Skyrim Soundtrack

We rate the Skyrim soundtrack A tier. This is Jeremy Soule's album for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), and we think it is the rare game score that loses nothing with the game switched off: more than three and a half hours that can fill a whole evening. It is A under our rule because it is played in concert, most notably by the London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices for the game's tenth anniversary on Nov 11, 2021 (Bethesda, Aug 19, 2021). It is not S because we could confirm no orchestra recording the whole score a second time.

0:30 This is Dragonborn, the main theme, and the voices in it are a choir of 30 that Soule recorded singing in the game's own invented language (Classic FM, updated Mar 26, 2025). The series is moving again: Bethesda revealed the title of The Elder Scrolls VI, Sentinel, on Nov 3, 2026, in a report that names no composer. Bethesda Softworks is the label of the album, which Apple Music dates 2011: 53 tracks, 3 hours 36 minutes 44 seconds by Apple's track times, and 3 hours 37 minutes 36 seconds in the uploads by Vi.ki's count on Nov 10, 2026.

One composer, three games

Soule had already written the music for Morrowind and Oblivion, the two Elder Scrolls games before this one (PC Gamer, Apr 25, 2025). When Bethesda Game Studios' audio director, Mark Lampert, presented the new score to Game Informer on Jan 14, 2011, the magazine noted that the original Elder Scrolls theme is woven into it.

Soule has described the work as long and deliberate. "Skyrim took years for me to compose and it was constructed very carefully," he said in 2016, in an exchange where he also acknowledged that the music is Bethesda's intellectual property (IBTimes UK, Oct 1, 2016). We think the care shows most in the quiet tracks, the ones written to sit under hours of walking without wearing out.

Two London concerts

Bethesda's first concert of Elder Scrolls music was at the London Palladium on Nov 16, 2016, with orchestra and choir, to mark Skyrim Special Edition. Andrew Skeet arranged Soule's music, and new suites from Morrowind and Oblivion shared the bill (Bethesda, Oct 14, 2016). The players were billed as the Winterhold Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, and the new arrangements included Far Horizons, The Streets of Whiterun and Dragonborn (IBTimes UK).

The composer had no part in it. Soule said he learned of the concert from news reports, had supplied none of his scores, and concluded the music must have been transcribed by ear; he told fans to be wary (IBTimes UK).

Five years later the London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices played the tenth anniversary concert at Alexandra Palace in London, streamed on Nov 11, 2021 (Bethesda).

Ahead of Beethoven in 2013

Listeners of Classic FM voted Soule's Elder Scrolls music to No. 5 in the station's Hall of Fame in 2013. With Nobuo Uematsu's Final Fantasy at No. 3, that pushed Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto down to No. 6 (Classic FM, Apr 2, 2013). The station files the entry under the series, with the Skyrim album shown beside it (Classic FM, Apr 4, 2013). In the all-years chart published for 2020 the same entry stands at No. 258 (Classic FM, Jan 1, 2021).

The station also ranks Skyrim No. 14 among its 20 best video game soundtracks and calls Soule the John Williams of game music (Classic FM, Mar 26, 2025). The game's music was nominated for Original Music at the British Academy Video Games Awards in 2012, one of five nominations for the game (BAFTA, Feb 15, 2012). We found no chart peak or sales certification for the album.

Signed by hand, shipped late

The physical album sold as four CDs through DirectSong at $29.99, on pre-order from Nov 3, 2011, with every copy ordered before Dec 23 to be autographed by Soule (Destructoid, Nov 3, 2011). The promise worked too well. Thousands of orders came in, and on Dec 8, 2011 buyers were still waiting for their discs.

Digital stores came later. PC Gamer reported on Feb 1, 2013 that Bethesda had put its soundtrack catalog on iTunes, with Skyrim as a 53-track album at 15 pounds where most of the others cost 8, and with no Spotify upload at that time. Vinyl waited until Oct 6, 2017, when Spacelab9 released a four-LP box that it called the score's first appearance on the format (Spacelab9, Oct 4, 2017).

Highlights

Seventeen moments inside the tracks of this album, measured by Vi.ki from the uploads on Nov 10, 2026 and not picked by ear (the home page says how). It heard a choir enter in seven tracks and chanting in two; the entries kept are the clearer cellos and horns. The Play column is the time inside the track.

All tracks

The digital album in its own order, from the uploads the label provided to YouTube, which sit on an automatically made "Jeremy Soule - Topic" channel and not on a channel the composer runs. Each track is its own video, so every Play link starts at 0:00, and the 53 lengths add up to 3 hours 37 minutes 36 seconds. Track 53, Skyrim Atmospheres, runs 42:39 by itself, about a fifth of the album; the shortest, Night Without Stars, lasts 0:42.

Editions

No source we could open lists the four CDs track by track, so that row has no count. Spacelab9 describes its box as the full 52-track original score, one fewer than the 53 on the digital album, and pressed the dragon logo into side H of the first run. A colored "Dragonborn" variant went on sale on Sep 29, 2017 through ThinkGeek and the Bethesda store.

Sources

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Original Game Soundtrack), Apple Music, read Nov 10, 2026
• Skyrim soundtrack pre-orders, Destructoid, Nov 3, 2011
• Unboxing Skyrim's four-disc soundtrack, Destructoid, Dec 8, 2011
• Skyrim, Dishonored, Morrowind and other Bethesda soundtracks now available on iTunes, PC Gamer, Feb 1, 2013
• Spacelab9 announces The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Ultimate Edition vinyl box set, Spacelab9, Oct 4, 2017
• The Sounds of Skyrim, Game Informer, Jan 14, 2011
• The best video game scores and soundtracks of all time, Classic FM, Mar 20, 2023, updated Mar 26, 2025
• Video games and Beethoven in the Hall of Fame top five, Classic FM, Apr 2, 2013
• Jeremy Soule, Hall of Fame interview, Classic FM, Apr 4, 2013
• Ultimate Classic FM Hall of Fame 2020, Classic FM, Jan 1, 2021
• GAME British Academy Video Games Awards in 2012, nominations, BAFTA, Feb 15, 2012
• Skyrim music concert coming to London, IBTimes UK, Oct 1, 2016
• The Music of Skyrim in Concert, Bethesda, Oct 14, 2016
• Skyrim 10th Anniversary Fan Celebration, Bethesda, Aug 19, 2021
• Sounds of Skyrim, Bethesda
• The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel is made official, PC Gamer, Nov 3, 2026