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The Elder Scrollsseries is known for its breathtaking open worlds that players can lose themselves in. From fighting dragons inSkyrimto exploring the alien landscape ofMorrowind, almost every game in the franchise emphasizes the player’s place in an enormous world and some ofgaming’s most impressive maps.
Skyrim, Vvardenfell, Cyrodil, and many other locations are iconic in their topography and size. Size doesn’t grow with each game, however. Some ofBethesda’solderElder Scrollsgames are much larger than their most recent titles – and some of the most recent mobile titles have little to no explorable area at all.
Updated March 24, 2024by Erik Petrovich: With the release of the newest game in the Elder Scrolls universe – the mobile game The Elder Scrolls: Castles – comes a new way to experience Tamriel. But this new game is not exactly about exploration, and it’s far from one of the biggest Elder Scrolls maps – if it can be called a map at all. Ultimately, the largest Elder Scrolls game of all time by explorable area will likely always be the Daggerfall map, but even this newest, management-oriented entry has more “area” than, say, the card game Elder Scrolls Legends. This list of the biggest maps in Elder Scrolls games has been updated to include this newest Elder Scrolls title, as well as to include new maps for each game – if the game has a proper map, that is.
12The Elder Scrolls Legends
An Elder Scrolls Game With No Exploration
Technically,The Elder Scrolls Legendsis anElder Scrollsgame. Being a card game and all, though, there’s not exactly the same level of exploration as the mainline RPGs. In fact, there’s none at all - unless you count exploring flavor text, that is.
Even if you were to hypothetically line up every uniqueElder Scrolls Legendscard and measure their surface area, the total “explorable” size would still be too small to do anything. Though it’s not an RPG,Elder Scrolls Legendscould be considered to have the smallest explorable world of anElder Scrollsgame - although nothing isn’t quite the same as 0 miles sq.
11The Elder Scrolls: Castles
Castle Interiors & Combat Arenas Technically Count, Right?
The Elder Scrolls: Castlescame out of nowhere in late 2023, and after a few months, it became available for the public to download in early 2024.TES Castlesis more of a castle management game than a trueElder Scrollsgame, and doesn’t offer the same exploration as some of the most iconic and bestElder Scrollsworlds.
ThoughThe Elder Scrolls Legendstechnically has no explorable world at all,The Elder Scrolls: Castlesdisplays a “map” of your castle from a side view as well as small, disconnected combat arenas during fights. You won’t be wandering the wilderness inThe Elder Scrolls: Castles, but because it technically offers these two “explorable areas”, it lands near the bottom of this list comparison ofElder Scrollsmap sizes.
10The Elder Scrolls Travels: Stormhold, Dawnstar, and Shadowkey
Few Dungeons & Tiny Open World Areas Make For A Middling Mobile Map
There were three mobile games released in 2003 and 2004 that brought theElder Scrollsbrand on the go under the “Travels” brand – perhaps to symbolize TES players on mobile devices. Though these games weren’t anything compared to the vast, elaborate worlds of the mainline entries (which at the time would have beenMorrowind), they were a nifty bit of fun for the time. However, depending on which version a player got (mostly dependent on their phone’s strength), more content was unlocked, includingnew areas and even new classes.
The smallest versions of each of these games only had eight dungeons and six classes, while the largest versions held 36 dungeons and an extra class.Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadoweywas developed for the Nokie N-Gage, a mobile phone and mobile gaming device. Despite this relative boost in what the game was capable of,Shadowkeyis still smaller than the later mobile titleThe Elder Scrolls: Blades, which included a number of explorable open areas rather than a select few tiny dungeons.
9The Elder Scrolls: Blades
Linear, Small Zones Connect Players Across Tamriel
The Elder Scrolls: Bladesis without a doubt the smallest world in anElder Scrollsgame. It has dungeons, a world map, and towns and settlements to check out, but because of the limited mobility and linearity ofBlades, the actual explorable area is miniscule.
No one has taken an exact measurement ofBladesmap size, but even compared toBattlespireandRedguard –two otherElder Scrollswith no consensus on their map sizes –Bladesfeels constrained and tiny.BattlespireandRedguardat least have relatively explorable open worlds, whileBladesis a much more linear, much more guided experience through small zones.
