The success of Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is not hidden. Often considered by many as one of the greatest games of all time, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim won many accolades when it was released back in 2011. The title served as an inspiration to many more games of the genre in the years that followed.
It’s been more than a decade since the game was released, but it still remains highly spoken about whenever there is a discussion about large-scale open worlds in fantasy role-playing games. Notably, as of June 2023, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has sold over 60 million copies across almost every gaming platform, excluding mobile. The 60 million copies make it the seventh best-selling game of all time.
The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim handbooks by Bethesda
The game was such a hit, that developer Bethesda even released a set of handbooks for players to navigate their way through the game. For the first time ever, the collection of texts from the critically and commercially acclaimed fantasy video game was bound together and sold in 2015. ‘
Titled ‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – The Skyrim Library’ included three exciting volumes of handbooks, namely,
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – The Skyrim Library, Vol. I: The Histories: 1
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – The Skyrim Library, Vol. II: Man, Mer, and Beast: Man and Beast
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – The Skyrim Library, Vol. III: The Arcane: 3
The description of the collection read,
“Lavishly illustrated and produced, these titles are straight out of the world of Skyrim – and a must for any wandering adventurer.”
The three volumes were published by Titan Books between 2015 and 2016. All three handbooks have 232 pages each, and the hardcover versions are available on Amazon.
Todd Howard reveals fans enjoy Skyrim handbooks
During an interview with Time ahead of the release of Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Special Edition in 2016, Todd Howard of Bethesda Studios was asked why they made such huge books. To this, he said,
“Yes, huge. If you drop that it’ll kill a child. I’ve always really liked having this tangible tome of “This is everything we did.” Even though it’s not everything. Handbooks these days don’t sell that well. There’s not as many of them for a lot of reasons, namely the Internet. But we still like them, and ours sell really well. They’ll hit Amazon’s bestseller list when they come out.”
He adds that although it is a lot of work on their end, the fans seem to enjoy them. And that is why they enjoy making them and putting them on our shelves. Besides, Howard adds that the handbooks also come in handy for the team. He says,
“Often when we’ll be working on a new game and we need to refer back to something, we’ll just look it up in the handbook. Like, “What was that particular thing we did? Okay, I’ll flip open the handbook. How does that work?” Believe it or not, it’s faster.”
Although the exact stats about the success or copies of the book sold, going by Howard’s comments, the fans do enjoy the handbooks.
