Skyrim
Ranked 3 of 5 open-world RPGs by recommenders
An open-world role-playing game with a large, richly detailed world that people keep returning to for years after release. The most common caveat is bugs, crashes and a world some find repetitive.
An open-world role-playing game with a large, richly detailed world that people keep returning to for years after release. The most common caveat is bugs, crashes and a world some find repetitive.
46 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 25
- criticize it
- 21
- approval share
- 54%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 25 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Immersive, detailed world and lore
“we aren't expecting an engaging game as much as a fun world sandbox set in the ES universe”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” “A lot of details that would fly past most players' attention are quite thought through.”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Art of Roads in Games” “Skyrim is a richly detailed world with an engine that allows that level of interaction”
Comment from 24 Aug 2026 in “I built a low-latency AI companion that plays Skyrim with me” - Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft's lack of quality control is out of control”
- Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “45% of Enthusiasts 'Seriously Considering' Leaving Sony for PC”
Lots to discover and long play
“Skyrim was good in that it felt "epic", you could put so many quality hours into it.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” “Skyrim, for all its faults and issues, had so much to discover”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft's lack of quality control is out of control” Runs on Mac, VR and with mods
“walking around Fallout VR or Skyrim VR will give you a lot of cardio”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “Steam Frame starts at $1059” “Skyrim runs well on my M2 mac mini through crossover and rosetta”
Comment from 15 May 2026 in “RTX 5090 and M4 MacBook Air: Can It Game?” “with voice recognition and QOL mods it's incredible”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “Steam Frame” - Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “Steam Frame”
Still played years after release
“something like Oblivion or Skyrim were a much better experience 5-10 years after release than initially”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Command and Conquer Generals natively ported to macOS, iPhone, iPad using Fable” “new gamers still start playing fallout new Vegas or skyrim today despite them being old and janky”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “The L in "LLM" Stands for Lying”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Repetitive, bland world design
“But Skyrim ended up overdoing it, to the point where it's in every tomb”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “How we made hit video game Prince of Persia” “they made the world even more bland and generic northern fantasy”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Command and Conquer Generals natively ported to macOS, iPhone, iPad using Fable” “they overdid that and should probably have made more variations”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “How we made hit video game Prince of Persia” Bugs, crashes and jank
“honorable mention, for all its jank, Skyrim”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “Welcome to Gas City” “Skyrim would outright break.”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “Welcome to Gas City” “Skyrim on day one came out with a game breaking bug in the main quest, and it crashed a lot too.”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft's lack of quality control is out of control” - Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation”
Re-releases and mod-breaking updates
“Each time Bethesda announces an update to Skyrim or Fallout 4, I cringe, because what the updates do above all else is break the existing mods.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” “Look at how many times since 2011 Bethesda has put some "new" version of Skyrim up for sale.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” “Bethesda reselling Skyrim in different coats for 15 years”
Comment from 22 Sep 2026 in “Xbox continues its “reset” with dramatic restructuring” - Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “Let's make quality the norm again”
Thin content and weak systems
“Most of the systems do not work as intended, the amount of content is very low compared to previous entries.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” “Skyrim lacks in each aspect, especially compared to previous Elder Scrolls games.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation”
Other open-world RPGs people recommend
The four most recommended other open-world RPGs, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 76 | 38 | 67% | 12 | 6 mo5 owners | Approved |
| Morrowind | 26 | 6 | 81% | 11 | — | Approved |
| SkyrimThis page | 25 | 21 | 54% | 10 | — | — |
| Fallout: New Vegas | 15 | 4 | 79% | 11 | — | Approved |
| The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion | 11 | 21 | 34% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 52 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Skyrim and Elden Ring are better examples because you can do a couple boss fights and get straight to the end”
“Bethesda reselling Skyrim in different coats for 15 years”
“At this point I've spent so much money on Skyrim titles”
“walking around Fallout VR or Skyrim VR will give you a lot of cardio”
“There are not many games like this. Pure gold.”
“the last great game they made was Skyrim in 2011”
“Skyrim is a richly detailed world with an engine that allows that level of interaction”
“Playing Skyrim involves a least some thinking from the player.”
“it was sort of an amazing, immersive world”
“they made the world even more bland and generic northern fantasy”
“something like Oblivion or Skyrim were a much better experience 5-10 years after release than initially”
“they overdid that and should probably have made more variations”
“But Skyrim ended up overdoing it, to the point where it's in every tomb”
“Skyrim did that also pretty well.”
“Skyrim runs well on my M2 mac mini through crossover and rosetta”
“Skyrim would outright break.”
“honorable mention, for all its jank, Skyrim”
“Game after game you get some half baked feature kept gimped by poor choices of values from the developers”
“Skyrim's console needs mods to support copy and paste.”
“new gamers still start playing fallout new Vegas or skyrim today despite them being old and janky”
“Skyrim is one of the most over-rated games of all time”
“A lot of details that would fly past most players' attention are quite thought through.”
“Todd's failure to deliver on such promises in skyrim”
“For once I would like a Skyrim experience but where you're given free roam”
“I love playing Beat Hazard 3, Fallout 4, Skyrim and The Witcher 3 on it.”
“I've played Skyrim VR on that”
“with voice recognition and QOL mods it's incredible”
“Skyrim on day one came out with a game breaking bug in the main quest, and it crashed a lot too.”
“Skyrim's story was a trainwreck from beginning to end”
“Lore and story wise both games have incredible depth.”
“Skyrim, for all its faults and issues, had so much to discover”
“my PC at the time had very strange audio cracking issues with Skyrim”
“they butchered the magic system”
“Skyrim lacks in each aspect, especially compared to previous Elder Scrolls games.”
“we aren't expecting an engaging game as much as a fun world sandbox set in the ES universe”
“Look at how many times since 2011 Bethesda has put some "new" version of Skyrim up for sale.”
“Skyrim was good in that it felt "epic", you could put so many quality hours into it.”
“Most of the systems do not work as intended, the amount of content is very low compared to previous entries.”
“Skyrim is one of the most overrated video games ever.”
“Each time Bethesda announces an update to Skyrim or Fallout 4, I cringe, because what the updates do above all else is break the existing mods.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.