Prior to ESO, though, Elder Scrolls was a franchise entirely marketed at people who wanted single player RPG experiences.

Even if it’s still Elder Scrolls content- a good portion of that original market is not going to have interest in a multiplayer experience. Or a subscription experience. Or a”live narrative” experience with gated content windows.

It’s a very different experience at its core, so while there may be an overlap between the two markets in the Venn Diagram, it’s still a very different market segment than a pure single player outing.