Bethesdais one of the leading video game companies in the world. The company has a long history, that started in 1986 when it was founded. Due to good games, which led to record profits, the company expanded over time, acting both as a publisher and developer. In the beginning, the studio was known for producing games based on films, likeThe Terminator,Star Wars, andPirates of the Caribbean, with their first game beingGridiron!,a football arcade game developed for Atari and Amiga. Still, as a developer, Bethesda is today well known forThe Elder ScrollsandFalloutseries. The two series are today recognized as the best and most profitable with millions of copies sold worldwide.
Related:Hidden Connections Between The Elder Scrolls & Fallout Universes
WithStarfieldbeing their first new IP in decades, Bethesda has captured the minds and hearts of gamers once again with this epic spacefaring adventure. Despite not really enjoying the best reputation in modern times, fans are still extremely happy to get their hands onStarfield, turning it into another sales success for this massive studio that has already sold a wealth of titles in no time at all! Hopefully, this game marks a brand new chapter in this company’s future, allowing them to develop a wealth of great games instead of being bombarded with criticism for their attempts to either make their experiences more casual in nature or being overly greedy in their attempts to get more money from a loyal fanbase.
Updated on July 23, 2025 by Ritwik Mitra:Bethesda is one of the biggest game studios around right now, establishing themselves as the kings of Western RPGs for the longest time before a string of poor decisions led to many people questioning their place on the throne. However, their immense influence over open-world game development can’t be ignored, with the studio crafting a myriad of incredible titles that have gone on to become some of the best RPGs fans can ever get their hands on, leading to immense sales across the board. The sheer number of units that this company has sold with each title is truly mind-boggling and goes to prove just how popular the developer really is.
As up-to-date data for each game is not available, the most recent sales figures will be used as a reference and the year of their publication will be noted. Please note that all of these titles have sold more copies; however, this data should give a relatively clear indication of which games are Bethesda’s highest sellers.
3,000 (1994)
120,000 (1996)
TBA
Special Mention: Starfield
The hype that surroundedStarfieldwas through the roof, even if some players had become disillusioned by Bethesda and its promises by this point. The idea of playing a space-faring adventure is pretty alluring indeed, andStarfielddoes a great job of letting players get lost in its myriad of planets and quests… even if the act of seamlessly moving from one planet to another is nothing more than a pipe dream. Fast Travel and loading screens are prevalent in this game… but that isn’t the worst thing in the world for players.
The game has hit the ground running, with many players enjoying the massive scope of this game despite the lack of seamless transitions between worlds and the janky character animation that has become a staple of most Bethesda RPGs. While official sales numbers aren’t out yet, it doesn’t take an expert to gauge that Bethesda is going to enjoy another multi-million unit-selling game to add to its list of rampant successes.
11The Elder Scrolls: Arena
The Elder Scrolls: Arenais first on the list. It was the first game inThe Elder Scrollsseries and it introduced players to the continent of Tamriel and its wilderness and dungeons. It was an MS-DOS game, released in 1994, so the data of its commercial is rather obscure. It soldonly 3,000 copiesupon release, but sales later increased, as was expected from the first title in a series that has gone on to become one of the biggest Western RPGs of all time.
Critical reception was also good, and gamers were buying it and playing it months after its release. In 2004 the game was released as freeware, obviously increasing its downloads. There are no official estimates of how many copies the game sold, although the fact that players can get it for free now means that a lot of people have definitely checked this game out.
10The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall
The development ofThe Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfallbegan immediately after the release of the original game. Like its predecessor, it’s based in Tamriel with over 15,000 cities, towns, villages, and dungeons, for the players to explore. In fact, Daggerfall holds the record of having one of the biggest game worlds of all time… even though the landscape itself may be rather barren, for the most part.
The game was a big hit after its release with 100,000 copies sold within two days of its release. As a result, the retailers were faced with shortages of the game. The good commercial performance later continued, with the game selling outall of the 120,000 copies that were given to retailersat the time of launch.
9The Elder Scrolls: Blades
The Elder Scrolls: Bladesis a free-to-play RPG published for Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch.It received worse reviewsthan the other games in the series, with critique being appointed at its long loading screens, lack of innovation, and use of microtransactions. The game was a commercial success, with 1 million downloads on the iOS platform in the week of release.
It was later reported that the act of players spending in the game is bringing in$50,000 in earnings a day. While there’s no denying thatThe Elder Scrolls: Bladesis far from a good look for the series, it still serves as a treat for long-time fans who want to enjoy some Bethesda goodness on their phones.
8Fallout 76
While the studio invested a lot of time, money, and effort in producingFallout 76, the game underperformed commercially and had lower sales than its two previousFalloutgames, which quickly resulted in a price drop for the game. This was only a given since the quality ofFallout 76was absolutely lackluster and nowhere near what was promised.
Related:Fallout 76: The Creepiest Locations In The Game, Ranked
Fallout 76managed tosell 1.4 million copiesin the year of its release. In 2021, Todd Howard claimed that the game hada total of 11 million players. Sales were as disappointing as the critical reception, which failed to impress critics and obviously the audience. In the end, the game was also marked with controversy after publishing its poor-quality special edition game.
For what it’s worth,the expansions and new content updates released forFallout 76have helped mitigate most of the worst issues that the game faced. The most notable expansion of the lot is theWastelandersupdate, which finally adds NPCs into the game along with better questlines. Fans who managed to grab this game on sale will be more than happy with the content that’s currently on offer.
