I've launched Skyrim with the first snow for 15 years in a row – gamers were surprised by a man from the Urals who has snow outside his window in October

Some games get played once. Others come back on a schedule, like a Christmas tree or a bowl of tangerines. The most interesting schedules are set by the weather outside, when the first snowfall matters more to a gamer than any release or sale.

That is how one player from Russia, who lives in Pervouralsk, runs his year. Every time the first snow falls, he launches The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, and he has done it for 15 years straight, since the game came out in November 2011.

Yes, snow already fell in the Urals on October 5.

A photo of a snowy yard taken in early October left plenty of foreign commenters baffled. The Netherlands is sitting at around 20 °C these days, Northern California is pushing 38 °C, and San Diego has gone past 40 °C.

The habit turns out to be far less unique than it looks. One player has started a new playthrough every December for eight years, and another has kept a similar tradition going for about 13. Someone else updates a mod list when the first leaves turn and disappears into Skyrim for around four months, while a player in Brazil boots it up every January in the heat, with the AC blasting "for immersion's sake".

The cherry on top came from a father who never managed to get his family into the game and finally cracked:

You realize our daughter is named after a character in this game, right?

Skyrim has everything going for it as a seasonal game. A northern province with blizzards over Winterhold, the icy slopes of the Throat of the World, and a Jeremy Soule soundtrack makes a perfect fit for evenings under a blanket.

Bethesda has worked to keep the game from aging, releasing Special Edition in 2016, Anniversary Edition in 2021, and versions for Nintendo Switch and VR. According to Todd Howard, sales passed 60 million copies a while ago, and the game turns exactly 15 on November 11.

Other games have similar rituals. Some people go back to Oblivion every fall, some played Ocarina of Time for years before switching to Red Dead Redemption 2, and for another player the winter game is Shenmue on Dreamcast.

There is a less cozy catch, though: snow doesn't fall everywhere. Players from the south admitted that under this rule they would play once every four years, and one put it bluntly:

Give it a few years and you may not be able to play...

Not everyone gets snow outside the window, but in Skyrim it lies there year-round.