Skyrim_Android (Skyrim 2011 native Android port)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim came out in 2011 on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and was later re-released on almost everything, including the Switch, but never on Android. Toby Tomkinson, a doctoral candidate at the University of Auckland, published Skyrim_Android on 25 October 2026, days after similar Android ports of LEGO Batman and LEGO Marvel Super Heroes built on the same framework. Seven releases followed in two days. On 27 October 2026 the repository had about 70 GitHub stars; we found no press coverage yet.

This site is not affiliated with the developer, Bethesda, ZeniMax or Microsoft.

What it is

• A static recompilation: a Python tool reads every function of the game’s 32-bit executable, TESV.exe, plus three DirectX and Bink libraries it needs, and turns them into C (about 340 MB of it). That C is compiled for arm64 with the Android NDK. The README calls it “not a decompilation but a recompilation”.
• Windows replaced: the Windows calls the game makes are answered by the port’s own small replacements on SDL2, sound goes through a reimplemented XAudio2, and a patched dxvk-native turns Direct3D 9 into Vulkan 1.1.
• Your files at runtime: the app still reads your executable and your Data folder from the phone; the game’s art, sound and world come from your copy.
• Settings like the PC launcher: Low, Medium, High and Ultra presets (Low is the default), resolution and aspect ratio, a controller or a full on-screen touch controller (since 0.22), and custom GPU drivers such as Turnip (since 0.23).

It works like the other recompilations in our recompiled games list, but targets a phone instead of a PC.

Current status

What players report: on a Galaxy S20 FE (Snapdragon 865) one tester wrote that it “works great”, including saving; 0.18 fixed a crash when loading a save, and 0.21 brought a large speed-up. The developer’s own YouTube video shows version 0.21 running.

Known problems per the README and the issue tracker: music and voices in the xWMA format are silent; performance on an Adreno 610 is low; a Mali-GPU phone crashed with a lost-device error and the developer has no Mali device to test on; one report of slow, lagging audio in cutscenes and a gamepad not being detected. DLC and mods are untested, and there is no SKSE. We didn’t play it ourselves.

What you need

• Your own copy of the original 2011 PC Skyrim (sold on Steam as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim / Legendary Edition), updated to the final patch 1.9.32.0.8. The README lists the exact files: TESV.exe, a copy of it with Steam’s DRM wrapper removed (named TESV_unpacked.exe), d3dx9_42.dll, binkw32.dll, X3DAudio1_7.dll and the Data folder. Special Edition and Anniversary Edition don’t work. We don’t explain how to obtain game files.
• An arm64 Android phone with Android 9 or newer, Vulkan 1.1 (most Snapdragon 6xx, 7xx and 8xx phones from 2018 on), 3 GB of RAM or more and about 7 GB free.
• A controller (Bluetooth or USB) is easiest; there is a touch overlay too.

How to install (overview)

From the README, at a high level: install the APK from the official Releases page, copy your game files into a folder outside Android/data (for example Skyrim in internal storage) over USB, then open the app, tap Choose Skyrim folder and wait until it says Ready; it checks the files against the version the port was built from. Saves and logs go into a port folder inside your Skyrim folder. You can also build the APK yourself from your own files on a PC; the README says the first step alone takes several hours.

What’s in the download

The repository contains no game code or data, as its README says. The prebuilt APKs are another matter: the build compiles all of the C generated from the game’s executable into the app, so the APKs (about 45 MB) very likely contain Skyrim’s code translated for arm64, built from the developer’s own copy. That sits oddly with the README’s own request not to redistribute anything produced from the game. They don’t contain the game’s data; you still supply that. We don’t link the files.

Is it official, and will it stay up?

• No, it is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Bethesda, ZeniMax or Microsoft.
• We found no takedown on 27 October 2026; GitHub’s DMCA archive for October had no notice naming Skyrim. Because the APKs likely contain translated game code, it could be taken down.
• Beware of “Skyrim APK download” sites. Search results for that phrase are full of spam pages. The only official source is the GitHub repository; nothing else is this project.

Other ways to play Skyrim on Android

• Windows compatibility apps (Winlator, Mobox, GameHub and similar) can run the PC game through an x86 emulator; that is emulation, not a port, and it is much slower on most phones.
• A separate project from the Switch version: in early October 2026 AndroGaming reported a developer adapting the Switch release’s ARM64 code to Android; it had only shown a rendering test, with no public code or app.
• Cloud streaming services also play Skyrim on a phone, but the game runs on a remote PC.

Related

• BLACK on Android: an Xbox shooter recompiled to arm64 Android.
• Breath of the Wild on PC: another open-world game recompiled to native code, with an Android attempt.
• The Force Engine: an older PC shooter rebuilt to run on modern systems.

Unofficial. This page is written by an independent directory. It is not made by, endorsed by or affiliated with Bethesda Softworks or Toby Tomkinson (ttom795) (Skyrim_Android (Skyrim 2011 native Android port)'s author). We do not host any files, and we never link to game files, ROMs or ISOs.