The Elder Scrolls: Arena
THE LEGEND BEGINS
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- Released
- 1994
- Developer
- Bethesda Softworks
- Platforms
- 1 systems
- Critics
- Not scored
- Steam Deck
- playable
- Download
- 0.02 GB
What is The Elder Scrolls: Arena?
THE LEGEND BEGINS
Description as published by the developer on its own store page, read 30 August 2026. It is marketing copy, not our assessment.
The record
| First released | 25 March 1994 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Bethesda Softworks |
| Publisher | Bethesda Softworks |
| Platforms | PC |
| Genres | Action RPG |
| Languages | 1 supported |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata Q1798032, seeded 30 August 2026. Store data from Steam, read 30 August 2026.
How was The Elder Scrolls: Arena received?
Method. Player figures are Steam's own totals for the PC version, read 30 August 2026. The Metacritic score is the one Steam publishes on its store page and can lag the site itself. Neither is our opinion. We have not published a review of this game.
What does it support?
| Capability | Support |
|---|---|
| Controller | Not stated |
| Cloud saves | Yes |
| Cross-platform play | No |
| Mod support | No official workshop |
| Online play | Single-player only |
| In-game purchases | No |
| Steam Deck | playable |
| Download size | 0.02 GB |
| Add-on content | None listed |
| Age gate | None |
Method. Read from the publisher's Steam listing on 30 August 2026. Describes the PC version. Console versions differ.
What does it cost?
Steam price in US dollars, read 30 August 2026. Prices move hourly and vary by region. Check the current price.
Is The Elder Scrolls: Arena worth it?
80% of 2,574 Steam reviews are positive, which Steam rates Very Positive. It is free to play.
That is the data, not a verdict for sale: whether it is worth it depends on the price you pay and what you want. Players do report problems — see the reported-problems section below before buying. We have not published our own review of this game.
How long is The Elder Scrolls: Arena? How long to beat it
Total play time for The Elder Scrolls: Arena is about 62.3 hours to do everything, and around 26.7 hours to reach the end of the main story. These are player-submitted times from HowLongToBeat, not our own, shown with the number of players behind each.
| How you play | Hours | Players logged |
|---|---|---|
| Just the main story: straight through the critical path | 26.7h | 55 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 43.1h | 46 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 62.3h | 10 |
The Elder Scrolls: Arena is free to play, so the only cost is your time: about 26.7 hours to beat it.
Source: HowLongToBeat community submissions, read 2026-10-19.
Where The Elder Scrolls: Arena sits on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueThe Elder Scrolls: Arena plotted on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so its position is its real one. Change either axis to see where it lands.
1 games have both
Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.
Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.
- PC
Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.
How positions are decided
No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
- Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
- Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
- No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
- A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
- Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.
The Elder Scrolls: Arena price & deals: is it on sale?
We have one reading so far: Free on 30 August 2026. Prices are checked daily from here, and this becomes a chart once there is more than one point to join. A single observation is a price, not a history.
What readers say about The Elder Scrolls: Arena
Reviews written by people who have played it. These are separate from the GamingPickz Score and are never averaged into it: that score comes from thousands of Steam reviews with a sample-size correction, and a handful of unverified ratings would distort it rather than improve it.
Loading reviews…
Problems players report
We read the 300 most recent negative Steam reviews of The Elder Scrolls: Arena on 30 August 2026 and counted what they mention. These are complaints, not confirmed defects: we have not reproduced any of them, and a review describes one person's machine. What the counts tell you is which problems more than one person ran into.
- Crashes and freezes19 of 300 (6%)
Then the game crashed losing my progress before I could even think to look it up.
Steam review, 4 May 2022 · 1 hours played · 42 readers marked it helpfulTried out a few classes, ran around in circles, leveled a few times, reached a portal that asks me questions about the manual, failed to answer, game crashed.
Steam review, 2 May 2022 · 2 hours played · 8 readers marked it helpful - Controller and input9 of 300 (3%)
The controls are quite literally unplayable on standard, "ermm, with mods you ca-" Well it would've been nice if they could at least tweak the keybinds with the port to steam
Steam review, 7 May 2024 · 0 hours played · 6 readers marked it helpfulBut seriously, there's a mod called "TES Arena Remapped" which sliiiiightly improves the keybinding into a pretty modern layout.
Steam review, 26 August 2023 · 8 hours played · 6 readers marked it helpful
A further 9 reviews call the game buggy or broken without saying how, which is why they are counted separately rather than assigned to a theme. Counted by keyword across review text, so a review discussing two problems is counted under both. Read the reviews yourself.
Did it run on your PC?
Tell other players how it ran on your machine. One tap, from your saved PC if you have one.
Where The Elder Scrolls: Arena appears
The ranked lists and finder pages The Elder Scrolls: Arena qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
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Part of the The Elder Scrolls series
The Elder Scrolls: Arena is one of 7 The Elder Scrolls games we track. See the whole series ranked by the GamingPickz Score, plotted on the grid, and listed in release order:
The Elder Scrolls: Arena head to head
See The Elder Scrolls: Arena compared side by side, on score, price, specs and more:
Common questions about The Elder Scrolls: Arena
What platforms is The Elder Scrolls: Arena on?
The Elder Scrolls: Arena is available on PC. It first released in 1994.
Is The Elder Scrolls: Arena free?
Yes. The Elder Scrolls: Arena is free to download on Steam.
Do players recommend The Elder Scrolls: Arena?
80% of 2,574 Steam reviews are positive, which Steam rates Very Positive. That is players rating it, not our review. We have not published a review of this game.
Does The Elder Scrolls: Arena work on Steam Deck?
Valve rates The Elder Scrolls: Arena as playable on the Steam Deck, from its own testing.
How big is the The Elder Scrolls: Arena download?
0.02 GB on PC, from the storage requirement on its Steam listing. Console versions differ.
Who made The Elder Scrolls: Arena?
The Elder Scrolls: Arena was developed by Bethesda Softworks and published by Bethesda Softworks.
Is The Elder Scrolls: Arena worth it in 2026?
80% of 2,574 Steam reviews are positive (Very Positive), and it is free to play. That is the strongest signal we hold; "worth it" depends on the price you pay and what you want, so weigh the sentiment against the current price above.
How long does it take to beat The Elder Scrolls: Arena?
about 26.7 hours for the main story, 43.1 hours with the main extras, 62.3 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.