Ask a room full of Elder Scrolls fans to rank the mainline games and you’ll get a genuine argument, not a shrug — this is one of the most consistently poll-and-debated topics in the RPG community. Here’s how the series stacks up across fan polls, critical reception, and lasting influence, game by game.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) — the consensus pick
Skyrim tops most fan polls and ‘best RPG’ rankings outright, and the numbers back it up: the 2011 release has picked up more than 200 Game of the Year awards, a total no other entry in the series comes close to. Skyrim broadened the series’ appeal past the existing fanbase, pulling in a huge wave of newcomers who’d never touched Morrowind or Oblivion. In head-to-head fan polls against the older two mainline 3D titles, Skyrim consistently comes out on top, though Morrowind and Oblivion both still pull a substantial share of the vote — this is a genuinely contested top spot, not a runaway.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002) — the lore favorite
Morrowind is the game longtime fans and lore enthusiasts point to when they say ‘nothing compares.’ Its setting, the alien, ash-covered island of Vvardenfell, looked and felt stylistically unlike anything Bethesda had built before or has built since — giant mushroom trees, silt strider transport, and creature designs that broke from generic high-fantasy tropes. It regularly wins the ‘most unique world’ argument even from people who rank Skyrim higher overall for gameplay.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006) — the fan-favorite middle chapter
Oblivion became a fan favorite almost immediately on release, built around the expansive open world of Cyrodiil, memorable NPCs, and gameplay systems (like the Radiant AI schedule system) that felt genuinely new for the time. It’s the game plenty of longtime fans argue is actually the series’ high point, ahead of both its predecessor and its more famous successor — it shows up constantly in ‘better than Skyrim’ arguments in forum polls.
The older titles: Arena (1994) and Daggerfall (1996)
The two original games rarely top a poll today, but they matter to the ranking conversation for a different reason: Daggerfall in particular shipped with a procedurally generated landmass reported at roughly the size of Great Britain, an experiment in scale the series has never attempted again. Arena, the 1994 debut, established the dungeon-crawling action-RPG foundation everything since has built on. Fans who’ve played them tend to rank them for historical importance and ambition rather than modern playability.
The Elder Scrolls Online (2014) — the odd one out
ESO sits outside most ‘best Elder Scrolls game’ polls because it’s a subscription-model MMO rather than a single-player RPG, but it’s worth a mention since it’s the only entry still actively expanded today, with new chapters released annually. Fans of the single-player formula often exclude it from ranking discussions entirely, while ESO’s own community treats it as a separate conversation.
So what wins?
If the poll is strictly ‘best game,’ Skyrim wins most straight popularity contests by a wide margin, helped enormously by its massive modding scene keeping it relevant well over a decade after release. But ask ‘best world’ and Morrowind pulls votes back; ask ‘most underrated’ and Oblivion supporters get loud. The honest answer is that Elder Scrolls fans don’t actually agree, and that ongoing disagreement is a big part of why the poll question keeps coming back up.