When one thinks of MMORPGs in this day and age, you almost assuredly think of either World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy 14. It’s largely a two man show for many in the genre today, but they aren’t the only two shows in town, and there is another that’s managed to get a pretty sizable audience for itself with The Elder Scrolls Online.
Based on Bethesda’s hugely popular fantasy world, Online released in 2014 and has since seen a lot of updates and expansions. As revealed by ZeniMax Online Studios Studio Director Matt Firor at the roundtable discussion regarding the Microsoft purchase of Bethesda (which you can see in full through here), the game has now exceeded 18 million players, and over 3 million of those were from 2020 alone. He also acknowledged that the game had a lot of issues when it originally released, but said they have done a lot to address those problems in the near 7 years the game has been on the market.
The Elder Scrolls Online is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. PS5 and Xbox Series X/S native versions are also planned, though do not have dates as of now. ZeniMax Online has also stated they are working on new AAA IP, but as of now no details have emerged about it.