The Elder Scrolls 6 just crossed an embarrassing trailer milestone in relation to its direct predecessor Skyrim.
Bethesda's next Elder Scrolls game was first announced alongside Starfield in 2018, promising another fantasy adventure in the studio's signature fantasy world.
Since its announcement, updates on the new Elder Scrolls game have been few and far between, but that has not stopped fans from asking about the upcoming open-world RPG.
Elder Scrolls 6 Trailer Crosses Massive Mark
The Elder Scrolls 6 trailer has crossed a massive milestone nearly seven years after its release.
As spotted by Reddit user RoboPup, as of January 7, 2025, the Elder Scrolls 6 trailer is now as old as Skyrim was when the (still upcoming) next game in the franchise was first officially announced.
The first Elder Scrolls 6 trailer debuted as a part of Bethesda's 2018 E3 press conference, debuting online June 10, 2018 (aka 2403 days after Skyrim's November 11, 2011 release).
As of January 7, 2025, the trailer is officially 2403 days old, with no potential release date for the game in sight.
This gap in announcement to release is a stark difference from some of Bethesda's more recent titles. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum for the studio, Fallout 4 was released mere months after its initial debut back in 2015.
More recently, Bethesda released its space-faring RPG, Starfield, which was announced on the same day as The Elder Scrolls 6. Starfield finally hit store shelves in September 2023, just over five years after its initial reveal.
This is by far the longest wait between reveal and release for a Bethesda title to date.
When Will The Elder Scrolls 6 Be Released?
Fans have been waiting so long for The Elder Scrolls 6 that some have forgotten the game is coming at all.
Over the last few years, development cycles on these sorts of triple-A games have gotten longer and longer (just look at games like GTA 6). However, Elder Scrolls 6 is a unique circumstance.
Just because the game was initially revealed in 2018, does not mean proper development had begun on it when it was announced.
As of 2022, the game was "in pre-production" according to its director Todd Howard:
"Yes, 'Elder Scrolls 6' is in pre-production and, you know, we’re going to be doing 'Fallout 5' after that, so our slate’s pretty full going forward for a while. We have some other projects that we look at from time to time as well."
Head of Publishing at Bethesda Pete Hines revealed roughly a year later that the title had entered "early development," with work on the game beginning in earnest following the release of Starfield in September 2023:
"So no, don't expect to hear anything about 'The Elder Scrolls VI' anytime soon. For now, 'Starfield' is our focus, and it will continue to be our priority for some time until we speak about anything else...It's in development, but it's in early development."
That means that, as far as fans know, work is actively being done on the Skyrim follow-up, and the next title from the Bethesda Game Studios team will, in fact, be Elder Scrolls 6.
However, it is still likely some years away. The gap between Bethesda RPGs has gotten longer and longer, with nearly eight years eclipsing between Fallout 4 and Starfield.
Pete Hines has said (via Gamespot) that a potential Elder Scrolls 6 launch will come "a few years after" Starfield. One can assume it will take somewhere around six to eight years to develop the next Elder Scrolls, which seems to be the going rate for games on this scale at this point.
If that is the case, and development did not properly start until after Starfield was done (September 2023), then a release date anytime before 2029 at the earliest feels highly unlikely.
The Elder Scrolls 6 still has no publicly listed release date.
