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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
A dedicated Skyrim player uses the Stepl app to match their real-life steps with their in-game character's movement, documenting their journey across the map and the climb to High Hrothgar, adding a unique fitness twist to the beloved RPG.
Despite releasing well over a decade ago, the Skyrim community 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 of Stepl, 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.
According to ShakeMistake, making your way from Riften to the other side of Skyrim's map in Solitude takes just over 14,000 steps - 14,052 to be precise. In a clip showcasing his trip across the massive map, you can follow his steps from start to finish: "Are you serious? You guys want me to do this? This is gonna take me two hours." It ends up taking him just over two, actually - all "while walking instead of the normal jogging speed."
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 full YouTube channel a browse, as he incorporates walking, jogging, and even jumping into more than just Skyrim. ShakeMistake plays everything from Grand Theft Auto to Star Wars Outlaws with 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.