Aetrion: The problem with ESO is just that it all feels the same. It's a fun game, but you just hit the point where all the content just blends together. All the dungeons are the same wordless affair, the story content starts all sounding the same, you have no way to actually meaningfully advance your character anymore and haven't for ages. For a game that has a gigantic amount of content it feels remarkably empty, just because none of it ever feels like you haven't done it before. Even the other characters are just bland. Everyone is the same few boring self healing DPS tank builds, so even the other players rarely ever provide you with a sense of "Oh, clever! Haven't seen that before!".

TonyCollazoRappo: I'm an older senior gamer and I like ESO, it's easy, full of adventure, I can play by myself if I want. It's graphically great looking. They better not get rid of it. =(

rudai123: Overland content is boring, too easy, and unrewarding. Why explore when there is no reason to?

Sun_Tzu_333: As you get older, you realize time is the most important commodity. You hit it, they have not kept up with the times. They underestimated the value of PvP as the end game. All along most of the people of quality were playing to see how they would match up against everyone else once we were fully trained in the art of this game. Figure it out while there us still time. Subclassing created a run away effect in subscriptions to this game. You are are right. It's not too late. I don't play but still love this game and want it to be successful. PVP needs to be the end game focus. Most non bot humans care about how they match up against other humans. That being said Cyrodiil needs more added to PVE a to make it true PVPVE. IE zombie horde, dragons, or barbarians attacking 1 keep on each alliance when things are slow. Make imperial city impact Cyrodiil and make it part of Cyrodiil again. Each zone or district within imperial city gives your your Alliance a different bonus in Cyrodiil so they compliment each other. The more keeps you own in Cyrodiil the less Tel Var you lose in imperial city. Base respawns in Imperial city on control of the Emp keeps. Class identity is important to me growing up on the golden age of D&D and I suspect that holds true for many others. You started as a game based in class identity. I have one of each, make them all good.

RJsItchyBanFinger: Lack of balance, game performance notnjust Cyrodiil but in trials, Homogeneous gameplay aka lack of class identity all brought on by devs that dont know their own game. Also Zos prioritized the crown store and newbies over player retention

chipperjones1240: Just so happen to come across this but I just started playing eso about 2 weeks I was never into these types of games I was always a survival game player and gave it a shot and fell in love got my buddy into and he’s in love and brought back one of my buddy’s that played it years ago and he’s in love I’m already cp 125 with 3 other characters around 15-30 my main being nightbalde but that’s besides the point hope the game stays maintained and high player base

PurrfectMedia: A graphics overhaul would be cool! Subclassing made the game feel lost. We really need direction, love eso but it’s been hard to play after subclasses took root. Btw I have 16000 hours on eso so definitely got my worth out of the game. But I hope it makes some good changes, im hopeful

salinaember9527: they need to stop being greedy (microsoft) and making development about maximizing profit for as little work as possible. but they see its making money, even if the playerbase is dwindling so they continue

dmityajd: True sign of a game that is going strong is youtube videos of people asking 'Is it dying?'.

steveeymann6374: My biggest issue on xbox has been finding groups and guilds that aren't toxic as hell to do group content with. It doesn't matter what discord or guild I join, someone is having drama woth someone else. My days are hectic enough without going to my escape reality and it looks like an episode of Jerry springer or Dr Phil. It wasn't like this back in the greymoor days. It was there but not nearly this bad. I do all the solo content I can with an occasional trial here and there but that's really it.

humanerror8187: Stuff like Ppl not dipping in the Olo, like whats happening in this video, is the type of shit that pushed me to quit...

sk8legendz: The game isn't dying in the direct sense

But if you compare the zone activity from now to back in 2018-2020

Many famous dueling and hangout locations are much less populated if not entirely ghost towns

Trials and dungeons no longer have as many people looking to group up and run them and most people doing so are all within a guild And only run with each other the rest are all randoms, winging it Together with no coms often

The game fundamentally isn't going to die because it has enough of a baseline player base to continue a financial longevity enough to justify keeping the servers open

Population has decreased in general but The player versus player community has certainly decreased

The social cohesion also seems rather weakened as well. Everyones a solo or its the same 12 guild mates/pvp mates talking...

