A Small Percentage Of Skyrim’s Sales Were On Non-Microsoft Platforms; Its Sequel Will Be Microsoft Exclusive

So, the fact that Microsoft would be taking the next game in the Elder Scrolls series, the 6th game, to Xbox and PC exclusively isn't the world's biggest surprise. Xbox chief Phil Spencer made waves back in 2021 (before all the drama surrounding Microsoft's future acquisition of Activision Blizzard) noting that he saw advantages to making Elder Scrolls 6 exclusive to Microsoft systems. That wasn't seen as a fully official statement of fact, however, and fans held out hope that maybe Microsoft would change its mind. With some recent reveals of internal Microsoft documents coming out of the Microsoft/FTC battle, however, we can pretty much put all that hope to rest.

The trend line is pretty clear in the image above. As time has gone on since Microsoft acquired Zenimax, more and more titles have been pulled back into Microsoft platform exclusives. Notably, this is also in contradiction to statements Spencer himself made years ago about exclusivity, in which he often made comments suggesting that wasn't something Microsoft was particularly interested in.

Okay, so it's interesting, but mostly confirming what was already being anticipated, so why are we talking about it? Well, because taking the next Elder Scrolls title exclusive deserves a bit deeper of a dive than we've done previously. Microsoft clearly has some kind of strategy in mind with all of this, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it would be. The obvious answers really point to only three potential options: Microsoft wants to use exclusives to push more Xbox sales, to push more gamers into PC gaming and off of consoles, or some combination of the two.

Here's the problem, though. The best sales figures I can find suggest that by August of this year the PlayStation 5 has outsold the Xbox Series X/S roughly 15 million to 11 million, respectively. And the sales delta in favor of Sony has been growing steadily over the past year, likely as supply crunch issues for the PlayStation get resolved. Sure, you say, but that's what Microsoft is trying to combat.

Well, okay then, let's look at sales figures for Skyrim, the prequel to the forthcoming Elder Scrolls 6. Now, the caveat that comes with those sales figures is that they are frustratingly incomplete. Steam isn't particularly forthcoming with sales figures around specific titles, but the suspected sales figures for PC sit around 15 million units for the original version, and another 11 million for the Special Edition that was released in 2016. Xbox sales for the original version are just under 9 million on the 360 and just under 2 million on the Xone. That's 44 million sales in total. I can't seem to find sales figures I trust for the Special Edition on the Xbox Series X/S, but you would expect it to be something like a third less than the original, as was the case with the PC versions. Let's call it 6 million, which might be a bit high. So we've got roughly 50 million unit sales of Skyrim on Microsoft systems.

Here's the thing: recent reports indicates that Skyrim surpassed 60 million total unit sales several months ago. Let's say the current total gross sales figures sit at something like 61 million. That would mean that Skyrim, not a Microsoft exclusive, sold something like 82% of its total units on Microsoft platforms. That isn't the same as being totally exclusive, but it's awfully damned close for one of the best selling games of all time.

And yet Microsoft sees taking its sequel exclusive as a strategic move. But to accomplish what, exactly? Sell more Microsoft systems? The majority of the last game was sold on Microsoft systems anyway, so what's the point? What percentage of the 10 million or so folks who bought Skyrim on other platforms will buy an Xbox or PC instead of a PS6 because this game and few others are exclusives? The answer isn't half. It's probably not even a quarter. It's probably less than one-tenth, though admittedly this is speculation, but speculation based on past evidence.

So would the additional sales of those systems really be enough to offset taking what will be one of the most hotly anticipated games ever out of several money-making platforms?

I have a hard time believing that's the case.