The success of Prime Video’s Fallout TV show has spilled over into the video games upon which it is based, boosting player numbers in even decades old titles.
While the engine doesn’t help, I feel that Bethesda games have fallen into a trap of being bigger and bigger with every release which has resulted in the games being less and less focused. While the level of detail in a Fallout or Elder Scrolls game is amazing, I personally find I reach a saturation point and just stop caring about the game. With Skyrim, the only way I managed to complete the main quest line was by forcing myself to just speed-run it to the exclusion of doing nearly anything else. If I let myself wander off and start exploring or doing side quests, I just run out of steam at some point and never finish.
While the engine doesn’t help, I feel that Bethesda games have fallen into a trap of being bigger and bigger with every release which has resulted in the games being less and less focused. While the level of detail in a Fallout or Elder Scrolls game is amazing, I personally find I reach a saturation point and just stop caring about the game. With Skyrim, the only way I managed to complete the main quest line was by forcing myself to just speed-run it to the exclusion of doing nearly anything else. If I let myself wander off and start exploring or doing side quests, I just run out of steam at some point and never finish.