Look, I get it. You’re searching for skyrim games in order because the naming convention for The Elder Scrolls is, frankly, a bit of a mess for newcomers. You see "Skyrim" on every store shelf, then you see "The Elder Scrolls V," and suddenly you’re wondering if you missed four other games featuring the Dragonborn. You didn't.
Skyrim is just one province in a massive world called Tamriel. It's like looking for "California games in order" when you actually mean the Grand Theft Auto series. Skyrim isn't the series name; it’s the fifth main entry in a franchise that’s been running since the early 90s.
If you want to play them in the order they actually happen, or just the order they were released, we need to talk about more than just icy mountains and shouting at dragons. We’re talking about a timeline that spans thousands of years.
The Core List of Skyrim Games in Order
First things first: if you want the strictly chronological release of the mainline games—the ones that lead up to and include Skyrim—here is how they hit the shelves.
- The Elder Scrolls: Arena (1994) – This is where it started. It was originally supposed to be a gladiator game, but it turned into a massive, procedurally generated RPG.
- The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (1996) – It’s famous for having a map roughly the size of Great Britain. It’s buggy, dense, and weirdly brilliant.
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002) – For many fans, this is the peak. It ditched the procedural maps for a hand-crafted, alien landscape.
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006) – This one went for a more traditional European fantasy vibe and introduced the "Radiant AI" system.
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) – The big one. The one that’s been re-released on everything from the Nintendo Switch to your smart fridge.
But wait.
If you’re looking for the story order, it changes. The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO), which came out in 2014, actually takes place about 1,000 years before the events of Skyrim. So, if you want to be a timeline purist, you start with the MMO, then jump back to 1994’s Arena.
Does the Order Even Matter?
Honestly? No.
Bethesda builds these games so you can jump in anywhere. If you start with Skyrim, you aren't going to be lost. The game explains the lore as you go. You'll find books in-game that describe the events of Oblivion or the fall of the Tribunal in Morrowind. It’s all interconnected, but each game is a self-contained era.
Skyrim takes place in the Fourth Era (4E 201). The previous three games all happened at the very end of the Third Era. There’s a massive 200-year gap between Oblivion and Skyrim. That’s a lot of history. When you’re walking around Windhelm or Whiterun, the "Oblivion Crisis" is something people talk about like we talk about the Napoleonic Wars. It's history, not current events.
The Weird Spin-offs
We can't ignore the "lost" games.
Most people looking for skyrim games in order forget about Redguard and Battlespire. These were late-90s experiments. Redguard is a linear action-adventure game set in the Second Era. Battlespire is a dungeon crawler set inside a mage training facility. Then you have the mobile games like Blades and Legends (the card game).
If you're a completionist, the timeline looks like this:
- The Elder Scrolls Online (Second Era)
- The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard (Second Era)
- The Elder Scrolls: Battlespire (Third Era)
- The Elder Scrolls: Arena (Third Era)
- The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (Third Era)
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Third Era)
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Third Era)
- The Elder Scrolls: Legends (Spans multiple eras)
- The Elder Scrolls: Blades (Early Fourth Era)
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Fourth Era)
Why Morrowind is the Real Turning Point
If you want to understand why Skyrim feels the way it does, you have to look at Morrowind. Before 2002, Bethesda was obsessed with scale. Daggerfall was too big to actually "see."
Morrowind changed the philosophy.
They realized that players would rather have a smaller, denser world where every mushroom and rock was placed by a human being. This is the DNA of the modern skyrim games in order experience. Skyrim is much smaller than Daggerfall in terms of raw square mileage, but it feels infinitely more "real" because of the environmental storytelling.
You see a skeleton in a bathtub with a bottle of wine in Skyrim? Someone at Bethesda put that there to tell a tiny, wordless story. That started in Morrowind.
The "Skyrim 2" Misconception
I hear this a lot: "When is Skyrim 2 coming out?"
It's not.
🔗 Read more: PS Vita Screen Specs: Why the OLED vs LCD Debate Still Rages in 2026
The next game is The Elder Scrolls VI. We’ve known it’s in development since that tiny teaser trailer in 2018. It likely won't be set in Skyrim. Rumors (and a few clever map comparisons by fans) point toward Hammerfell or High Rock.
This is how the series works. It moves to a new province, changes the mechanics, and jumps forward in time. Calling the next game "Skyrim 2" is like calling every Final Fantasy game "Final Fantasy 7-2." It just doesn't work that way.
Technical Evolution Across the Timeline
If you decide to play the skyrim games in order from oldest to newest, prepare for some serious whiplash.
Arena and Daggerfall use "sprite-based" graphics in a 3D-ish world. You move with the keyboard, but you swing your sword by literally dragging your mouse across the screen. It feels clunky today.
Morrowind introduced a dice-roll combat system. You can see your sword hit the enemy's face, but the game might say "Miss" because your "Long Blade" skill is too low. It infuriates modern players. By the time you get to Skyrim, the combat is "what you see is what you get." If you hit them, you hit them.
The leveling systems also shifted.
In the older games, you had to pick a "class" (like Mage or Warrior) at the start. Skyrim ditched that. It uses a "learn by doing" system. If you want to be better at archery, you shoot a bow. Simple. This accessibility is exactly why Skyrim became a cultural phenomenon while the older games stayed niche.
Getting the Best Experience Today
If you’re actually going to play these, don't just go to Steam and hit download.
For Daggerfall, look for "Daggerfall Unity." It’s a fan-made engine port that makes the game playable on modern systems with better graphics and actual mouse-look controls. It’s free and it’s the only way to play that game without losing your mind.
For Morrowind, you’ll want "OpenMW." It’s another engine replacement that fixes the crashes and lets the game run in widescreen without stretching.
Skyrim itself has two main versions: Legendary Edition (the old 32-bit one) and Special Edition (the 64-bit one). Always get Special Edition (or the Anniversary Edition). It’s more stable, handles mods better, and looks significantly cleaner.
Realities of the Lore
The lore of The Elder Scrolls is famously "unreliable." The developers use a concept called the "Unreliable Narrator."
When you read a book in Skyrim about the history of the Empire, it might be total propaganda. A book in Morrowind might tell a completely different version of the same event. This is why the community (check out the r/teslore subreddit) is so active. There are no easy answers. Even the "Dragon Break" events—where time literally shatters and multiple conflicting things happen at once—are used to explain why Daggerfall had six different endings that all somehow became "true."
📖 Related: Broken Graffiti Marked Stone Genshin: The Real Reason You Can't Find Them All
Actionable Steps for Your Playthrough
Don't feel pressured to play everything. Most people can't handle the graphics of 1994.
- Start with Skyrim: If you’ve never played, start here. It’s the most refined version of the formula.
- Move to Oblivion: If you liked the questing and the world of Skyrim, Oblivion has arguably better writing and more creative guild quests (especially the Dark Brotherhood).
- Try Morrowind only if you're patient: It’s a masterpiece, but it doesn't hold your hand. There are no quest markers. You have to read directions like "turn left at the strange-looking rock and head north until you see a cave."
- Ignore Arena/Daggerfall unless you're a historian: They are fascinating but brutal.
The best way to experience the skyrim games in order is to follow your curiosity. If you see a reference to the "Septim Bloodline" in Skyrim, go back and play Oblivion to see the end of that bloodline. If you wonder why the Elves are so arrogant, play Morrowind.
Tamriel is a world meant to be lived in, not just checked off a list. Grab a sword, learn a shout, and don't worry too much about the calendar. The dragons will wait for you.