Eurogamer just walked through the reaction inside Bethesda to Xbox’s latest round of layoffs, and the summary is grim reading if you are waiting for The Elder Scrolls 6. Staff cuts, contract non-renewals, and an ES6 window that keeps sliding right of every reasonable forecast. That announcement teaser turned eight this year. For anyone still starting new Skyrim playthroughs on a fresh mod list because the roadmap is empty, these are seven Elder Scrolls alternatives on desktop that we keep playing while Bethesda sorts itself out.
Quick comparison
| Game | Best for | Platforms | Price (Steam) | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baldur’s Gate 3 | The “play anything” fantasy | Windows, macOS | $59.99 | D&D freedom, honest reactivity |
| Avowed | First-person action-RPG feel | Windows | $69.99 | Closest to Skyrim’s moment-to-moment |
| Kingdom Come: Deliverance II | Grounded medieval RPG | Windows | $59.99 | Bohemian countryside sim |
| Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning | Bright, breezy fantasy | Windows | $39.99 | Combat that keeps its speed |
| Divinity: Original Sin 2 | Tactical CRPG depth | Windows, macOS | $44.99 | Elemental combat and co-op |
| GreedFall | Colonial-fantasy exploration | Windows | $49.99 | Faction diplomacy that matters |
| Two Worlds II HD | Horseback open-world | Windows, macOS, Linux | $19.99 | Cheap sandbox with a mount |
Why Skyrim fans are shopping around
The wait is not paranoia. A few concrete data points from the last twelve months of coverage:
- Eurogamer reported that Xbox’s mid-2026 layoffs reached Bethesda staff and vendors, with insider quotes describing morale as “battered” and timelines as “reset.” That is not the profile of a studio about to ship its biggest game.
- Starfield’s DLC cadence is still eating Bethesda Game Studios’ bandwidth. The team has never run two open-world projects in parallel, and it is not starting now.
- ES6’s 2018 teaser is the only public asset. Eight years on, no gameplay, no window, no marketing beat. Skyrim’s own pre-release cycle was roughly eighteen months.
- Modding on Skyrim Special Edition is mature and hitting diminishing returns for many players, so “just re-mod Skyrim” is no longer the automatic answer it was in 2020.
Any one of those on its own is fine. Together they explain why “best Elder Scrolls alternatives” is a search people keep making.
The alternatives
Baldur’s Gate 3, best overall for Skyrim fans who want reactivity
Baldur’s Gate 3 is the RPG that finally out-Skyrim’d Skyrim on the axis Bethesda used to own outright: doing weird stuff and having the game notice. It is turn-based rather than real-time, and the map is a set of dense regions rather than a seamless province, but almost every quest can be solved through combat, dialogue, stealth, or a shove off a cliff. Larian shipped a game where the systems say yes.
Where it falls short: the third act is famously uneven, performance in Baldur’s Gate proper is still patchier than the earlier acts, and if you bounced off Divinity’s turn-based combat you will bounce off this too.
Pricing:
- Free: no free tier
- Paid: $59.99 on Steam, no subscription or expansion needed
- vs Skyrim: pricier at launch, but there is no separate Anniversary Edition to buy after the fact
Migrating from Skyrim: none of your Skyrim habits transfer directly, and that is the point. Combat is turn-based, character creation is D&D 5e rules, and the mod scene is younger and smaller. Expect a first playthrough of 90 to 120 hours.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: pick Baldur’s Gate 3 if you loved Skyrim for the freedom, skip it if what you loved was swinging a sword in real time.
Avowed, closest to the Skyrim moment-to-moment
Avowed is Obsidian’s first-person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting, and it is the pick that feels most like Skyrim from second to second. First-person perspective, spell in one hand and steel in the other, a pouch full of quest markers, companions you can actually stand. The Living Lands region is broken into a handful of large hubs rather than one seamless map, which some players love and some resent.
Where it falls short: it is smaller than Skyrim by a wide margin, the loot economy is thin, and the main quest ends where a Bethesda game would still be introducing its middle chapter.
