Today, during the 2026 Seasons Direct, ZeniMax Online Studios revealed the new content coming to The Elder Scrolls Online this year, starting with Season Zero: Dawn and Dusk launching on April 2. ESO Seasons will average 90-days in length, each with its own distinct theme and deliver a wide variety of content and rewards for players. Seasons gameplay content is free for everyone who owns ESO.
Season Zero introduces a brand-new Event Zone, The Night Market, as well as player experience, combat, and PvP improvements alongside the long-requested Challenge Difficulty system. New Thieves Guild and Sheogorath story content, experimental naval combat, underwater exploration and a return to Skyrim will come to ESO through future Seasons in 2026 and beyond.
Season Zero: Dawn and Dusk
Launching simultaneously for PC and console players on April 2, a new age begins for ESO with Season Zero: Dawn and Dusk. Season Zero introduces a limited-time Event Zone experience with The Night Market, a new area in the Oblivion realm of Fargrave that will be available for a seven-week period. Players can choose one of three unique factions, pledging their service in a gauntlet of challenging PvE encounters and earning a free player home, Night’s Den, in the process.
Also coming in Season Zero is the long-awaited Challenge Difficulty, an optional overland difficulty system. Players looking for an additional challenge will have four difficulty tiers to choose from, each with increased rewards, when it launches on June 8. Significant updates to PvP and combat also arrive during Season Zero, such as the new Veterancy PvP progression system and the first class-refresh for the Dragonknight, with the latter available in-game right now. Also live now are over 20 Player Experience Improvements designed to reduce grind and friction such as faster mount training, UI-based skill respecs and bag upgrades, and increased furnishing limits.
Season One and Beyond
Arriving with Season One this summer, the Thieves Guild returns with a new story set in a visually refreshed Glenumbra zone, continuing the original narrative that debuted a decade ago and introducing The Sage’s Vault, a puzzle-focused gameplay area. The Daedric Prince of Madness Sheogorath will also return to take players on a mind-bending new questline across Tamriel.
Further ahead, 2026 will see experimental content come to ESO with the High Seas of Tamriel event, featuring naval combat and underwater exploration. Solo Dungeons will introduce reimagined versions of existing dungeons for solo play, and the Crimson Veldt adds the first new base game Trial since ESO launched in 2014.
ESO Returns to Skyrim
As teased during the 2026 Seasons Direct, in early 2027 players will return to Tamriel’s frozen north in an iconic region of Skyrim not previously seen in ESO. This will introduce ESO’s first-ever Excursion Zone, as well as dynamic blizzards that affect the gameplay of the zone itself.
PlayStation Plus and PC Game Pass
PlayStation Plus members can acquire the Gold Road Collection right now for free as part of the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for March. The Gold Road Collection features the ESO base game, 2024’s Gold Road Chapter, and all previous Chapters, including access to the Warden, Necromancer, and Arcanist classes. This offer is available until April 6.
Also announced today, ESO will be launching on PC Game Pass and Xbox Play Anywhere on June 2.
For more information on all the 2026 Seasons Direct reveals, visit the ESO website here.
