The developers of The Elder Scrolls Online are changing the payment model of the MMORPG for the second time in two years. MeinMMO summarizes what is happening with the Content Pass and ESO Plus and what you can expect from the new Battle Pass.
After many years of regularly released DLCs and chapters, there was the switch from The Elder Scrolls Online to a seasonal model in 2025. The contents of the Worm Cult seasons have been paid for by the developers with the Content Pass costing up to 90 euros. In addition, there is the familiar optional ESO Plus subscription, the Crown Store, and the purchase price for the base game, DLCs, and chapters.
Since the livestream this week, we know that many changes are expected in Tamriel in 2026. You can find a summary of the content plans for the coming months in our comprehensive overview. Since the new payment model of the MMORPG is being extensively discussed in the community, we will focus specifically on that in this article.
What does the new Battle Pass offer and what will it cost? What will be free in the future? What happens to ESO Plus? We will answer these questions for you in the following.
The new payment model of Elder Scrolls Online
What must or can I pay for in the future? The developers of ESO are removing the Content Pass introduced in 2025 and want to make all game-relevant content that will be released in the future available to all players with access to Elder Scrolls Online at no additional cost.
So, when new systems, quests, regions, dungeons, raids, classes, PvP content, and similar items go live, you will no longer have to pay for them in the future.
Additionally, the developers want to integrate some of the previously paid contents into the base game of ESO. So far, the announced DLCs include the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, and Orsinium (with Update 49) and the Greymoor chapter (with Update 52).
The new monetization strategy of Elder Scrolls Online will therefore rely on the following pillars in the future:
- Sale of the base game and the DLCs and chapters that are not yet part of the base game
- Crown Store
- Paid Battle Pass content
- Optional ESO Plus subscription
Let’s take a detailed look at the new pillars of ESO’s payment model.
The new Battle Pass: the Tamriel Folio
The new Battle Pass system of ESO is called Tamriel Folio and will be introduced with Season Zero on April 2, 2026. It will be available in 3 variants and will also offer the rewards and tasks that you have earned so far through the endeavors and daily logins.
The goal is: No matter what you do in ESO, you should make progress in the Tamriel Folio and earn in-game currency, consumables, and collectibles. With each season, lasting 3 months, a new Tamriel Folio will be introduced. Within it, you will find two different types of challenges that reward you with folio points:
- Weekly challenges (5 per week, can be completed throughout the season, up to 12 can be active simultaneously; you may reroll unsuitable objectives for yourself (5 times a week))
- Seasonal challenges that are more complex but offer greater rewards
By the way, there is a new roadmap and fresh content for Where Winds Meet. We will present what is included in Patch 1.2 on the MeinMMO YouTube channel.
With the earned folio points, you will automatically unlock the pages of the current Tamriel Folio, allowing you to unlock the available rewards in any order by investing points. You do not need to unlock rewards to access the next pages.
The 3 variants of the Battle Pass differ as follows:
- Free Tamriel Folio – is only available during the season, offers rewards such as the armor from Kireth’s gear, 8,000 pursuit seals, new skill style for vigor, the weapon style of the Mesa Hunter, 9,000 trade bars, and 6 returning crown crates.
- Premium Tamriel Folio for $14.99, can also be completed after the end of the season, offers additional rewards such as the Empyreal Winterhold Wolf as a mount, the “Monster Slayer” personality, the Double Dynamo dungeon vagabond spider as a mount, additional 1,500 trade bars, and more.
- Premium Tamriel Folio with Bonuses for $29.99, with the premium benefits plus faster progress in the Battle Pass (4,000 folio points) and Raynor’s travel robes as an outfit
What changes in ESO Plus
The optional subscription for Elder Scrolls Online will continue to exist but with adjustments. Of course, ESO Plus will soon lose some DLCs and the Greymoor chapter to the base game. You can find an overview of the current benefits of the subscription at elderscrollsonline.com. The following benefits are expected to be added or expanded in the future:
- Anyone who subscribes to ESO Plus for a total of one month (even with breaks in between) will be able to activate a premium folio with bonuses for free for their desired season (thus saving $29.99) – this starts already now.
- In addition to the known 10% bonus for the familiar progress system (experience, inspiration, gold), ESO Plus subscribers will also receive 10% additional folio points for their Battle Pass progress in the future.
- Every month of ESO Plus provides you with 2,000 additional folio points (flexibly usable).
- The carrying capacity for transmutation crystals increases to 3,000 (without subscription: 1,500).
- Players with ESO Plus can place 50 additional furnishings in their homes.
- The times for antiquity traces will be doubled for subscribers.
The price of ESO Plus is not expected to change. The new features are set to activate with the release of Update 49 on March 9, 2026.
The developers are also planning extensive adjustments for all classes, but these are not expected to significantly change the fundamental, often criticized combat experience. This keeps many interested players from Tamriel away. You can read more about this in the following article: In Elder Scrolls Online, all classes are getting an overhaul, player asks: “Are you crazy?”