7The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowindserves as the third installment in the series. The story is based on Vvardenfell, which is a province of Morrowind. The gameplay is similar to its predecessor, featuring an open world and various creatures and quests. However, the game was a major leap in terms of graphics. The game was a critical and commercial success for Bethesda. Itsold 95,000 copiesin the first month of its release and soldmore than 300,000 copiesin the year of its release. From the last available data, the game managed tosell more than 4 million copiesworldwide.
Morrowind was one of the firstElder Scrollstitles to feature expansion packs, with bothTribunalandBloodmoonbeing great additions in their own right. With all these expansions,The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowindwas a game that was absolutely jam-packed with content and cementedThe Elder Scrollsas one of the biggest game franchises of all time. To this day, there’s something about the charm and scope ofMorrowind’s world that makes it such a tantalizing RPG to experience, with players loving the vibe of the game’s world and how it instantly captures their attention from the very moment they get off the ship that brings them to the land of Vvardenfell.
6The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivionoutperformed its predecessor both critically and commercially. It featured a better story, graphics, and a bigger world with more diverse and richer content. The massive steps taken by this title further strengthened the legacy ofThe Elder Scrollsin the industry. The gamesold 1.4 million copiesin the month of its release and after the years salesclimbed to 3 million copies. Electronic Entertainment Desing and Research, a market research firm, estimates that the gamesold 9.5 million copiesworldwide. The game also shined critically receiving many “Game of the Year” awards, and today is considered to be one of the best games ever made.
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivionalso featured some truly horrid DLC that was the subject of much derision within the gaming community. However, the studio made up for this egregious act with the release ofThe Shivering Isles, which was an excellent addition to the established legacy ofOblivion. The game marked a huge change in how Bethesda approached an RPG, opting to streamline some facets of its gameplay while striving to improve other gameplay mechanics like combat while introducing new modes of travel like horse riding.
5Fallout 4
Fallout 4is a sequel to the previous game on the list, with the story occurring 10 years after the events of the game. This time it follows a character named “Sole Survivor” who emerges from the long-term cryogenic stasis in Vault 111. The game features similar gameplay toFallout 3, which equally large world and content in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the USA.
Like its predecessor, the game had a strong commercial performance upon release andsold 1.2 million copieson Steam in the first 24 hours of its release, while during the same time, itshipped 12 million copiesto the retailers, grossing 750 million dollars. It might not be the most beloved Bethesda title due to a host of puzzling creative decisions, butFallout 4is still a brilliant title that deserves all its recognition.
A big part of what increasedFallout 4’s sales is definitely the expansion packs. Aside from the content upgrades for the workshops,Fallout 4was graced by DLCs likeAutomatron,Far Harbor,andNuka-World. All these DLCs have witnessed favorable reception from fans, some of whom still can’t get enough of this amazing title.
While the available data puts it underFallout 3,Fallout 4has probably outsold its predecessor by quite a margin.
4Fallout 3
Fallout 3managed to outperform all the previous Fallout installments' combined sales, having57% stronger salesin the first week of its release thanThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. The fact that this game was the first-ever 3DFalloutgame was a fact that no person looked at lightly, and the impressive manner in which it managed to help the franchise evolve was quite a treat to witness for long-time fans of the series.
Related:Fallout 4: The Biggest Plot Holes In The Game
The game sold 4.7 million copies in the first year of its release grossing 300 million dollars. The sales continued to climb, and the game’s sales wereboosted by 1000%following Bethesda’s announcement ofFallout 3at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The lifetime sales laterreached 12.4 millionaccording to Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, a company that conducted the research.
3The Elder Scrolls Online
The idea of an MMORPG set in theElder Scrollsuniverse is obviously an appealing prospect for a whole host of reasons. After all, viewers have caught glimpses of the massive continent of Tamriel across each game in the series, and being able to explore all of these lands with friends sounds tantalizing. That being said, it wasn’t smooth going forThe Elder Scrolls Onlinefrom the get-go — as is the case with most MMORPGs upon launch, this game also had a myriad of issues that stemmed from connectivity problems, a lack of meaningful content, grindy gameplay, and everything else along the same lines.
Thankfully, it was clear that Bethesda was devoted to ensuring that the title would receive a steady stream of content updates while also benefiting from numerous fixes that would take care of most of the problems that cropped up since launch. As a result,The Elder Scrolls Onlinehas quickly transformed into one of the most popular MMOs around that fans of the series should definitely check out. Exploring the different regions of Tamriel and interacting with the questlines that lie within makes for a great time, with the game absolutely loaded with content right now! The fact thatthe game has sold 18 million copiesis proof enough of how wildly successful this title really is.
2The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimis one of the best-selling games in history, as well as being critically acclaimed at the same time. It had an impressive launch andsold 3.4 million physical copiesin the first 48 hours of its release. Bethesda alsoshipped 7 million copiesin the first week, and the game was also the fastest-selling title on Steam to that date.
The sales climbed to 20 million after two years and in 2016 the game’s director Todd Howard confirmed that the game soldover 30 million copies. The release of the expansionsDawnguard,Hearthfire, andDragonbornfurther cemented the game’s legacy as being one of the most massive and enjoyable open-world titles ever made. This figure also does not take into account theAnniversary Editionthat came out for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2021.
