My ESO Financial History To Date (it's four digits..)

frostitomik · April 2019

Spent about $250 for 5 years playing ESO, which is only about 1% of total money spent for my hobbies (bought a brand new motorcycle, projector, some camping gear etc.)
I rather spend money for physical things or for things that earn more money

DocDova · April 2019

Mine in INR (Indian Rupees)
1500 for morrowind
650 for base game disc
1999 for summer set
16,031 for plus membership
587 one-time crown purchase.

In total 20,767 INR (till 21st April 2019) in USA $ by today's exchange value it will be like 300 us$.

zyk · April 2019

I have purchased the base game, expansions, and have more or less subbed since launch.

I've spent $0.00 on Crowns and doubt I will ever spend more than that. I think the lootbox generation is ruining gaming. I think it's absolutely insane to have spent thousands of dollars on Crowns. The value is abysmal.

Gaming was profitable before lootboxes. The only reason they can charge so much for so little content is because contemporary players are willing to pay. If you'd all show some restraint, we'd have more or less the same games, but with much better value.

DocDova · April 2019

I brought once crown worth 8 dollars during this anniversary event as I was 400 crowns sort for buying 4 new character slots and wanted to do daily crafting writs on more toons to get more items.

Though anniversary event became kind of flop after first week because it was very easy to get golden boxes during first week and then all of a sudden it's very time consuming, I left event after first week, I think every activity should have given a golden box like they would do in 5th week. Maybe due to in game economists pressure of falling motif prices, they made it such. I would do it again in 5th week again.

thedude33 · April 2019

As a hobby/entertainment expense ESO ranks very low on cost per time played. Ridiculously low.

Compare it to:

- your monthly phone bill
- movies
- cable bill + netflix, crave etc
- Daily coffee bill
- night out at the pub/club
- concerts
- Night out at the Casino
- etc etc

ESO isn't even a blip on the radar

Crates? I don't buy them. Personally, I think it's silly to pay for that kind of stuff but I don't judge. If you have the money then why not. When you don't have the money is the problem. That's your issue that you have to solve.

randomkeyhits · April 2019

ZOS have saved me from buying any more crowns.

Recently got another years sub so that added another 18k to bring my total back up to 70k crowns

The problem is that what ZOS consider value for money and what I do are now two completely different things. Its hard to find something that I want to buy that I consider worth the asking price.

I bought the crowns, I want to spend the crowns, Crown store lets me down, crates too, especially the crates,, they are dire.

so from ZOS point of view doesn't matter that I've spent what I have, what matters to them is I'm unlikely to spend any more except for sub.

Ermiq · April 2019

During my 2 years in ESO I've spent the sum equal to my average monthly income. And people here on the forums said it's not a big deal, they said "You haven't spent much money in the past, according to your post".
Yeah, for someone in USA or Great Britain it doesn't seem like a big deal, but the thing is, in my country it's actually a significant amount of money.
Now I'm just playing ESO as a Free2Play game.

todokete · April 2019

Allkeyshop Summerset+Morrowind 16€. Nothing more lol

Ri_Khan · April 2019

If anyone's curious to see their actual tally, your eso account page has a billing history. It's probably a good idea to put that number in your head at some point. I imagine I'm definitely on the lower end of the splurge scale here. On average, spent about $90/year since 2014, mostly due to subbing for the craft-bag and dlc/chapter's. I could easily spend more and probably would have but the scummy methods the marketeers decided to use and how that affects the game have completely turned me off from doing so. Ya know, voting with the wallet and all that.

Elsonso · April 2019

randomkeyhits wrote: »

Recently got another years sub so that added another 18k to bring my total back up to 70k crowns

Wow. I peaked at around 35k Crowns across all of my accounts, as I recall. This was entirely because ZOS had not yet introduced gifting and I had to keep a stash of Crowns, purchased on sale, for all of my accounts to buy DLC and whatever.

N00BxV1 · April 2019

too much

TequilaFire · April 2019

I shudder to think what I have spent on my accounts my wife's and my son's account.
And here we go again with another chapter.
$ZOS isn't hurting.

tmbrinks · April 2019

I've been playing since launch.

I've spent $230.05 on the game itself ($59.99 base game, $59.99 for Morrowind Collectors, $39.99 Summer set Collectors, $49.99 Elsweyr Collectors, and $20.09 for the Morrowind base game for an alt account)

I've spent $877.45 on ESO Plus (11 months @ $14.99/month pre 1-Tamriel, 2x 90-day @ $41.97, 5x 180 day @ $77.94, and 1x 365 day @ $139.99 for the main account. 2x 90-day @ $41.97 for alt account, 1x 30 day @ $14.99)

I've spend $81.96 on crowns separate from my subscription ones

For a grand total of $1,189.46.

