GTA 6 Beating The Elder Scrolls 6 to the beat is officially outright

Remember when the joke used to be “We get [this] before GTA 6?” Well, those days are about to be far behind us, because GTA 6 will finally officially launch on November 19, 2026. But do you know which game isn't launching this year? The Elder Scrolls 6Of course. Sure, I want Bethesda to take as much time as they need to get this game right (or as close to right as they can) because I know it needs it. But I've also wanted an original mainline Elder scrolls then play my relationship with Skyrim ended more than a decade ago, despite being on and off again through the game's countless re-releases. I know I'm not the only one who feels like the wait has been forever either, but the craziest part of it all is that somehow we get GTA 6 before The Elder Scrolls 6. It's hard to believe that I can even say that and still be factually correct.

Now I'm not saying that The Elder Scrolls 6 should have been launched earlier Grand Theft Auto 6 because I understand how unrealistic and unsympathetic it can sound. I find it interesting that they are both the 6th mainline entries in their respective franchises, so maybe that number has something to do with long waits and delays. But what I mean is that, given both Rockstar and Bethesda's desire for quality and the length of time that has passed between the last Grand Theft Auto and Elder scrolls installments and now it once seemed much more believable that Bethesda's long-awaited RPG would come first. After all, The Elder Scrolls 6 was publicly announced five years before Rockstar was even properly revealed GTA 6but the latter is now months away while the former still feels like a game from some distant, hypothetical future.

Again, I'm glad Bethesda is in no rush The Elder Scrolls 6 walk out the door just to end the wait, but to see one of gaming's most famously delayed sequels hit it hard is absolutely insane to me. What this ultimately comes down to is not just The Elder Scrolls 6s long development either. In reality, this is about how long it's been since we got an original Elder scrolls game, how long it takes Grand Theft Auto 5s launch and GTA 6s upcoming release, and all that both Bethesda and Rockstar have accomplished over that period, all while we've been waiting The Elder Scrolls 6.

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Everything that's happened in anticipation of The Elder Scrolls 6

• The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim was released on November 11, 2011.
• Grand Theft Auto 5 originally came out on September 17, 2013.
• Fallout 4 was released worldwide on November 10, 2015.
• The Elder Scrolls 6 was officially announced on June 10, 2018.
• Red Dead Redemption 2 was released worldwide on 26 October 2018.
• Fallout 76 was released worldwide on November 14, 2018.
• Starfield was officially released on September 6, 2023.
• Grand Theft Auto 6 was formally revealed on December 5, 2023.
• Grand Theft Auto 6 is scheduled to be released on November 19, 2026.
• The Elder Scrolls 6 is still under development.

The first thing to consider is the fact that Skyrim was launched on November 11, 2011. At the time of writing, it has therefore been almost 15 years since we were offered a new main line Elder scrolls games from Bethesda – and I'm not counting The Elder Scrolls Onlinewhich was developed by ZeniMax Online Studios and published only by Bethesda. But what is more striking is that the last Grand Theft Auto game, GTA 5was released almost two years after Skyrimand yet GTA 6the famous meme “how-long-do-we-have-to-wait” game, officially arrives before The Elder Scrolls 6.

Now let me be a little more lenient, because I'm sure you might be thinking, “Bethesda has been busier between releases than Rockstar,” and you'd be right. While Rockstar and Bethesda both have two major franchises to juggle between The Elder Scrolls and Fall-out for Bethesda and Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption for Rockstar, Bethesda's latest IP, Starfieldjoined the ranks while waiting for The Elder Scrolls 6. Because of that, it's certainly had more on its plate than Rockstar, so it's only natural The Elder Scrolls 6 comes after, and possibly not even immediately after, Grand Theft Auto 6.

The Elder Scrolls 6's long wait has Bethesda's priorities to blame

But the question that I and many others have asked for a long time is “why?” Don't get me wrong –Starfield was/is good, and I'm one of those who actually enjoyed it despite all its haters. But not only for that but also Fallout 76—Bethesda's major live-service project — taking precedence over what is widely considered the studio's most defining franchise is just weird. Between Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls 6Bethesda has released Fallout 4, Fallout 76and Starfieldall of which have undoubtedly contributed to the long wait for the developer's long-awaited open-world RPG. And on top of that, the covid-19 pandemic happened in 2020, which also slowed things down.

In other words, The Elder Scrolls 6 has had to queue behind three other Bethesda games, which in turn explains why Grand Theft Auto 6 get here first. Unlike The Elder Scrolls 6, GTA 6 really just had Red Dead Redemption 2 to wait for (if you don't count developer time spent on GTA online), so it makes sense that it would launch before TES6. However, that doesn't detract from my point about Rockstars at all GTA the sequel that everyone once thought would never come hits now The Elder Scrolls 6 to the punch in a crazy turn of events.

At the end of the day, I'd still rather wait several more years The Elder Scrolls 6 than to see Bethesda rush it out simply because we're all tired of waiting. This game has way too much riding on it for that, especially after Skyrim spent more than a decade defining what a Elder scrolls the game can be for a whole generation of players. Still, none of that makes the situation any less astonishing. GTA 6 went from being the favorite imaginary edition of the game to an actual game with a date on the calendar, while The Elder Scrolls 6 remains little more than a title, a teaser and a distant promise. Maybe Bethesda's long road will eventually prove worthwhile, but until then, the fact that GTA 6 somehow beat The Elder Scrolls 6 to the punch will remain one of the coolest twists in modern gaming.

System

Released

November 19, 2026

ESRB

Rating pending – likely adult 17+