The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Workshop Launches With Over 2 Million Mods Downloaded

Bethesda has just fired over a press release in which they inform us of an impressive statistic – two million mods have been downloaded since the launch of the Steam Workshop feature for the title.  On top of that, the announcement mentions their Game of the Year nod from the 2012 Interactive Achievement Awards:

THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM® WORKSHOP LAUNCHES WITH OVER 2 MILLION MODS DOWNLOADED
 
WORLDWIDE DEMAND CONTINUES FOR THE SECOND HIGHEST GROSSING TITLE OF 2011
 
NEW HONORS FOR SKYRIM AS GAME IS NAMED ‘˜GAME OF THE YEAR’ AT 2012 INTERACTIVE ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

February 14, 2012 (Rockville, MD) ZeniMax® Media Inc. today announced that the Creation Kitâ„¢, a free tool that allows PC players to create their own custom content for Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, has been enthusiastically received by PC gamers who have been uploading, downloading, and installing custom content through the Skyrim Workshop on Steam. Within a week of the release of the Creation Kit, gamers have downloaded more than 2 million mods via the Skyrim Workshop. More than 2,500 mods have been published by the gaming community, all of which are available for free.
 
Worldwide revenues generated by Skyrim have placed it among the industry’s most successful titles, and demand for the title shows no signs of slowing. Measured by revenue, Skyrim was the second best selling game of 2011, and 2012 sales remain strong, with continuing digital downloads and large shipments of units to retail. Within the first month following its release in November, Bethesda Softworks® reported it had shipped over 10 million units of Skyrim across all platforms, representing approximately $650 million in retail sales, and those results have since increased substantially.  
 
Data from Steam, the digital download service, reveal that the average number of hours that a gamer plays Skyrim exceeds 75 hours, underscoring fan devotion to the game. The PC version of Skyrim in North America outsold all other PC games by a factor of over three to one in the month of its release, and Skyrim is the fastest selling title in Steam’s history.
 
Console versions of Skyrim reveal equally strong fan demand. The Xbox 360 version of Skyrim outsold all Xbox 360 exclusive titles in 2011 in North America, and the PS3 version of Skyrim outsold all PS3 exclusive titles on that platform.  These strong commercial results match the high scores and widespread praise of critics that the game has received.
 
The critically-acclaimed title was most recently honored with the ‘˜Game of the Year’ award at the 15th Annual 2012 Interactive Achievement Awards (IAA) held at the 2012 D.I.C.E. Summit. Skyrim also received top honors  in the ‘˜Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering’, ‘˜Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction’, ‘˜Role-Playing Game of the Year’, and ‘˜Outstanding Achievement in Story’ categories. The IAA’s focus is on peer-based voting and its awards are considered to be among the highest honors of recognition in the interactive entertainment industry.  
 
Skyrim had already garnered dozens of ‘˜Game of the Year’ awards from major outlets worldwide, including winning the top honor of ‘˜Game of the Year’ at the 2011 Video Game Awards which are voted on by a panel of editors from the industry’s most respected magazines and websites.  To date, Skyrim has received over 200 perfect review scores worldwide, earning the highest praise from some of the industry’s most influential critics including: Wall Street Journal, USA Today, G4TV, The New York Times, GameSpy, Wired, Eurogamer, Destructoid, GamePro, Official Xbox Magazine, Joystiq, The Guardian, Famitsu and GamesRadar. G4TV describes Skyrim as (one of the greatest games ever) and Eurogamer was one of many outlets to call it a (masterpiece.)
 
Skyrim, available for the Xbox 360® video game entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and PC, is the third consecutive game developed by the team at Bethesda Game Studios® to earn ‘˜Game of the Year’ honors.  Bethesda Game Studios, which was named ‘˜Studio of the Year’ at the 2011 Video Game Awards, also created the 2006 ‘˜Game of the Year’,The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion®, and the 2008 ‘˜Game of the Year’, Fallout® 3.
 
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been rated M for Mature by ESRB.

For more information on Skyrim visit http://www.elderscrolls.com/
 
About ZeniMax Media Inc.
ZeniMax Media is a privately owned media organization headquartered outside Washington DC with international offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Eindhoven, and Tokyo. Through its subsidiaries, ZeniMax Media creates and publishes original interactive entertainment content for consoles, the PC, and handheld/wireless devices.  ZeniMax Media divisions include Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, Arkane Studios, Tango Gameworks, MachineGames Sweden, ZeniMax Europe Ltd., ZeniMax Asia K.K. and ZeniMax Online Studios.   For more information on ZeniMax Media, visit www.zenimax.com.
 
About Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks, part of the ZeniMax Media Inc. family of companies, is a worldwide publisher of premier interactive entertainment software. Titles featured under the Bethesda label include such blockbuster franchises as DOOM®, QUAKE®, The Elder Scrolls®, Fallout®, Wolfenstein®  and RAGE®.  Among the world’s top development studios creating titles for ZeniMax are Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, Arkane Studios, MachineGames Sweden, Tango Gameworks and ZeniMax Online Studios. For more information on Bethesda Softworks’ products, visit www.bethsoft.com.   
 
About Bethesda Game Studios
Bethesda Game Studios is the award-winning development studio known around the world for its groundbreaking work on The Elder Scrolls series. Creators of the 2006 Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion®, and 2008 Game of the Year,Fallout® 3, Bethesda Game Studios has earned its reputation as one of the industry’s most respected and accomplished game development studios. Bethesda Game Studios’ latest game, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, was released on 11.11.11. Skyrim earned numerous nominations and awards at E3 2011, including being named ‘Best Console Game’ and ‘˜Best RPG’ by the official Game Critics Awards and has been awarded more than 200 perfect review scores. For more information on Bethesda Game Studios, visit http://bgs.bethsoft.com.

The Elder Scrolls title have always had huge modding communities, so this is not exactly surprising, but reading those numbers is still pretty impressive.