Methodology
How we pick & source
A recommendation is only useful if you can trust it. Here is exactly how we compare games with Skyrim, and where every number on this site comes from.
1. The five-trait Skyrim score
Each game is scored from 1 to 5 on the five things Skyrim players most often say they love. The overall “% like Skyrim” is the average of the five scores.
| Trait | What we ask |
|---|---|
| Open world | Is there a large, hand-crafted world to explore freely, with dungeons, towns and wilderness? |
| Freedom | Can you ignore the main story, join factions, and build any kind of character? |
| Combat feel | Does moment-to-moment combat feel like Skyrim’s real-time first/third-person fighting? |
| Quests & story | Are there plentiful quests and side stories in the Elder Scrolls tradition? |
| Modding | How large and active is the modding community? |
Similarity is not the same as quality. Our ranking combines the similarity score with how good the game is today — which is why a very different game like Outward can rank above a closer but weaker one.
2. Where our facts come from
We use primary sources first and say which tier each source belongs to. Every page ends with a full source list.
- Tier 1 · Official. Steam store pages (release dates, price, PC requirements, co-op modes, Steam Deck rating), official Steam announcements, developer and publisher websites, official X accounts linked from those websites, and trailers from official YouTube channels.
- Tier 2 · Data platforms. Steam user reviews and live player counts, SteamDB (price history and player charts), OpenCritic (critic averages and platforms), Metacritic, and HowLongToBeat for playtimes. HowLongToBeat’s terms do not allow automated collection, so we link to it rather than copy its numbers.
- Tier 3 · Press. Reviews from established outlets — PC Gamer, IGN, Eurogamer, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, GameSpot, GamesRadar+ and others — quoted briefly with the outlet’s own score and a link to the full review. News reporting from outlets such as RPG Site.
- Tier 4 · Community. UESP, the Outward Wiki, Nexus Mods (mod counts) and each game’s subreddit. Used for mechanics and modding, and always labelled as community opinion.
We do not cite other “games like Skyrim” lists — if a claim matters, we trace it back to where it originated.
3. How fresh the data is
Every data source is refreshed automatically every day, and the site is rebuilt afterwards. If a source is temporarily unavailable we keep the last verified value rather than showing nothing. Every change — a new review, a sale, a rating shift, a release-date change — is logged publicly on our What’s new page.
| Data | Last refreshed |
|---|---|
| Steam ratings, price, Steam Deck, players, news | October 14, 2026 |
| OpenCritic scores, platforms and reviews | October 14, 2026 |
| Nexus Mods counts | October 14, 2026 |
| YouTube video availability | October 14, 2026 |
Our written verdicts, rankings and “skip it if” notes are editorial and reviewed by hand whenever a game changes significantly (for example a major expansion or remaster).
4. Honesty rules
- Every game gets a “Skip it if…” section. No game is right for everyone.
- We do not invent statistics, player counts or playtimes.
- If something is unannounced — like a console version — we say so instead of guessing.
- Store links are plain links; if we ever add affiliate links, they will be clearly marked.
- Videos are embedded only from official developer, publisher or platform channels, or from established press outlets.
- Review excerpts are short quotes with attribution and a link to the full review on the outlet’s site.
5. Player reviews & community rankings
Player reviews, the player leaderboard and head-to-head results come from visitors to this site and are kept separate from our editorial ranking — we never change our ranking because of votes, and we never add, edit or invent player reviews. The player leaderboard uses a Bayesian average and only ranks games with at least five reviews. Reviews are published immediately and moderated afterwards under our community guidelines.
6. Spotted a mistake?
Games change. If any fact is wrong or out of date, use the “Spotted a mistake?” button at the bottom of every page — we will correct it and update the verification date.
Last updated October 14, 2026.