time
The Elder Scrolls: Arena
The one that started it all, originally planned as a straightforward arena combat game before it ballooned into a full open-world RPG. It's rough by any modern measure, but you can trace a direct line from this dungeon-crawler to Skyrim's snowy peaks.
About The Elder Scrolls: Arena
The first game in the Elder Scrolls series, originally conceived as a gladiatorial combat game before evolving into a sprawling open-world RPG. It established the series' fantasy setting of Tamriel.
- Developer
- Bethesda Softworks
- Platform
- MS-DOS
The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard
A genuine swerve for the series: third-person, more platforming and swordplay than character-building, set on the island of Stros M'Kai. It's a fun detour with a likable hero in Cyrus, even if it never got the sequel its ending set up.
About The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard
A third-person action-adventure spinoff following the hero Cyrus on the island of Stros M'Kai. It departed from the series' usual RPG mechanics in favor of combat and platforming.
- Developer
- Bethesda Softworks
The Elder Scrolls: Legends
A card game that deserved more attention than it got. Legends borrowed smart ideas from Hearthstone (the lane system was a real innovation) and wrapped them in actual Elder Scrolls lore, which made it stand out in a crowded genre before it was eventually discontinued.
About The Elder Scrolls: Legends
A digital collectible card game set in the Elder Scrolls universe, notable for its lane-based combat system that differentiated it from competitors like Hearthstone.
- Developer
- Dire Wolf Digital / Bethesda
CC Tier: Flawed but interesting
An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire
A dungeon-crawling spinoff that ditched the open world entirely for linear, trap-filled corridors. Fans who wanted another Daggerfall were disappointed, and the combat and puzzle design haven't aged gracefully, but there's a certain stubborn charm in how different it dared to be.
About An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire
A spinoff that shifted away from open-world exploration toward linear dungeon-crawling, set in a mage academy's extradimensional fortress. It's considered one of the series' more divisive experiments.
- Developer
- Bethesda Softworks
The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey
A mobile-era attempt to cram an Elder Scrolls game onto early smartphones and N-Gage hardware, which is about as tough a technical ask as it sounds. It's impressive for what it squeezed onto those devices, but it's a historical curiosity more than something you'd actually boot up today.
About The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey
A mobile-era Elder Scrolls entry designed for early smartphones and the Nokia N-Gage, notable mainly for how much RPG content it managed to fit onto limited hardware.
- Developer
- Bethesda Softworks
- Platform
- Mobile, N-Gage
DD Tier: Only for the curious
The Elder Scrolls: Blades
Announced with real excitement as 'Elder Scrolls in your pocket,' Blades landed with monetization and performance issues that soured a lot of goodwill fast. The dungeon-crawling loop is fine in short bursts, but it never felt like the mainline adventure fans were hoping for.
About The Elder Scrolls: Blades
A mobile dungeon-crawling and town-building game that drew criticism at launch for performance issues and monetization, despite strong initial anticipation.
- Developer
- Bethesda Game Studios
- Platform
- Mobile
How we ranked them
We weighed critical reception at launch, how well each game has aged, its influence on the series and genre, and plain old fan sentiment pulled from forums and retrospectives. Mobile spinoffs and side experiments got judged on their own terms, not against Skyrim. Where the fanbase is genuinely split (looking at you, Oblivion vs. Morrowind arguments) we made a call and explained why.
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Rank these yourselfFAQ
What is the best Elder Scrolls game overall?
Skyrim is the most popular and widely celebrated, though Morrowind still has a vocal fanbase that argues it's the series' most creative and atmospheric entry.
Is Oblivion Remastered worth playing if I already played the original?
Yes, according to most fans and reviewers. It keeps the original's quests and world intact while updating visuals, combat feel, and fixing long-standing issues like the aggressive level scaling.
Is The Elder Scrolls Online worth playing in 2024?
Most critics and players say yes. It had a shaky launch years ago, but ongoing expansions have made it one of the more content-rich ways to experience the entire Elder Scrolls map.
Why is The Elder Scrolls: Blades ranked so low?
Blades launched with heavy monetization and performance problems on mobile devices, and many fans felt it didn't live up to the mainline series despite the exciting announcement.
What was the first Elder Scrolls game?
The Elder Scrolls: Arena, released in the early '90s, started the series as an ambitious open-world RPG after beginning development as a more limited arena combat game.
Are the older Elder Scrolls games like Daggerfall still playable today?
Daggerfall is notoriously buggy by modern standards, but it's been preserved by fan projects and is available for free, making it accessible if you're curious about series history.
More rankings
Image credits
- The Elder Scrolls V: SkyrimCover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Elder Scrolls III: MorrowindCover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion RemasteredCover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Elder Scrolls IV: OblivionCover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Elder Scrolls OnlineCover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Elder Scrolls II: DaggerfallCover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Elder Scrolls: ArenaCover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Elder Scrolls Adventures: RedguardCover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Elder Scrolls: LegendsImage: Elder Scrolls (Fandom), © its owner · Source
- An Elder Scrolls Legend: BattlespireCover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Elder Scrolls Travels: ShadowkeyCover: Wikipedia · Source
- The Elder Scrolls: BladesPhoto: instacodez, Public domain (via Openverse) · Source