Skyrim Special Edition is about to beat its concurrent player record 9 years after launch thanks to a huge sale

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I can't believe there are people out there who didn't own Skyrim already

Skyrim
(Image credit: Bethesda)

Skyrim Special Edition is close to topping its peak concurrent player record following an enormous sale that made it cheaper than ever.

It honestly seems hard to believe that there are people out there who don't own Skyrim, but it turns out there are. Or were, anyway. One redditor noticed that Skyrim Special Edition concurrent player count is way up. In the last 24 hours, it hit 59,109, just 10,000 shy of its 69,906 peak from when it launched almost nine years ago. It went on sale for just $3.49 back on January 16, its lowest price ever, which may be responsible for this surge in players. 

That's nothing compared to the 287,411 who played Skyrim when it first launched back in 2011, 14 years ago, but it's pretty impressive for an update that came out five years after the original. Even more impressive are the 6.2 billion mods that have been downloaded by Special Edition players.

My favorite part of the Anniversary Edition is the built-in survival mode that disables fast travel and adds the need to manage your temperature, hunger, and sleep. It makes the game a lot more involved but doesn't add as much as other mods, so it still feels close to the vanilla experience.

Despite how many people are still playing Skyrim, a lot never even finished it, but RPG veteran Josh Sawyer says this doesn't matter because "they still love it." Whenever I restart a Skyrim playthrough I go straight for the Thieves Guild questline, I don't even let those pesky dragons spawn.

While you're here, check out the best Skyrim mods you can install to make the old game more interesting.

Issy van der Velde
Issy van der Velde
Contributor

I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.