Not too bad for 5 years of playing.. I'm also good on content/subscription for the next 10 months, so minimal expenses for virtually 6 years total.

Comes out to $16.50 a month... Pretty damn cheap entertainment.

zaria · April 2019

Base game and expansions: 1182
EOS+ or sub 16*267 + 3*474 = 5694
5500*5 crowns: 4*149+210=806
total 7982 nok= 939 USD,

Granted I kept eso+ running for a year I did not play this was not an loss as I spent the crowns.
Unlikely I will buy more crowns in an long time because the eso+ crowns and crowns for gold.

Casdha · April 2019

Let's see here (went to account and/or amazon to get prices w/tax)

Base Game CE 115.21
6xsub at 85.54= 513.24
1 sub 153.64
char copy xbox 21.95
char copy ps4 21.95
Morrowind 65.84
Summerset 43.89
Elsweyr 54.86

Total = 990.58

edit: character copies included base game, I still have not bought a ps4 or used that account

Androconium · April 2019

ArchMikem wrote: »

I don't know why I decided this would be an idea, let alone a good one, but I went into my Xbox Live order history to tally up all the money I've paid into The Elder Scrolls: Online since purchasing the game back in August of 2015. It's, really staggering, bit depressing, and enlightening, even when granted these were spread out over the last almost four years of playing. I even broke it down. Starting with the major content purchases, the Base Game up to pre-ordering Elsweyr. These amounts are in USD and all but the Xbox Live gold are before Tax, and all lesser content packs such as the Dark Brotherhood, Thieve's Guild etc were purchased via Crowns.

Base Game: $59.99
Morrowind Upgrade: $39.99
Summerset Upgrade: $29.99
Elsweyr Collectors Upgrade: $49.99

Major Content Sub Total: $179.96

It's interesting to note Summerset was $10 cheaper than Morrowind.

Now onto the purchases that actually made the wallet cry.

Crown Packs Sub Total: $1,426.40
ESO Plus Subscription Sub Total TD: $338.81
Xbox Live Gold Total TD: $261.08

GRAND TOTAL TD: $2,206.25

To put into perspective, that's about $400ish more than my monthly income, spent over the last 3 years, 8 months of playing. When viewed like that, the in-the-moment costs don't seem like much at all. Adding it all together however, by far, makes this my most expensive hobby I've ever had in my life.....and I don't believe I'm gonna stop before the Servers die first.

So then, how much have you guys bled into-I mean supported our favorite game?

About the same. Except that our dollars are more expensive than yours. It's a lot of money for something that has variable performance and gets changed from what you think you have bought, every two weeks.

For those people that defend Bethesda, I say take that 2200 dollars and make it 500. For an average lower figure.
Then multiply it by 5 000 000. For half the people actually playing. $2 500 000 000

$2.5 Billion US dollars.

Those aren't accurate numbers; just an illustration of the potential.

They don't need any more money from me.

kmcaj · April 2019

About $40 CAD. I'm not including PS+ service because I do that anyways. Morrowind+base and Summerset purchased seperately on sale for roughly $10 and $13 respectively and I subbed 1 month while back at $15 (was going to sub earlier this week but saw price was $20 CAD now so bailed on that).

However, with crown gifting I have bought with in game gold. Have players on friends list who purchase crowns just to make gold from players like me so I do help pump a bit more money into the system. About 15000 crowns worth. Been playing about a year.

*edit Thank you to all the gold buyers. Much appreciated.

Kiralyn2000 · April 2019

2016:
Base Game (ESO: Tamriel Unlimited) - $10-20? Don't remember if it was on sale.
1500 Crowns, $15

2017:
2 Months ESO+ $30
3000 Crowns on sale, $16.74

2018:
Summerset Preorder (+free Morrowind) $29.99

So, $100-110 over 3 years.
I used the crowns on a basic horse (didn't realize gold mounts were account-wide), a few cheap costumes, and DLC (Thief, DB, Wrothgar, Clockwork. Got Murkmire from the monthly rewards.). Still have some left.

idk · April 2019

Is Xbox Gold required to play the game? If not drop it. Otherwise it is costs for doing other stuff.

Save most of your money spent on ESO by not buying crowns. That is a lot of crowns you have purchased. I hope they were all on sale.