Pricing:
- Free: no free tier, though Game Pass includes it on PC
- Paid: $69.99 on Steam, or covered by a PC Game Pass subscription
- vs Skyrim: pricier upfront, cheaper if you already pay for Game Pass
Migrating from Skyrim: this is the softest landing on the list. If you can play Skyrim without a HUD you can play Avowed the same way. No import, but no relearning either. First playthrough is roughly 35 to 45 hours.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: this is the Elder Scrolls alternative for people who want the vibe, not the scale.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, for a grounded medieval RPG
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is what you play when you want Skyrim without the dragons. It is a first-person RPG set in early-fifteenth-century Bohemia with a combat system that rewards timing and footwork, an economy where a good shirt actually matters, and a main quest that spans a real chunk of Central European history. The sequel dropped the original’s rougher edges and kept the parts people fought for.
Where it falls short: combat is still finicky in a way that filters out impatient players, and the Windows-only release means no macOS or Linux native builds.
Pricing:
- Free: no free tier
- Paid: $59.99 on Steam, expansions sold separately
- vs Skyrim: comparable base price, cheaper than Skyrim Anniversary Edition once you count all Bethesda’s re-releases
Migrating from Skyrim: expect a real transition period. There is no mysticism, no fast travel by fiat, and quests can fail if you dawdle. A first serious playthrough is 60 to 80 hours.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: pick this if the parts of Skyrim you loved were the villages, not the mountaintops.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, the bright breezy pick
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning is the remaster of the 38 Studios cult favorite that shipped in 2012 and got a solid coat of paint in 2020. It is the fastest, most colorful game on this list, with combat that plays more like a hack-and-slash than a proper RPG and a fate system that lets you rebuild your class on the fly. If Skyrim’s pace ever felt heavy, this is the antidote.
Where it falls short: the writing is uneven, side content leans repetitive, and there is no macOS or Linux native build on Steam.
Pricing:
- Free: no free tier
- Paid: $39.99 on Steam, frequently on sale under $15
- vs Skyrim: cheaper on sale, and often bundled with its Fatesworn expansion
Migrating from Skyrim: none of the mechanics transfer, but the general muscle memory of “explore, kill, loot, level” is identical. Playthroughs run 40 to 60 hours with side content.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: get this if you want an Elder Scrolls alternative you can finish in a month, not a season.
Divinity: Original Sin 2, for people who want more system
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is where the Baldur’s Gate 3 team learned to build combat that punishes and rewards you in equal measure. It is turn-based, isometric, and one of the deepest tactical RPGs on the market. Elemental interactions are the star: pour oil, ignite it, chill the smoke, and the enemy AI actually reads the room. Co-op with up to four players changes the game from an RPG into a shared puzzle.
Where it falls short: the isometric camera and turn-based combat are a hard pivot from Skyrim, and the pacing early in Act 1 can wall people off before they see the good parts.
Pricing:
- Free: a demo is available on Steam
- Paid: $44.99 for the Definitive Edition
- vs Skyrim: cheaper, and includes every post-launch content update in the base price
Migrating from Skyrim: none of it maps over. This is a genre pivot, not a swap. Expect a solo playthrough of 80 to 100 hours.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: play this if you want to think during combat, skip it if you play RPGs to unwind.
GreedFall, for colonial-fantasy exploration
GreedFall is Spiders’ mid-budget RPG that leans into a seventeenth-century colonial setting with three warring factions on an uncharted island. It is smaller and rougher than a Bethesda game, but the faction reputation system has more teeth than most triple-A RPGs, and dialogue choices genuinely shift how quests unlock. The sequel is in development, which makes the original a sensible entry point right now.
Where it falls short: animations are dated, side quests can feel copy-pasted between hubs, and the combat never quite finds a rhythm.
Pricing:
- Free: no free tier
- Paid: $49.99 for the Gold Edition on Steam, often under $20 on sale
- vs Skyrim: cheaper, especially on sale, and the DLC is bundled into most current SKUs
Migrating from Skyrim: no import, and the third-person camera will take a session to adjust to. A full playthrough with side content is 40 to 55 hours.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: worth it for the faction diplomacy alone, but only if you can tolerate mid-budget rough edges.