I watched all of this decline happen gradually on the north american playstation server.

Its not dying, but it aint living

over9000optimally: Fomo is keeping it alive and the fomo is completely community driven, because people are still playing to avoid falling behind. They don't even really care about the content anymore. Lol.

JuicyOutdoors: I think we need a clear conversation with the direction of the game, as I feel the player base is lost with this subclass change and the lack of direction, take old school runescape, they do polls for any change coming into the game and will be really transparent but eso just doesn't do that. I would love to hear a fresh direction next year telling us what the future looks like.

CarichristianRayfield: I’ve fully checked out of eso on psna and pcna personally I’ve gotten to the point where everything feels the same

NocnyŁowca1997: I agree that ESO is currently in difficult spot. Issues that pilled up over the years. Not the best content when it comes to stories like Legacy of the Bretons, Necrom or Gold Road, Cyrodiil being kinda forgoten, not the most successful of Battlegrounds... But at the same time I think that it is more of a lull than reall death. For example I see the Season of the Wormcult as massive success. Very good story, promising updates, visit from the old characters. Even the Wall event... Okay this was an L, but the Fortress at the end, despite bugs and other issues, was very good. Also the plans they are making for the future the promises it seems they want to keep up feel me with hope. Don't forget that we have some signs that next year story will be taking place in Skyrim (favorite land of many players) and it will be in Dark Brotherhood theme (one of the most popular factions in TES when it comes to players). So this itself might pull some players back next year. Even for simple curiosity. And even if ESO will keep struggling, I will keep playing for lore and stories. And because I love this game and I play it since 2015 :)

I don't know if this comparison will be useful, but ESO situation kinda reminds me situation of my wiki page few years ago. There was an period, when I was the only active person on it, barely anybody read articles I wrote there and I was lucky if posts on Facebook had more than 1 Like. Many people told me, including my family members, that I should shut down the page. But I was stubborn and kept working on it. Result? Now I have 3 other people working on it with me, almost 3000 articles and we are considered as one of main source of info about TES lore in my country. Even one guy joind us like 2 weeks ago and is working on an AddOn which is going to high light the names of characters of places in dialogue and show players articles about those things on our website.

So I hope that the same thing will happen to ESO. Struggle now but rebirth and more success in the future ^^

MatthewJoseph67: subclassing destroyed the game and make a big wave of people stop playing the game

ZevielS: We're not at the no return yet but if something isn't done right for pure class over next year, they don't drop being as predatory with gambling in loot boxes and such then yes it will die. But if they do things right then game will bounce back. This game should have blown up like wow from blizzard. It had 0 reason to end up how it has but if the developers don't start caring to listen to players and half ass job and care of the game. It will die and be a tragedy

TonyCollazoRappo: I enjoy the holiday events. I don't do things like subclassing, group dungeons or trails. I don't do pvp either, but everything else is great and my speed. I'm an older senior gamer.

DalinarKholin99: I put way too much time into this game, but 2026 is the team’s last chance for me.

Artremis2441: Digging the pure Templar gameplay..I went back to pure Templar also but the biggest gripe for me is the crown store..players play for cool collectibles,mounts,changing your characters looks..I mean we still can’t dye our hair without spending $20 for character change token..90% of all cool items,mounts,accessories etc is locked behind a paywall and items for endeavors should not cost you a couple months of grinding endeavors to get..that’s what really frustrates me and next year with the steam machine if it has a good price I’ll get it n be officially done with xbox and elder scrolls

DR-nh2kh: Eso died from the date the started killing the ceiling in favour for the floor, showing love to the casuals instead of the loyal players, the back back buggy release no quality control.

empoweredshemphoward: I would pick this up and play again, but there's quite a few games on the go for the next while.

DanHagen-wp4ns: The Steam numbers are not for the exact numbers but the trend. And it has been trending downwards

I personally stopped playing due to both their balance changes and subclassing and some of the content I was grinding was giving diminishing rewards

logsburn955: I took a 9 year break, back 4 months and I’m absolutely loving every minute of my experience

Dec 10 2025

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