A former executive of ZeniMax Online reveals on LinkedIn how much revenue The Elder Scrolls Online has made every month over ten years.
Who is the lead and what does he reveal? Gary Boodhoo was the User Experience Lead at ZeniMax Online for several years and was responsible for interface adjustments for controller controls, among other things.
On his profile on linkedin.com, Boodhoo also writes that he was responsible for the following point: “Interaction design and information architecture for the listing of digital assets, in collaboration with content and business teams, which led to a monthly revenue of 15 million dollars over ten years.”
Elder Scrolls Online has become one of the most successful MMORPGs on the market over the past decade – here you will find the most important information in a nutshell:
Two of the most successful MMORPGs now belong to Microsoft
Are the revenue numbers realistic? Also on LinkedIn, Boodhoo, who is now a freelance UX consultant at Skinjester, explains that The Elder Scrolls Online managed to achieve a revenue of two billion US dollars in its first decade. This aligns with a statement from Zenimax CEO Matt Firor from April 2024.
If you divide this sum over ten years or 120 months, you arrive at average monthly earnings of 16.7 million dollars. Elder Scrolls Online achieved this with a fairly flexible payment model, where you can buy the base game, DLCs, and chapters or alternatively subscribe to the Game Pass and the optional ESO Plus subscription. There is also the Crown Store.
How does the community evaluate the revenue numbers? Players discuss the quality of ESO and the payment model on Reddit.
- SysAdminWannabe90 writes (via Reddit): “I have never felt so sold out in an MMO, so it makes sense to me. There is something related to the cash shop at every turn where they are trying to get you to buy. For a subscription-based MMO, that’s crazy.”
- CapnTyler97 expresses disappointment with the status quo (via Reddit): “ESO has been my main game since its release (over 10,000 hours of playtime), but today it’s just terrible. The only things going for the game are PvP (which is still incredibly unbalanced) and the Elder Scrolls IP.”
- Sturminator94 sees it this way (via Reddit): “This doesn’t surprise me. Probably the most heavily monetized game of the big 4. However, it doesn’t feel like they invest much back into the game. They’ve stopped the patches for the mini zones, and the content releases they do are quite formulaic.”
What does MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz say about the situation? On the one hand, it should be noted that it’s quite remarkable that after the mixed launch ten years ago, The Elder Scrolls Online is now one of the most successful MMORPGs on the market.
To achieve this, Zenimax has invested enormous effort over the years, turning essential areas of the game, such as the leveling experience and endgame, upside down. In a comparable form, this has only been achieved by Square Enix with Final Fantasy XIV.
On the other hand, I can certainly understand the criticism from the community. That the new companions from Update 44 land in the Crown Store or ESO Plus subscription is, again, a new development that can be viewed critically. You can almost feel how the developers want to bring as many Tamriel heroes into the subscription as possible.
By the way: Due to the acquisitions of Zenimax and Bethesda on one side and Activision Blizzard on the other, two of the most successful MMORPGs on the market have belonged to Microsoft since last year. World of Warcraft seems to attract more players than ever to Azeroth right now – and not even thanks to The War Within.