Two Worlds II HD, the cheap horseback sandbox
Two Worlds II HD is the leftfield pick that ends this list. It is a 2010 open-world RPG from Reality Pump that got an HD reissue and, unusually for anything on this list, has native Windows, macOS, and Linux builds on Steam. The world is smaller than Skyrim’s but wider than most modern RPGs, magic is genuinely creative through a spell-crafting system, and horseback traversal was doing “open field on a mount” a decade before Rockstar made it fashionable.
Where it falls short: voice acting is famously rough, the UI is a period piece, and quest logic has known gaps that require the community fixes to smooth out.
Pricing:
- Free: no free tier, though the base game routinely goes to $2 during Steam sales
- Paid: $19.99 for the HD edition, $29.99 with expansions
- vs Skyrim: massively cheaper, especially on sale, at the cost of polish
Migrating from Skyrim: expect a rough first hour. Everything works, but nothing is where a modern RPG player expects it. A playthrough with expansions is 40 to 60 hours.
Download: Steam
Bottom line: an Elder Scrolls alternative for the price of a lunch, if you can meet the game where it is.
How to choose
- Pick Baldur’s Gate 3 if the part of Skyrim you loved was the freedom to solve problems your way.
- Pick Avowed if what you want is the first-person, sword-and-spell rhythm, not the map size.
- Pick Kingdom Come: Deliverance II if you have already replayed Skyrim once this year and want the opposite of dragons.
- Pick Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning if pace is the issue and you want an RPG you can finish.
- Pick Divinity: Original Sin 2 if you have a friend and a weekend and no fear of turn-based combat.
- Pick GreedFall if faction reputation is what kept you playing Skyrim’s civil war questline.
- Pick Two Worlds II HD if the budget is $10 and the itch is real.
- Stay on Skyrim if you already have a mod list you like, a save near the College of Winterhold, and enough time this month to actually finish that questline.
Do not wait for ES6 to arrive before you play the next thing. On current signals, the wait is going to be longer than any single one of these games.
FAQ
What is the best Elder Scrolls alternative in 2026?
For most Skyrim fans in 2026, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the best Elder Scrolls alternative on desktop. It rewards experimentation the way Skyrim used to, has the highest production value on this list, and runs natively on Windows and macOS. Avowed is the closer match on feel, but Baldur’s Gate 3 has more content to fill the ES6 gap.
When is The Elder Scrolls 6 coming out?
Bethesda has not given a release window. Public reporting, including Eurogamer’s coverage of the Xbox layoffs at Bethesda, points to 2028 at the earliest and treats 2029 as the more realistic forecast. That is a decade after the 2018 teaser trailer, and it assumes no further disruption at Xbox Games Studios.
Is Avowed like Skyrim?
Avowed is the closest first-person action-RPG on the market to Skyrim’s core rhythm. Same perspective, spell-in-one-hand-sword-in-the-other combat, and a hub-based structure that reads as familiar. It is smaller in scope and its main quest is shorter, but the moment-to-moment feel is the closest anyone has shipped since 2011.
What Skyrim alternative has the biggest open world?
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II ships the largest single seamless map on this list, and Two Worlds II HD has the most raw square kilometers when you count both continents. Baldur’s Gate 3 has more total content, but the map is broken into regions rather than a single continuous world.
Are there Elder Scrolls alternatives on macOS or Linux?
Yes, though the list narrows fast. Baldur’s Gate 3 ships natively on macOS. Divinity: Original Sin 2 has a native macOS build. Two Worlds II HD is the only one on this list with a native Linux build. The rest are Windows-only on Steam, though most run cleanly through Proton on Steam Deck.
Is it worth replaying Skyrim in 2026 while we wait?
If you have not built a fresh mod list in the last two years, yes. The Skyrim modding scene keeps producing serious content, including full-length new campaigns like Enderal. If you have already re-modded Skyrim recently, one of the seven games above will give you more novelty per hour than another Whiterun run.
