How The Elder Scrolls Online Is Going All-In On Seasons In 2026

by

In 2026, The Elder Scrolls Online will be changing significantly. The developers at ZeniMax Online Studios are focusing on a new seasonal system where all future updates and content will be available to players for free.

For a long time, The Elder Scrolls Online has released major expansions annually, following a common model for online games. These expansions introduced new areas of Tamriel to discover, continued the game’s story, and offered optional downloadable content for purchase. Sometimes, they also included additions like new character classes or gameplay features.

In 2024, ZeniMax Online announced a change to how they release content for The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO). Instead of a large yearly chapter, 2025 will be a year of preparation for a bigger push in 2026. Recently, developers detailed their plans for 2026, which include more frequent, experimental seasonal content with battle passes, new stories, solo adventures, improvements to PvP, updates to character classes, and much more. They also shared long-term goals for ESO, like finally adding cross-play so players on different platforms can play together, and features fans have been asking for, such as mail and housing for guilds.

According to game director Nick Giacomini, players felt that The Elder Scrolls Online’s yearly chapter releases had become predictable. This structure was also slowing down the development team’s ability to introduce new content. Switching to a seasonal model will allow them to deliver fresh ideas and gameplay to the 12-year-old game more quickly.

Players have been requesting this for a long time – a chance to step back, fix what’s not working well, and collaboratively shape the future of The Elder Scrolls Online,” explained Giacomini. “This marks a significant change, similar to the impact of One Tamriel ten years ago, but we’ll be approaching these improvements in a completely new way.

Giacomini explained that each new season will offer a fresh experience, while still allowing the team to refine and build upon the game’s fundamental elements.

Goodbye Chapters, Hello Seasons

The game is moving to a new seasonal model where all future updates will be available to players for free. Previously, players had to purchase expansions or DLC to access most new content. Going forward, any additions – including new areas, stories, and gameplay features – will be included with each season. There will be four seasons per year, each lasting three months.

From now on, content previously released as chapters will simply be regular game updates, according to executive producer Susan Kath.

The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) is getting a big change starting with Update 49 in March. The popular DLCs – Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Imperial City, and Orsinium – will be included with the base game, meaning players won’t need to purchase them separately. This update will also be the first time ESO updates are released on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation all at the same time, and this will be the standard practice for future updates.

In April, The Elder Scrolls Online will begin its first official season, called Season 0. This update will significantly improve the Dragonknight class with updated skills and visuals, and also enhance two-handed weapon abilities. Players will also get to explore a new, limited-time zone called The Night Market.

This new area is significantly more challenging than regular combat in The Elder Scrolls Online – the developers are planning to adjust the difficulty of overland content later this year as well. It’s built for group play, encouraging players to team up and explore deeper into the zone. Players will align themselves with one of three factions and earn rewards as they progress. These rewards include a new, customizable player home – the first to feature a built-in bank – and a unique new type of reward that ZeniMax Online is keeping secret for now.

The Night Market is currently a temporary event, but it’s scheduled to come back in late 2026. If players enjoy it, ZeniMax Online may make it a regular part of the game.

Tamriel Tomes

With the launch of Season 0, we’re introducing Tamriel Tomes, a new battle pass system. This replaces our current daily challenges and login rewards. Instead, players will complete weekly and seasonal challenges – and can even re-roll weekly challenges they don’t like – to progress through the battle pass.

I’m really excited about the new tome! As you play, you can unlock cool free stuff like different armor looks and even new ways to use your skills. They’re also doing a battle pass, which is awesome – there’s a free track, but if you want even more cosmetics, you can get the premium versions for $15 or $30. The best part about the premium passes is that they don’t expire, so you can keep working through them even after the season ends, which is a huge relief!

The new Gold Coast Bazaar is launching alongside Tamriel Tomes and works a lot like the Trading Post in World of Warcraft. It will offer a variety of cosmetic items – including some that were previously only available for a limited time, plus new ones. According to Giacomini, items will change regularly, but each item will be available for a long period, like an entire season.

As a big ESO fan, I’m excited about the new bazaar! It looks like you’ll be using something called Trade Bars to buy stuff there. You mostly earn these by completing Tamriel Tomes – those seasonal challenges – but you can also get a little bit of them just by playing the game. It’s cool that the free battle pass gives you a good amount of Trade Bars, and the paid battle pass gives you even more! Just so you know, you can’t buy Trade Bars directly with Crowns, so you’ll have to earn them through gameplay.

We’ve offered a lot of exclusive cosmetic items over time, and once they were gone, they were usually lost forever. Sometimes we’d bring them back, but it was always random and unpredictable,” explained Giacomini. “Now, the bazaar gives players a dependable way to earn those previously unavailable rewards.

ESO Plus is getting some enhancements! The price will stay the same, and you won’t lose any current benefits. Instead, we’re adding more perks, like faster progress on your Battle Pass. Plus, each month you’re a subscriber, you’ll earn credits towards a free upgrade for a Tamriel Tome. You need 12 credits to get the upgrade, but you don’t have to earn them all at once – even if you subscribe and cancel occasionally, your credits will still add up!

ESO’s 2026 Roadmap

Looking ahead, ZeniMax Online says its plans for the next few years are flexible and subject to change. However, they do have a general idea of what’s coming. The first season, planned for late summer, will add new content related to the Thieves Guild, large-scale world events, a new challenging dungeon (trial), and a new story focusing on the popular daedric prince Sheoggorath. They’ll also be updating the Warden class during this season.

The next season, coming this winter, will bring updates to the Sorcerer class, plus new solo dungeons for players to explore on their own. We’re also adding large-scale events happening throughout Skyrim, and a mysterious naval combat event called High Seas of Tamriel. Finally, the Greymoor chapter will be included with the base game.

For years, The Elder Scrolls Online players have been asking for the ability to play together regardless of their platform – whether they’re on Xbox, PlayStation, or PC. The developers have previously explained how challenging this ‘cross-play’ feature would be to implement. Now, it seems they’re finally working on it, though it likely won’t be available for quite some time.

Kath confirmed that cross-play is planned, but it will take some time to implement. It’s a complicated process because ESO wasn’t originally designed to support players on different platforms. They’re carefully considering all the necessary steps to make it work.

Although cross-play isn’t available yet, several improvements are coming soon to make the game more enjoyable. Before the start of Season 0, players will be able to use outfit slots across all their characters, freely reset their skills and stats from the game menu, and earn experience for skills on their quick access bar at the same rate. We’re also speeding up horse training – you’ll be able to increase the skill by three points at a time – and letting you upgrade your mounts directly from the UI instead of visiting a vendor. Finally, some player homes will have increased limits for furnishings.

This isn’t a complete list of changes, and ZeniMax Online plans to add even more improvements for players later this year. The roadmap suggests each season will be quite unique, and that’s intentional. The studio doesn’t want to follow a predictable pattern for seasons, as Kath explained. Giacomini agreed with this approach.

According to Giacomini, the main improvement is offering more options and letting players choose what they want. They believe this new approach is the best way to focus on what matters most to the player base.

We’ll share more information about when ESO’s Season 0 starts, and new features like the Night Market, in the months ahead. Rich Lambert, studio director at ZeniMax Online, previously stated their goal is for ESO to remain a popular online game for the next 30 years. Despite Microsoft recently canceling a new, unannounced MMO project called Blackbird, the studio still plans to develop other games in the future.

Read More

2026-01-08 00:43