Skyrim might have actually made $1 billion at launch - that's $350m more than was previously thought

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That would mean $1.3 billion with 2022's inflation

Skyrim
(Image credit: Skyrim)

New figures suggest that Skyrim may have made $1 billion at launch, that's $350 million more than what was originally thought. 

As reported by Tweak Town, Twitter user and numbers researcher Timur222 has revealed that Skyrim may have actually made $1 billion in sales back when it was released in 2011, despite Bethesda previously claiming that the game had sold 10 million copies - meaning it had made $650 million - in its first month of release. 

These new figures came from the LinkedIn page of Alex Price - who worked as the European brand and marketing manager for Bethesda between 2010 and 2013. According to the page, Skyrim "generated $1B in the first 30 days - outperforming forecasts by 35%." What this means is that back when Skyrim was released in 2011, Bethesda expected it to generate $650 million in revenues when it actually earned 35% more than that.

Thanks to Price and Timurr222 though, we now know that Skyrim may have actually made $1 billion in revenue when it launched. That's $350 million more than what was originally forecasted. Speaking in today's terms, that would actually mean $1.3 billion with inflation. So it's safe to say that Skyrim had a pretty successful launch for Bethesda. 

With this in mind, it will be interesting to see how the likes of the upcoming Bethesda title Starfield will perform when it launches in 2023. It's fair to say that the sci-fi RPG has got a lot of excitement surrounding it so we wouldn't be surprised if it had similar success to Skyrim upon launch. 

Have you had your fill of Bethesda's 2011 RPG? Take a look at our list of games like Skyrim list for ideas on what to play next. 

Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.