It takes 14,000 real-life steps to trek across Skyrim's massive map, according to a dedicated fan of the RPG who made the journey himself
Sep. 3, 2024A great way to get your daily steps in
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Despite releasing well over a decade ago, theSkyrimcommunity is still finding ways to spice the iconic RPG up - including this fan who is journeying across the map on his own two feet.
Does it really take 7,000 steps to get up the Throat of the World to High Hrothgar? How long would it be to trek across Skyrim’s entire map, from Riften to Solitude? One player dubbed “ShakeMistake” answers such burning questions with the help ofStepl, an app he calls “super accessible” that allows you to match your real-life steps in place to your in-game character’s movement - and it’s all pretty impressive.
Perhaps most surprisingly, though, ShakeMistake manages to avoid any spontaneous enemy encounters along the way - something I still struggle with in Skyrim myself, even while on horseback. As he explains in the comments, though, he “turned off AI detection” as the walk would’ve been near impossible otherwise. ShakeMistake also manages to pull off another fitness-y challenge in Bethesda’s RPG - climbing up to High Hrothgar.
The Seven Thousand Steps, as all Skyrim stans know, wrap around the Throat of the World. In an interview, director Todd Howard even joked that he made certain that it takes 7,000 steps to reach the top - but it turns out that this applies to the stone steps themselves and not the steps you’d take to climb. ShakeMistake’s own trek up the mountain took just 2,500 steps, but a total of around 7,000 to reach Paarthurnax and go back down.
It’s worth giving his fullYouTubechannel a browse, as he incorporates walking, jogging, and even jumping into more than just Skyrim. ShakeMistake plays everything fromGrand Theft AutotoStar Wars Outlawswith the Stepl app chugging along, making for some genuinely amusing content to watch. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and figure out how to get my daily steps in while gaming - for science, of course.
Skyrim modder creates hilarious “new tech” for the RPG so he can voice the Dragonborn in real-time while his Twitch chat voices NPCs
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she’s not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she’s probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she’s spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur’s Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you’ll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.
“It makes me sick”: Skyrim modder with 475,000 downloads, fed up with “daily harassment,” abandons modding after “thousands of hours” of work on what she calls “the most advanced follower to ever exist”
Former The Elder Scrolls Online lead says Bethesda was such an amazing partner that it was harder to make a WoW-free MMO than it was to make a good Elder Scrolls MMO
Dev behind new Doki Doki Literature Club-style psychological horror says it’s not “for those with weak hearts,” but with 98% positive Steam reviews, I’m not sure I can stay away