8An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire
Unconfirmed Size, But Likely Smaller Than Redguard
An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire, more commonly called justBattlespireby fans, is a spin-off fromDaggerfallthat takes place in quite the unexpected location: theElder Scrolls' closest equivalent of a space station. Hidden in a pocket Oblivion realm is the Battlespire, an “elite training center” thathas been overrun by Daedra.
Just likeBladesandRedguard, nobody really knows the exact map size ofBattlespire. However,Redguardhad a proper outdoor world to explore as well as dungeons, cities, and other locations that expand the world.Battlespiretakes place entirely on this elite training center, and thus is a fair bit smaller in scope thanRedguard.
7The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard
The Small Island Setting Sets Constraints On Exploration
Between the timeDaggerfallandMorrowindwere released, Bethesda made a few spin-off titles inThe Elder Scrollsuniverse. One of these games wasThe Elder Scrolls Aventures: Redguard. This game takes place on the island of Stros M’Kai, located on the southern coast of Hammerfell. Unlike most mainElder Scrollsgames, this game is focused on completing levels in a certain order rather than exploring a massive world.
As a result, measuring the size of the map is rather difficult. With how short the game is and how small the overworld is, it is safe to assume that this is one of the smallestElder Scrollsgames of the bunch that still allows a modicum of exploration. After all, a small island is no match for the main provinces the other games take place in, though it is more developed than the Battlespire orBlades' linear levels.
6The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Around 16 Kilometers Of Explorable Area in Vvardenfell
VeteranMorrowindfans might be surprised thatMorrowindis the smallest open-world Bethesda game in the series. Vvardenfell has a grand total of about 16 kilometers of playable space. The reason it felt much larger than the likes ofSkyrimwas this game didn’t have fast travel, and players had to go practically everywhere on foot if they couldn’t afford a ride.
Well, it didn’t have convenient fast travel. Players could either pay a fee to use the silt striders dotted across the landscape to travel between towns, or those adept in the arcane arts could mark locations to teleport between. Coupled with the game’s slow movement speed, theMorrowindmap size feels much larger than it really is – but that hasn’t stopped it from being apopular game to modmore than 20 years later. Those that own the Bloodmoon expansion can also travel to Solstheim by boat or by having a high enough Acrobatics skill to jump over the ocean.
5The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Around 37 Kilometers Of Explorable Area in Skyrim
It’s a meme amongst the community that Bethesda has resoldSkyrimhalf a dozen times by now, including theSpecial Editionof the game, the Greymoor expansion forElder Scrolls Online, and there’s even aport for your Alexa. There is always something interesting happening near the player, whether that’s random encounters or unexplored dungeons.
Skyrimis much larger thanMorrowind, more than doubling that game’s size at 37 kilometers (which doesn’t include the impressive verticality of the fifthElder Scrollstitle). Some of that space is water and mountains, but nearly all of the landscape has something for players to discover. Its breathtaking vistas and quests keep fanscoming back almost a decade since its release.
This world feels relatively small compared to others, though, because it’s incredibly easy to get around quickly, making exploration both more efficient and less exciting.
4The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
About 41 Kilometers of Explorable Area in Cyrodiil
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivionhas the opposite problem ofMorrowind. Many fans look back on this game as much smaller than other entries, but it is the opposite.Oblivionis a larger game compared to the latest three main entries, allowing players to explore the province of Cyrodil.
At 41 kilometers, this game has a massive landscape for players to explore. Like other Bethesda games, major towns and dungeons keep players busy while exploring. This size gets even larger when the Shivering Isles is considered—a unique zone that is roughly 10 kilometers in size. When all ofOblivion’scontent is accounted for, it is one of the largest games Bethesda has made in recent memory.
3Elder Scrolls Online
More Than 400 Kilometers Spanning Almost All Of Tamriel
It seems like cheating putting an MMO beside single-player RPGs, but TheElder ScrollsOnlineis surprisingly not the largestElder Scrollsgame. Unfortunately, no one truly knows how largeESOis. Not only is it difficult to measure since each region is instanced, butnew zonesare frequently added in major expansions.
The developers of the game commented before launch that Cyrodil is around 100 kilometers while most regions are around 10 kilometers. Adding every region together and assuming the major expansion zones are around 100 kilometers, the map ofESOis around 400 kilometers. This dwarfs the size of the past three mainElder Scrollsgames combined! It is the largestElder Scrollsgame ever made that didn’t utilize procedural generation for its landscapes.