But yes, it can be easy to chalk up big expenses in the game without realizing it. Hopefully some that are looking to save some money take a look at their own expenses and realize how much money they can save by avoiding unnecessary purchases of crowns.

chamoo81 · April 2019

I don't want to know how much I have spent.

Ackwalan · April 2019

That's about 30$ a month to play everyday. You can't go to the movies that cheap.

rotaugen454 · April 2019

I bought every physical collectors edition that was available, and had over 100,000 crowns at one point. This is my one expensive hobby (computer gaming in general, not just ESO) and I’m not missing mortgage payments or not providing well for my family, so I’m not going to feel guilty about it.

Sergykid · April 2019

here i am with 10 euros total spent in 2 years of playing. Poor country and low time of playing. If i was free and had a good income i would activate ESO+ too.

Didgerion · April 2019

Tavore1138 wrote: »

Those times when you wish you hadn't checked something... this is over 5 years.

£5,188.71

Base game, expansions, subs and that palomino horse from the early days - £631.36

However for perspective - /played = 428 days, 10 hours = 10,282 hours

So £0.50 per hour played - not too bad really

Until I consider what more constructive things I could have done in that time...

Or self-destructive...when bored humans are very good at finding lots of self-destructing activities...maybe ESO saved your life

Iskiab · April 2019

ArchMikem wrote: »

I don't know why I decided this would be an idea, let alone a good one, but I went into my Xbox Live order history to tally up all the money I've paid into The Elder Scrolls: Online since purchasing the game back in August of 2015. It's, really staggering, bit depressing, and enlightening, even when granted these were spread out over the last almost four years of playing. I even broke it down. Starting with the major content purchases, the Base Game up to pre-ordering Elsweyr. These amounts are in USD and all but the Xbox Live gold are before Tax, and all lesser content packs such as the Dark Brotherhood, Thieve's Guild etc were purchased via Crowns.

Base Game: $59.99
Morrowind Upgrade: $39.99
Summerset Upgrade: $29.99
Elsweyr Collectors Upgrade: $49.99

Major Content Sub Total: $179.96

It's interesting to note Summerset was $10 cheaper than Morrowind.

Now onto the purchases that actually made the wallet cry.

Crown Packs Sub Total: $1,426.40
ESO Plus Subscription Sub Total TD: $338.81
Xbox Live Gold Total TD: $261.08

GRAND TOTAL TD: $2,206.25

To put into perspective, that's about $400ish more than my monthly income, spent over the last 3 years, 8 months of playing. When viewed like that, the in-the-moment costs don't seem like much at all. Adding it all together however, by far, makes this my most expensive hobby I've ever had in my life.....and I don't believe I'm gonna stop before the Servers die first.

So then, how much have you guys bled into-I mean supported our favorite game?

You must be young. Hobbies are typically expensive and by hobby standards MMOs are one of the cheapest. I’ve spent more than that just on a turntable for collecting records.

All sub models are more expensive. That’s why companies are pushing this model on the consumer, i.e. windows, music, etc...

The only hobby with a positive return is investing, and even then only if you’re good at it.

IzzyStardust · April 2019

I am scared to total mine.

kratier · April 2019

i dont care about money
i wouldnt want to support their re-skins of the same 5 mount models, ever though

Severus_Stormbringer · April 2019

YaYaPineapple wrote: »

Some of you are acting as if spending money on something you enjoy is a bad thing.

Do you feel bad if you spend money doing other fun things like going to a concert or having a beautiful meal? Going on a little vacation? Buying clothing that you like? Hosting a party with friends?

Is having fun somehow not "worthy" of some dollars?

This! I look at a dungeon pack, expansion, crown crate etc the same as if I'm buying a few drinks at the bar, seeing a movie, or ordering out for dinner. I do those things too and they make me happy, so I'm 100% fine with whether I I've spent $2 or $2,000 on ESO over the 5 years I've been playing.

Can't take our septims with us into Aetherius/Sovengarde, so there is nothing sad about enjoying the things that make you happy alone or with friends!

#Worthy!
#shutupandtakemymoney!

Peekachu99 · April 2019

Try playing on two platforms and then chasing at least three apexes.

TheValkyn · April 2019

ArchMikem wrote: »

FierceSam wrote: »

Hey ArchMikem,

Thanks for sharing this. Many people wouldn’t have the nerve. It’s illuminating to see where a gamer’s money goes.

Over half of that for cosmetic gamble boxes. You spent nearly 10 times as much on mystery crates as you have on the actual game.

I said Crown Packs, not Crown Crates.

Let's be honest. I doubt there's much difference.